2.20.13 6 months

Bath time fun!

Stop growing Baby Caroline!  I can't believe she is 6 months.  Caroline is honestly one of the most content children I've ever been around.  She is a "go with the flow" type gal.  She will sit through dinner out-to-eat in her car seat and simply looks around.  She doesn't have to be entertained. My family was in town, and we went to Summerville to watch my nephew's basket ball game.  We headed out to eat at Perfectly Franks.  She literally sat in her seat for an hour. She just watched us eat, played with her car seat toys, and coo'd. She is a very different child from Tillman. He knew the minute the car seat hit the chair.  

Often Caroline prefers to be put on the floor and just watch us in action-cooking dinner, watching Tillman play or catching the TV.  Graham seems to "like" her a little more too.  He will come over to her to smell her a lot.  He's probably buttering up to her because he knows she'll be dropping scraps soon.

I love those cheeks! 

It may seem like I'm a broken record, but it doesn't matter where we go, we are constantly getting double takes, people stopping us, etc over Caroline's curly hair.  We got stopped 3 times in the grocery store yesterday. One man touched her hair to make sure it was real (really?). He told us to keep having babies because she was too cute! Another man was pointing at her and trying to get his wife to look because he couldn't believe that baby had curly hair.  A lady just went on and on about that hair.  For a minute, I'm thinking, why are these people looking at us...and then I think to myself "it's the hair!"

Her first taste of food!

Caroline has slowed on the drinking lately since she started food!  We did rice cereal first, and then went straight to food.  Breast-milk breaks down the rice cereal too much, so we've been adding it to her bottle.  I know, it is a big "no no" to do that, but if you could just see it just breaks down to liquid after 5 minutes (not like adding it to formulas...the daycare ladies back me up on this). Food-wise she has had bananas, apples, carrots and green beans so far. She really seems to like the carrots. Right now she is eating 1/2 to a full jar once a day. Her system is getting adjusted to the food.  Poor thing has a serious raw behind right now!

Holding her own bottle-pinkie up of course!

Caroline is not only content but very independent. I guess that comes with the second child. She is already knows how to hold her bottle.  She gets a lot of time to be independent with us juggling two kiddos. It seems like she has the attitude of "give it to me, I'll do it myself!" She also tries to help feed herself-constantly grabbing at the spoon. Miss Independent also rolls around the floor to get toys she wants.  Nothing much stops her.  She does push herself too far, which results in a head crash on the floor. She normally doesn't cry for too long. She just wants to be held, assured she is alright, and then she is back at it!

My Valentine watching
Cousin Colin play basketball!

Caroline has picked up a few tricks this month.  She can role over both ways, sit up independently, and is even rocking on her knees to crawl!  I saw her get in the crawl position yesterday, and I was yelling at Nick to come and see her.  Nick said "yeah, I know, I taught her that yesterday??"  :-) She enjoyed tummy time at a young age, and I really think that contributes to her progressing very fast.  She is also an August baby meaning she will be the youngest...always. It makes me feel good that she is doing things fast because she has to keep up with the older kids!

Valentine's Day Fun!

Caroline and the pacy don't have too much of a relationship. I was so worried about giving it to her, but really she isn't interested at all in the thing now (thank goodness). She uses it more as a toy. As soon as she sucks it long enough to know she isn't getting anything from it, it becomes a toy! She's probably thinking "you can't fool me, lady!"

Grocery Shopping

Caroline has made a little friend in her granddaddy, JRS.  JRS loves his grandchildren, but isn't much for tiny ones or unpredictable ones.  I have to say, I tend to agree with him.  Caroline seems to have stole his heart a little. He held her for me when we were at the basketball game and he strolled her around Charleston as CiCi shopped for shoes. Caroline was really good for him. If she got fussy, JRS gave her the bottle, and she was just fine with that!

Sitting up

I think Caroline has transitioned to her crib and is sleeping through the night (hope I didn't just jinx it)! It was rough there for a few weeks. I was climbing the steps to feed her and sleeping in her room.  I decided, we couldn't do that anymore after missing a day of work to catch up on sleep. So, we let her cry it out!  One night she cried from 3A-5A. The daycare loved that, as she slept all morning for them. The next night, she slept through the night. She did wake a week later, and Nick went and got her after an hour. She had kicked off her socks, and I think that is what caused the fit. I've been dressing her in footy type outfits, as those keep the peace! She kicks off every pair of socks just like Tillman. There was one pair of socks that we had for Tillman. I went hunting for those to see if they would work for her. They did, so she wears those boy socks most of the time to keep her tootsies warm!

Two Teeth-yes, they are sharp!

Caroline's two bottom teeth are fully in. She has clamped down on me a few times while feeding, and I can tell you those things are sharp! She has a bit of confusion about biting vs sucking when she gets upset. There are few things more painful that an infant clamping down while feeding!

I do feel so blessed to have a baby girl. She has really brightened our family and made it complete (not saying we don't want more...actually she makes us want more since she is so good). There is nothing much sweeter than her smile!