Emma is 6 months old!

It's hard to believe that Emma turned 6 months old on Sunday! We continually are amazed at her growth and development. We swear we can see the wheels turning in her head as she tries to figure things out. She hasn't had a check-up in a while but the bathroom scale says she's roughly 17 pounds. Since she's a little wiggle worm, we haven't been able to measure her but she pretty much wears 9-month clothes exclusively...there are a few 6-month outfits that she might get to wear once or twice more if she's lucky.

Here is a list of things we've noticed recently:

- Emma doesn't use her nuk nearly as much as she did when she was younger. She primarily uses it when she's tired/in bed and in her car seat. Without the nuk, she drools and goes through bibs like there's no tomorrow, but we love how much she talks now without it.

- There were a few weeks when Emma wasn't really making any ahh's or ooo's. That has changed in the past two weeks, however. She is really learning how to use her voice and is making many more sounds. We've even heard a few consonants in there! She is also experimenting with shrieking and yelling both of which are sometimes cute and sometimes annoying.

- Emma still has all her baby rolls and her cute little Buddha belly, but she has thinned out a bit in the past month. She definitely is not as lean as some of her friends that are the same age, but she's not the little pudge ball she was either.

- Emma has not taken to rice cereal. We're going to try again in a few days. She does seem to like peas though. She still makes a funny face, but she opens her mouth when she's ready for another bite. We're hoping that sweet potatoes go over well later this week.

- Emma doesn't have any teeth, even though she's had teething signs for probably 2 months now.

- Emma can sit unassisted, loves standing and walking with our help, and is working on pulling herself to standing by herself. We have spent a lot of time walking around our first floor and standing outside her jumperoo so she can play with the toys on it.

- We have established a loose routine which has helped all three of us know what to expect each day. Emma enjoys playing in her jumperoo shortly after waking up each morning; she usually takes an hour nap around 10 and a longer nap around 2, sometimes she fits in an evening nap around 4 or 5 depending on her mood; bath time begins at 7 and she is usually asleep by 745.

- Emma is not sleeping through the night yet. She was only waking up once or twice a night, but then her teeth bothered her for a week and she was up much more frequently. We're currently attempting to get her back to waking up only once a night.

But probably most exciting is that Emma is really starting to form a personality and express herself. She lets us know what she likes, what she wants, and what she doesn't like. Everyday we get to see her do more and more, and it just makes being parents such an enjoyable adventure.