Half Birthday

K is 6 months today! Holy moly- that went fast. 

Morning nap today

Big smiles at six months!

Standing is her favourite

looking out the window- she loves looking at the cars

Aaah

Hi mommy

not sure what this face says

playing in mommy's lap

why so many pictures?

put it away!

It took many many tries to get even this mediocre picture- she kept grabbing for the camera string

Pillow Talk

Scene: 1:00am, Bedroom

[Cole rolls over and pulls the covers off Shannon]
Shannon: Hey, What are you doing?
Cole: What?
Shannon: Why did you pull off my covers?
Cole: To take down their phone number
Shannon: What? To take down their phone number? Are you sleep talking again?
Cole: No [rolls away]
[Shannon nudges Cole hard]
Shannon: You don't think that sounds ridiculous? Taking down a phone number?
Cole: [annoyed] No!
Shannon: You're not awake.
Cole: Yes I am!
Shannon: Ok, then why would you take down their phone number?
Cole: To register.
Shannon: [laughing] Ok, seriously, you're not awake.  That's ridiculous.  Register for what? A pineapple? [testing his sense of ridiculous and how awake he is]
Cole: What? No! A pineapple?  That's stupid.
Shannon: Ok, then for what?
Cole: When your friend sells a car you have to register by phone number.
Shannon: Ah ha....we'll talk later.

End Scene
 
Cole often talks in his sleep.  You can tell what's been on his mind lately from this scene- buying a new car and registering for classes.  It's hard to tell when he's actually awake cause he can carry on the conversation- it just doesn't really make any sense.  I know for sure he's not really awake when he doesn't think it's funny.  He woke up later that night and I told him about- he laughed.  I knew then he was awake.  He also didn't remember the conversation.

Splish Splash, She was Taking a Bath

K LOOOOVES bath time.  Her favourite time of day is after dinner when she gets some naked time and bath time.  Even though she pees every time, I strip her down, put her on a towel and let her play out in the living room naked.  No matter how upset she is, once she gets naked she's all good again.  Daddy's girl.

She loves to splash in the bath.  Cole was smart and figured out if we just filled the tub with an inch of water she could bathe by herself and we didn't always have to get in with her.  She enjoyed showers for the first few months of life and now loves her baths as well.  It gives her some extra tummy time as well.  Here is a look at K and bath time over the last (almost) six months.

First Bath- didn't love it yet

Second Bath- Still doesn't Love it

Oct 9- after her first shower: no more tears, starting to like water

Nice and Calm

Bath with Grandma Brown

How cute is she??!!!

Good in the Pool, too

4 months old- tummy time in the bath tub

Bubble Face- early Feb visit at Grandma/Grandpa Browns

late Feb- Look at all my toys!

Splash Splash Splash - Mommy is all wet!

Sitting, Teething and Other Facts of Life

K is almost 6 months old already.  Month six has been full of teething.  A ferocious process for my baby girl.  She's far less happy than usual.  She also developed a brutal diaper rash which I am told is a sign of teething.  It didn't get much better till I discovered there are varying strengths of diaper rash ointment.  Once I purchased a stronger strength, it cleared up. During this painful process of growing teeth, we discovered K loves the Genie from Aladdin.  No matter how upset, she's always perk up to "You've Never Had a Friend Like Me" and "Prince Ali". She didn't care about any other parts of the movie, just the Genie's songs.

Watching Aladdin- last week, this was a "happy" face- poor baby!

K has also learned to sit on her own this month.  She would rather stand but tolerates sitting more often now.  She likes to sit with this train that circles balls on its track.  She likes to try to grab all the balls before the circuit ends.  She's getting good at her hand eye coordination and figuring out how to use both hands to her advantage, passing things back and forth to herself.  She also likes to alternate the hands she uses to grab the balls- it seems she will probably be right handed like her mom as she finds it easier to do things with this hand than her left, like her dad.

Train Toy

Back to Smiling

Ready for Church

 
The world of food continues for K.  She tries new foods at lunch or things she doesn't love yet and gets her favourite food for dinner so she'll eat lots and have a nice full belly for bed.  She's tried rice cereal, oat cereal, egg, sweet potato, yams, banana, apple sauce and avocado.  Rice cereal and apple sauce are her favourite; she also loves sweet potato and oat cereal; yams not so much- she informs me that yams and sweet potatoes are not as similar as I once thought.  She's not a fan of banana and thinks avocado is the worst.  She likes egg when pureed with formula and mixed with cereal. 

She's also making strides during tummy time.  Up until lately, she could only move backwards while on her tummy; recently she figured out how to move sideways and even forward a little as well (army crawling style). 

She's a big kicker.  She likes to lift both legs and stomp them together on the ground...or in the bath....or in bed....or anywhere really.  You can always hear her stomping in the house.  In the morning, you know she's up because you can hear the stomping in her crib.  Even as I sit here she's banging her feet on the ground while she lays on her back and plays on her mat.  Stomp stomp stomp stomp! Her heels can sure take a beating. 

Even if she's been grumpier than usual- love my baby girl! Can't believe it's been almost 6 months.

Playing with the basketball toy Daddy bought her for Christmas

Loves to stand in her crib

Another favourite place to sit...weird right?

Don't let her fool you- all she does it suck on the sticks

6:30pm never felt so late

$119 for 8 1/2 Hours Sleep- well spent money!

On Tuesday, my little family headed for Victoria so Cole and I could have a much needed night away.  K spent the night at Papa Wight's and did very well.  She did wake up every two hours, but that was to be expected.  She doesn't even sleep well for Cole- just mommy. 

Cole and I stayed at the Grand Pacific Hotel.  Gotta love February- $119 for a big room with a full view of the Inner Harbour.  We had dinner at the Japanese Village, dessert from Rogers Chocolates, movie at the Odeon, then a full night's sleep completely uninterrupted.  It was the sleep of the dead.  When I woke up I got to lie in bed and read my book.  So lovely.

On Wednesday, we had lunch at Pagliacci's (our FAVOURITE Victoria restaurant), fudge from Fat Phege's (best in town) and toured Craigdarroch Castle- something neither one of us had done even though we had lived in Victoria for several years.  We picked up K, visited my old roommate's new born baby boy and drove ourselves on home.  24 hours of rejuvination.  That night K even let me sleep all the way till 5:30am till she needed her feed.  8pm-5:30am, feed, then slept till 8:30am.  Last night she was in bed by 6:30pm and slept till 4:30am, fed then back to sleep till 8:30am again.  Love my daughter for giving us a couple extra nights of "vacation". 

Pop Tarts and Kitchen Utensils For Valentine's

Do any of you watch "The Middle"? Last week was their Valentine's episode.  Franky and Mike go to dinner with their friends because they don't buy into the traditional lovey dovey just the two of them holiday.  But at the table, this woman comes around selling roses.  The other two husbands buy one for their wives but Mike brushes the lady off and Franky's feelings get hurt.  The fight that ensues later is Mike maintaining that they don't buy into the holiday and Franky explains that all her friends got flowers and she didn't.   A lot of women say they don't buy into Valentine's but if their man ever forgot to acknowledge it somehow, they would be hurt. 

This year for Valentine's, Cole bought me some cooking gadgets that I've been wanting.  We laughed about the fact that even though Cole knows me well and I say I don't care about flowers, this could have gone badly for him.  But he said it was a mistake he'd only make once.  If it worked, great; if not, he knew what to get me for every other Valentine's Day for the rest of our lives.  But it did work out! I love that he tailored the holiday to me and showed me that he loves me.  He tracked down one thing that we haven't been able to find anywhere- a food scraper.  You know those things that help you move food from a cutting board to a pan? I see them on cooking shows all the time but have never been able to find one.  He found one. 

I also received my traditional box of chocolates.  Ever since we've been together, Cole has bought me a small personalized box of chocolates.  Instead of getting me one big generic box that has about 5-6 that I really want, he buys me a box of five or six chocolates that he knows I'd like- plus one strange one he thinks I'd like to try.  This year I got a strawberry cream, a peanut butter sea salt, a coffee cream, a chocolate mint and the strange one was a really spicy chili chocolate. 

For Cole, I made a nice breakfast that included home made strawberry rhubarb pop tarts.  Rhubarb is Cole's favourite. They were delicious.

And from Kailey, we received the best night's sleep we've had for weeks.  She slept from 7pm till 7:40 am with only one feed at 4am.  Hooray for tough babies who fight through the teething pain to try to let their parents sleep....not that she knew that's what she was doing....

Toilets and Highchairs

Last night K was a butt.  She slept fine from 6:30pm till 1am and then suddenly wanted to get up every hour.  But not even to eat- every time I tried to give her a bottle, she pushed it away.  She just wanted to play.  If she was content to play in her crib by herself it would have been fine- but she was not- so it wasn't.  Cole ended up getting up with her at 6am for the day.  As a result, the whole family was tired today.  I didn't realize K had also suffered from her shenanigans until tonight.  During dinner she alternated between screaming and sleeping.  She screamed when I woke her up to eat, and then she'd give up and pass out.  It was pretty funny.  So I called Cole to come see (he was in the bathroom).  And I called...and called.  Finally I got up and went to see why he wasn't answering.  The door was shut and I yelled, "COLE!"  I hear him come-to and say, "what?" He had fallen asleep on the toilet the same time K had passed out in her high chair.  Out of respect for my husband, I didn't take a photo of him sleeping on the toilet (just posted the story on the internet).