Mia's Half Birthday!

Mia is 6 months old today!
Her check up is next week...we'll post stats then.(She still fits in 6 month clothes, but her 9 month ones are probably more comfortable!)

She has been attempting to crawl for quite some time now. She knows just what to do with her legs, but is having trouble figuring out how to move her arms. As a result she sort of scrunches up like an inchworm and then belly flops forward to move. It's quite comical. A couple times, she's tried to get one arm to move forward a bit but then just fell on her belly afterward. She also inches and scoots on her belly to get where ever she needs to go (generally she stays in the vicinity of a quilt we have on the floor). When she's on her belly, she does planks, down dog, mountain climbers and anything else she can manage to try to figure out how to crawl. Tonight, Kurt, Emma, and I all witnessed her actually crawling! She only did 1 full crawl two separate times, but they were fluid and purposeful moves. She is also working hard to figure out how to get to sitting from her belly. She's done it with my help about 3 times. She keeps getting closer and closer. Tonight, she was on her belly, playing and scooting around for about an hour. She didn't stop moving once! It was amazing.

Mia likes to try to stand, however, she still has 'sea legs' and isn't very stable at all. She rolls her ankles frequently. Emma was standing and even walking at this point, but Emma had much more one on one time with us. (And Kurt put her through baby boot camp daily!) It's exciting to see Mia figure out how to move around on her own.

Last week, she started eating a container of food for 'lunch' at daycare. Thus far, she's only had sweet potatoes at school. In the evenings, she gets rice cereal and sometimes some baby food. She love love loves her cereal and gets so excited when she sees me get the container and/or the milk out to make it. She usually squeals a bit and pulls her arms in and shakes them up and down to show me how much she wants it. After rice cereal, sweet potatoes were her 'first' food. She was a big fan! She had apples and made the funniest faces because they were so tart! She's tried squash and wasn't a big fan, although she ate it. She also had bananas and liked them. She's also had a couple cheerios. Every once in a while I put a couple on the highchair to keep her entertained while I was cooking or we were eating. The first time she was very interested and like them. Another time, she choked on it. She does like playing with them and gets very confused when they stick to her wet hand.

Mia is starting to attempt to put her nuk in her mouth. So far, I've only seen her try to put the wrong end in.

Mia loves her crawl along snail, her jumperoo, the monkey that spins around on her tummy time mat, Emma's dolls, link-a-doos. We've given her little balls and a pull toy snail. She's still working on rolling a ball but can pull the string on the pull toy. She also enjoys the mirror in her crib.

Mia continues to be incredibly patient. I told her the other day, we should have named her Mia Patience. In the evenings, she is content to sit in her carseat for a few minutes while I put things down. The only time she gets really impatient is when she's waiting for her food and even then, Emma can usually distract her while I mix her cereal.

Mia loves her sister. She tracks Emma all the time. Every time she sees Emma, Mia gives her the biggest smile. They laugh together daily. Emma likes turning Mia's highchair so that Mia can see outside while Emma describes things to her.

Mia didn't sleep well for almost the entirety of September (i.e. she was up every 1.5 to 2 hours). We think it was a combination of things: potential teething (No signs of teeth yet), Mia trying to sleep on her stomach but waking due to a startle reflex as she turned over, losing her pacifier when she rolled over, growth spurt, etc. Luckily (knock on wood), this week, she started sleeping better and only waking up 2 times a night.

Mia was saying DaDaDa and MaMaMa consistently for about a week in mid-September, however, she hasn't been talking much lately. We think it's probably due to her working on physical skills.

Mia still doesn't nap consistently. She is more of a cat napper and takes around 4 20-30 minute naps a day. Every once in a while a longer nap will creep in. She is usually ready for bed around 7 and then asleep by 730 after our routine of (sometimes bath), nursing, and story. She might start getting a bath nightly to help this routine.