Happy Half Birthday!

Today, Gillian Grace turns six months old. While it's difficult for me to believe that half a year has passed since Gillian's birth, it's even more difficult for me to believe that in a several months our baby girl will turn one. With each month passing more swiftly than the last, I am now more thankful than ever to be a stay-at-home-mom. Although there are moments that I want to run screaming out the front door, I would not trade my time at home with Gillian Grace for anything.

Our best guess is that Gillian Grace weighs close to 20 lbs. We'll find out for sure next week when she goes for her six month check-up. GG's size 6 month clothing is packed away and size 9 month outfits are becoming snug. For the foreseeable future, we'll purchase only clothes size 12 months and beyond. She is now wearing size three diapers. She wears Pampers Cruisers during the day and Pampers Baby Dry at night for extra protection.

Gillybean is still keeping to her routine of eating, playing, and sleeping. She can now stay awake for up to three and a half hours at a time without getting fussy. Some days she sleeps more than others, but most days she still takes two good naps each day (one morning/one afternoon). She goes to bed between 7:00 and 7:30 in the evening and sleeps through the night. Despite waking several times a night, she no longer requires our attention (most of the time) and is able to put herself back to sleep. Often she wakes, plays, strokes her Taggie, talks to her Pinky bear blanket, and eventually lulls herself back to sleep.

One of our favorite parts of the day is going in and greeting Gillian Grace each morning. She is such a happy baby, greeting us with a gigantic smile stretching from ear to ear. Before we go in, she can be heard cooing, talking, and giggling in her crib. If GG doesn't wake in a good mood, it usually means she did not get all her sleep out and needs to stay in her crib for a while longer.

She is becoming very mobile and is definitely keeping us on our toes. She cannot be left unattended for even the briefest amount of time. While I used to be able to put her in her bouncy seat and walk into the kitchen for a minute, she is far too figidity and strong to do that now. She still finds her exersaucer very amusing. However, we've had to retire the bouncy seat. After she learned to scoot herself down and practically out of the seat, we knew it was far too dangerous to continue using. She is very close to crawling. She gets up on all fours and sticks her booty straight up in the air. She'll practice for a bit before getting frustrated and calling it quits.


Her latest move---grabbing her feet. Not yet sure if she realizes that she can actually control them, but she has a blast just trying to get her hands on them.



Gillian Grace has four meals a day, three of which include either fruit or veggies with rice cereal and a bottle. Her fourth meal is a bottle shortly before bedtime. She is able to hold onto both the 4 oz. and 10 oz. bottle on her own, an improvement from just a few months ago when the smaller bottle was all she could handle. At times she is so squiggly that it is nearly impossible to feed her. She wants to be on the go at all times!




Gammie and Grandad purchased GG a new high chair/booster seat from Fisher Price at Target. This seat is a lifesaver! She absolutely loves her new big girl chair and I love its space saving design. This new chair fits securely on top of almost any existing chair and has an adjustable seat with tray. It also has a harness for extra security, but I find that since she's never unattended while in high chair, it's not really necessary. Once the tray is removed, the chair also doubles as a recliner (great for watching all her favorite shows). Since GG is now reaching for the spoon and can now use her tongue to push food and lick her lips, she is ready for Gerber 2nd foods. That means more variety like apples and cherries or apricots with mixed fruit. Mmmmm, yummy yummy!


She's still toothless, despite showing practically all the trademark signs of teething---drooling excessively, gnawing on any and everything, and fussing while feeding. Could there be a tooth lurking just below the surface? We expect to see her first chomper any day now.

Bathtime continues to be one of her favorite times of day, except now we need a lifeguard on duty. GG is so active in the bath! She sits up, grabs for the bottles of soap and shampoo, reaches for the faucet, kicks her feet, splashes her hands, tries to stand, scoots back and forth, steals the washcloth, squeezes her rubber ducky, turning bath time into mission impossible. With bathtime over and GG dried and snuggled in a warm towel, I look like I've just participated in a wet t-shirt contest. It's very obvious that she needs more room during bathtime so this morning we had our final bath in the pink spa kitchen sink tub. Tonight we're going to try out another gift from Gammie and Grandad, the Munchkin inflatable rubber ducky safety tub. Can't wait to see how this goes!

Gillian Grace still loves the outdoors and enjoys accompanying us on our runs and walks. She has a new favorite toy, a plush musical elephant Daddy has nicknamed Harry Elafonte after the King of Calypso, Harry Belafonte.





GG loves books, just like her Gammie. Looks like many trips to Barnes and Noble await them in the future. Just recently Gillian Grace began to turn the pages of her board books during nightly storytime with Daddy. Not surprisingly, as soon as she has a book in her grasp, it goes straight to her mouth. Silly Gilly!


We are so happy to have such a healthy and beautiful baby girl. She is definitely our greatest accomplishment and we can't wait to see what milestones and firsts lie ahead in the near future.