Happy Half Birthday!

Wednesday, marked Elliot's half birthday! I cannot believe that our precious baby girl is already 6 months old! And 6 months from now she'll be a toddler! Whoa, I need to slow down.

So anyway, Elliot is developing beautifully at 6 months. She sleeps 9 hours at night, loves her dinner of solid food, and communicates with us frequently (squeals, babbles, and/or shrieks). Elliot is still a girl who knows what she wants and will not be fooled with a substitute. She especially knows that she likes food. Tim and I have been using some sign language with her for awhile now, and she always gets really excited when we do the sign for "food." Elliot has also decided that if you are eating, she must have some food too. This is why we have random piles of Cheerios around the house...which the dog appreciates too. Elliot's newest favorite food are frozen waffles. A friend recommended giving them to her to help her teething, and now she's hooked!

Elliot is still our long and lean girl. She weighs 14.9 lbs (25%) and is 26.5 in long (85%-90%). Elliot doesn't look very long, but once you get her to stand up she towers over all the other babies we play with. Elliot is also pretty strong, however she refuses to use her muscles to their full potential. She is fully capable of rolling from her belly to her back, but it is too much work so she screams instead. She can almost sit up consistently on her own, but she likes to spot where I am and fall towards me so I'll help her. Yes, Elliot is officially our adorable drama queen :)

Stranger anxiety is something she's recently developed (which isn't good since daycare starts tomorrow). She was always a little shy with other people, but now she refuses to let them hold her. This is was usually happens:
-Friend reaches out to hold Elliot.
-Elliot starts to look uneasy.
-Elliot looks back at me and starts the cry with her bottom lips sticking out.
-Since the friend obviously didn't get the hint, Elliot starts to cry with full lung capacity.
-Elliot goes back to me and she immediately stops crying, and gives the friend a little smile.
Usually after a few meetings, this game stops and Elliot is okay with the other person. But seriously, the girl already knows how to play us!

When I was pregnant, I would daydream about what my little girl would be like. I would obviously try to make her my girlie girl, but what would her personality be like. Elliot is everything I could have hoped for and more! We are so blessed to be the parents of a sweet and animated baby girl. Happy half birthday Elliot!
PS- I think I fixed it where you can leave comments. Thanks Kim!

My Last Week

My woe is me moment:

This week is my last week as a stay-at-home mom. It is an emotional time. My wonderful husband has made it possible for me to stay home with Elliot for 6 months. I have loved every moment of these 6 months. It wasn't all sunshine and giggles, but it was memorable. That is the hardest part about going back to work, that I'm going to miss out on memories. Elliot does so many little things throughout the day that bring a smile to my face or make me laugh, and it makes me tear up even now thinking that someone else is going to see those special moments. Now I know that I will still get to see my silly baby girl and her quirks in the evening, but I still feel sad about it. I am hoping to save a lot this school year and start tutoring to earn extra money, so maybe I can stay at home again. My mom asked me, "But wouldn't you miss teaching?" Yes, I would. I would miss teaching the little kiddos how to read and how to be a good citizen, and being a part of that foundation that is their education. However, I would rather be at home with my little one and shaping her into an amazing little girl. And I know that women all over the globe make the difficult transition back to the working world, but that doesn't mean it is any easier for this little mom in her corner of the world.
It is going to be so hard to leave this face in the morning...
Looking on the bright side:

So there are some positives of our new stage of life. The pressure of getting ready for school has helped me put Elliot on a great feeding and nap schedule. Elliot will be 2 minutes from my school at an in-home daycare. She will be learning nursery rhymes and colors right along with the older kids, not just sitting in a bouncy chair all day with 16 other babies. Elliot will be well loved in a smaller (8 kids) setting. She loves other babies so I know she'll get the socialization that she needs. And best of all, I get to see the big smile on her face when I come to pick her up after school!
Something like this...
Tomorrow is Elliot's half birthday, so I'll try to get on the ball and have her 6 month pictures up this week :)

PS- We had a 5.9 earthquake today! So crazy! Tim, Elliot, and I were sitting in the office because Tim was working from home. We were chatting about the day, when all of a sudden we started to feel a slight rumble. Then out of nowhere, the ground started to move up and down and everything was shaking. My Midwestern husband put his tornado drill knowledge into action and rushed us into the bathroom (actually you're supposed to go outside). The whole thing was over in about 30 seconds. To be honest, with us living in the DC area, I thought it was a terrorist attack. Tim reassured me that it was an earthquake (who would have thought an earthquake would be the better option?!), and we turned on the news. 5 minutes later, CNN was announcing the breaking news. I cannot even imagine what a bigger one feels like! That was enough for me!

Girl's Weekend!

While the hubby is away, the girls will play! Tim went to Minnesota for a guy's weekend, so my mom came up from Florida for a girl's weekend. We had a blast! I love that when my mom comes to visit she doesn't have an agenda. She is perfectly happy hanging out at the house as long as she's with us and gets to be Nana. With that being said, we didn't just hang out at the house. My mom, Elliot, and I went for walks, baked yummy treats, drank sangria (just me and mom), bought baby girl some clothes, watched chick flicks, and chatted the nights away. Although Skype is great, you don't really get to see all the little things a baby does during the day that melts my heart. My favorite such moment was the hilarious laughing fit Elliot had when my mom started coughing!

She was also, of course, a big help around the house. My mom either took over certain household duties or entertained Elliot while I did them. Brinkley, our dog, also appreciated the extra attention from Nana! It was perfect weekend filled with lots of love! We agreed that visiting Elliot is good for her health and visit in the fall was in order :)

Sleeping Beauty

Elliot has started taking 2 great naps in her crib regularly each day! She takes a nap at 11am and 3pm, and each is around an hour. Now of course we do have some hiccups in the schedule. Elliot made a liar out of me when my friend Diana came over to scrapbook. There I was bragging about how she sleeps for around 2 hours in her crib, and baby girl decides to start screaming over the monitor after only 30 minutes of sleeping. So I guess I should say she usually takes two great naps a day. Before last week, she would only have a good nap if I held her or she was in the Bjorn. Now I have the weight of a baby off of me, two free hands, and I don't know what to do sometimes with the extra time! It's Amazing!!! I didn't think I could, but I love this little girl even more :)

Tim leaves tomorrow for a guy's trip to Minnesota. Usually a bunch of couples get together, but we all had babies this year (crazy!) so only the 5 daddies are meeting up for the weekend. I am very excited for Tim to have some much needed guy time, but of course I'm going to miss him terribly. That's why I invited my mom to come visit for the weekend! She arrives tomorrow night and will be here until Sunday. I'm super excited to see her and for her to see how much Elliot's grown. We hope to have a fun and relaxing weekend...I hope you all have the same :)

5 Months Old!

Precious baby girl turned 5 months old last Sunday! Elliot is blowing us away on how much she's grown developmentally and socially in one month, which was a welcome change from last month. 3 months was heavenly and then 4 months threw us off. I had heard that the 4 month mark is when babies are not quiet themselves. During the 4th month, Elliot was not sleeping consistently, her evening fussiness returned, she would only occasionally smile at other people, and so on. She was still our sweet girl, but she was a little more dramatic than usual. So we gladly welcomed month 5 and embraced our maturing little girl. Elliot is still a drama queen, but it is small part of her personality that blooms more and more every day. Here are some new developments with Elliot:

• She sleeps from 7:30pm-4:30am (9hrs) and then wakes up again around 6:30am! Major progress!
• She still eats every 2-3 hrs both boob and bottle. I would like to get her on a bottle for the morning and afternoon, and then breastfeed in the evening.
• We don't know how much she weighs because there isn't a 5 m. checkup, but she weighs about 14 lbs and wears 6 m. clothes (still long and lean).
  
• She rolls over from her back to her stomach and stomach to back, although she is not happy about it. She still cries if she can't flip back over in lest than 10 seconds.
  
• She plays/explores toys! We went to Target the other day to buy her age appropriate toys because all she had we stuffed animals and a rattle. But don't worry, she has a bunch now :)
  
• She LOVES to watch you brush your teeth! So weird.
• She hates the pacifier and wants nothing to do with it (which makes me sad), and now wants to suck her thumb instead.
• She talks a lot! Now when I say talk, I really mean yell. This girl is so loud when she babbles that she woke up the sleeping baby next to us at New Mom's Group!
• Her favorite book is still an ABC book that I bought at the grocery store. We read it every day. Her favorite page is M for mouth because it has an up close picture of a baby boy who she likes to flirt with.

There is so much more that I can't remember that I'm sure I'll share with you soon.
Here are some outtakes from her 5 month pictures:

Zoolander Face:

"Chao Momma":
Happy baby:
Aanndd we're done: