Happy Six Month Birthday, Elise!!

You read right.  Our little 2 pound, 11 ounce baby girl is now six months old!!  Her six month check up isn't until Wednesday so I don't have her updated stats yet.  Once we have them, I will take some measurement photos to compare her birth measurements to her current size.  Today we have a slideshow to share.  We can hardly believe how far our baby has come in these past six months.

First, here's what she's up to these days.  Elise...

• Loves to "dance" (aka be twisted and turned up, down, side to side, etc.), especially to the lines "Do a little dance, make a little love, get down tonight" over and over again.  She smiles, giggles and coos while she dances.
• Loves to squeal and shriek when she gets excited.  Each day she seems to pull out a new sound.  On the way home from church yesterday, she let out what sounded like a little girl shrieky scream of joy.
• Is almost ready to sit in her BeBe Pod (a variation of the Bumbo seats but with rubber that I like better than the Bumbos).  She can sit in it briefly but has too small of a waist to have it really hold her up so she slouches to either side.  I also have to put a rolled up blanket in between her legs and the piece they have there since the seat is much deeper than her little bum.
  
• Has officially rolled both from tummy to back and from back to tummy.  She almost rolls from her back to her tummy all the time, but she likes to put her legs out to the side so they keep her from actually rolling.
• Isn't bothered a bit by her lack of rolling abilities because she's figured out how to roll from her back to her side and then back again repeatedly in order to rotate in a circle to look at whatever she might be interested in.
• Tracks moving objects with her eyes like a champ.  That is, of course, unless they are fast moving pugs or other lightening speed items.  For those, she tries hard but always ends up a bit behind, which we find absolutely adorable.
• Always sleeps on her side.  I think this is perhaps my favorite thing right now.  Whenever I go in to make sure she's asleep or to get her up from a nap, she's on her side with her little arms bent and her hands (often folded) near her face.  It makes her seem like such a little person that she has her preferred sleeping position and it isn't one that she lets us put her in.  If we try to lay her down on her side, she always rolls to her back and stays that way for a bit before rolling herself on her side.
• Is starting to have more of a voice.  Although some sounds (including her cry) are still raspy, she doesn't sound nearly as bad as she used to.  I don't think anyone would confuse the vocal cord damage that remains for a sore throat, which is good now that cold/flu season is coming to town so I shouldn't get wierd looks from people who think she's sick.
  
• Doesn't look at all like a preemie.  Though we get comments (always friendly) about her being small for her age (to which we respond that she was born early), no one has gasped and said, "Wow, she must have been a preemie."  I don't know if anyone actually does that, but we've heard from the doctors that there's something called the "preemie look" and that Ellie doesn't have it.
• Loves to play hard-to-get with baby boys who pay attention to her and then to pay attention to the boys who ignore her.  Her dad has set the marrying age at 28 or older.  (Since I was young when we got married, he can't set it too high without raising suspicions).
• Is in love with her daddy.  She loves to giggle with him and to give him lots of smiles and coos.
• Likes to watch her pug during times when he's moving slowly around her.
• Loves kisses from said pug.  Often he'll try to kiss her when she's crying and manages to turn her cries briefly into smiles.
• Still enjoys hanging out in her bouncy seat and gets a little better every day at playing with her toys hanging from it.
• Loves being on her back on her tummy time mat shaped like a leaf (thanks, Mike and Becky!!) and helping in the kitchen.
• Enjoys swinging in her swing but only for about 30 minutes before she wants out.
• Loves to stand on our laps while being held.
• Tries to watch television every chance she gets.  Occasionally, when her reflux is really bothering her and we're trying to get her to calm down so she keeps down her meal, we let her watch a few minutes until she forgets that her food is trying to make the great escape.  Then it's off to other things.
• Is starting to get too big for her sling!  She's always settled right into it and turned her head in to face me to keep warm and cuddly.  Now she can't turn her head in toward me comfortably, and she's getting a bit heavy for me in the only position the sling we have does.  I'm going to try getting fabric and making my own of a different type of sling so that we can use that when she officially outgrows this one.  We also have a front-to-back carrier than we can use and that she does well in when her reflux isn't bothering her.
  
• Hasn't spit up hardly at all lately - praise the Lord!! - and was doing very well with her reflux until this past week.  She's started crying and kicking out of position during feedings again, which is much harder to remedy now that she's bigger and stronger.  We realized Saturday night that I had started having a soda each day this past week (which I had cut out for a while to save money but got a steal of a deal for last weekend).  We're not sure if soda exaserbates her reflux, but I've read it's possible so I'm cutting it out again.  I went ahead and made an appointment with the pediatric gastroenterologist (for the third week in October) since they're booked out pretty far and I want to have an appointment if cutting soda doesn't bring her back to a better state.
• Still sleeps through the night!!  Although I still wake up quite a bit throughout the night as course of habit, she sleeps like a champ and wakes up bright-eyed and cheery each morning.  She does usually fuss a couple of times in the night but always falls back to sleep on her own.
• Is absolutely adorable and grows more and more every day!
  

To watch, enter elise6month090709.

Song on Video: It's Amazing by Mindy Smith