Lilly loves food (4)

...but not peas.

Mom's copilots

Lilly's 6 month wellness checkup

Head size

Height vs Age

Height: 26.25 inches (74%ile)

Weight: 14.88 pounds (32%ile)

Head Circumference: 16.75 inches (67%ile)

Temperature: 96.7°F

Pulse Rate: 116 beats/minute

Respiration Rate: 26 breaths/minute

Milestones

Lilly can roll from her back to her front & from her front to her back. (She's not mobile yet, but soon!) She reaches / rakes for things she wants, moves things from one hand to the other, and brings things (EVERYTHING) to her mouth. 

Lilly smiles and laughs and even "talks" and "sings." (When she's trying to go to sleep, she often sings or hums herself a lullaby until she drifts off!) She is drooling a LOT and showing possible early signs of teething.

Lilly's pretty interested in food. She loves oatmeal and sucking on apples and peaches the most.

Lilly loves to stand and bounce.

She tracks with her eyes & moves her head up /down / left / right to follow an object. 

She enjoys playing peek-a-boo, "hole in the road," laying down and watching a parachute or blankets go up / down / spin over her, looking in mirrors, and grabbing at bubbles.

Since she's beginning to sit unassisted, we can start introducing meat and small bits of table food (start to move away from purees). Dr. Lin also suggested introducing a sippy cup of water.

No dairy or honey, but other allergen foods are ok to try now. (They no longer recommend holding off on the common allergy foods as long as they did when Shawn was at this stage.)

We are slowly working on baby signs, when we remember to use them! Lilly gets very excited when we show her "all done" after meals, but she hasn't produced any signs of her own yet (that we've recognized).

She's developed small, spotty red marks on the back of her neck / base of her head. Sometimes they are bright, while other times they've practically vanished. Dr. Lin said they're just "Stork bites" and they're birthmarks that'll go away on their own. (I didn't realize children could develop birthmarks months AFTER birth!)

Lilly's sleeping approximately a total of 16 hrs a day including 1-3 naps. She still wakes to nurse at night, but goes back to sleep easily. I co-sleep with her, so neither of us need to wake fully in the night. Many times, I'm able to spend the first part of the night in my own bed and go to hers for the last few hours. It works so well for the whole family! I don't feel like the walking zombie I was when Shawn was little!

Lilly has an internal clock that Raj has, but Shawn & I do not. It's amazing how much easier life is with this ingrained!  In spite of my lifelong struggles with time management, she has a very predictable schedule. In general, she wakes around 8 am, naps around 10 am... hungry at 5:00 pm, sleep around 7 pm. It has a little variation and she adapts well when things throw off her routine. I carry a Moby Wrap baby carrier with us wherever we go. If she needs to nap, she snuggles in the wrap and there's no need to rush back home.

She is nursing well, on demand

Vaccines

Pediarix (DTaP-HepB-IPV)

HEMOPHILUS INFLUENZA B (she has to go back in 1 month for a 2nd dose) PNEUMOCOCCAL CONJ VACCINE (PREVNAR) ROTAVIRUS VACCINE (oral drops)

Lilly loved the oral vaccine (she was pretty hungry during her appointment), but her face turned bright red as she cried and screamed about the shots. She recovered almost immediately when I nursed her. She even drifted off to sleep for a few minutes, but boy, was she chatty on the drive home!

Luckily, she didn't seem to be bothered by the shots, longer than their initial pokes. Perhaps she was a little tired from crying, but her legs didn't seem sore like they were after her 4 month vaccines. She didn't show a fever, cold symptoms, irritability, or any of the other typical side effects of shots. Phew!

Later that evening, the kids and I had an early dinner and went to the Wood Dale Public Library for a Halloween Harvest Magic Show.

"Get your little ghosts and goblins laughing and applauding with a magic show created especially to help celebrate Halloween at library family events. You will enjoy cool Halloween magic tricks, hilarious comedy and spooktacular audience participation."

The magician was fun and silly. Shawn was really disappointed that he wasn't chosen to assist in any of the tricks, but he understood that not everyone got a turn this time and that his luck may be different next time.

I'm ready for bed!

Sorting helper

Lilly was helping me sort through & organize some of Shawn's things.

Lilly at gymboree

The bubbles were a recent discovery for her. Though they are part of class each week, she just started noticing them about 2 weeks ago! I love watching her reach for them. The parachute is by FAR her favorite part of class - I giggle with her every time!

Pre-ballerina

I love you

Lilly's first signed message

Scarecrow Festival, St. Charles

When Raj got home from work, we drove out to St. Charles to the Scarecrow Festival.
 Illinois Festival Guide

  "Join generations of visitors who flock to the annual St. Charles Scarecrow Fest every year! For over 25 years, this award-winning festival has brought heartwarming memories to both children and adults, and is a tradition for thousands of families across the Midwest. The heart and soul of the festival is the Scarecrow Contest, which boasts 150+ hand-crafted scarecrows. Visitors view and vote for their favorite in each of six categories. Both children and adults will find plenty to do all weekend long which is why so many choose to make it a weekend in our charming community. Enjoy live entertainment, a huge arts and crafts show, carnival, and petting zoo those are just a few highlights! You can even make your own scarecrow to take home. Plus, enjoy plenty of delicious food. The possibilities are endless. Best of all.admission, parking, trolleys and parking shuttles are all FREE! Come on out and experience why Scarecrow Fest is a four time winner of the Top 100 Events in North America." 

 We really had no idea what to expect when we got there, but the gray & rainy weather earlier in the day helped us get very close parking by scaring off those who might melt in inclement weather. ;) As we parked though,the sun came out and the clouds parted into blue skies - a great day to be out at a fest! First, we visited a make-your-own-scarecrow booth. (Free of charge!) They handed us a shirt & pants packaged together with a pair of pantyhose and some twine. A highly experienced volunteer guided us through the scarecrow-making process and gave us plenty of tips along the way. (While I'm sure we would've figured out the basics of the Frankenstein-like project, we would not have been nearly as successful without his help.) Shawn watched from the side, but occasionally brought us more straw from the bales around the enclosure. He was much more interested in seeing the other parts of the festival.  

I think I have a bale's worth of straw in my diaper bag now! We also joked about how eerie it would look for the scarecrow to be seated in the car until we were ready to go home later. So, Raj stuffed the body into the trunk instead. (I'm not sure that looked much better!) Afterwards, Shawn rode some carnival rides and perked up significantly! We also walked around a park where various people & groups competed for the best children's/mechanical/whimsical/ etc. scarecrow. They really put ours to shame... not that it was a hard thing to do... Shawn found a great playground where he ran around for a little while, then did a few more rides. Even Lilly went on her first - a ferris wheel ride for all 4 of us that gave a beautiful (yet a bit chilly) view of downtown St. Charles. While there was plenty of over-priced, over-fried carni-food around, we opted to dine at a local establishment: The Filling Station. Shawn was starting to run out of steam and by the time we headed out of the restaurant, most of the festival had shut down.
We were ready to call it a night, too. Until... Raj and I decided to see what our new house looks like at night. While the kids snored in their car seats, we drove to Stevens Glen and admired our new address. We drove around the neighborhood and found a park a few blocks away. It's nice to know it's close. (It was hard to see much, but there definitely were soccer goals and a playground.) Raj tried giving me another tour around the businesses in the area, but I'll need to explore on my own before I learn where anything is. Looking forward to the adventure!

More on moving

Raj has all kinds of ideas on things to do to make it our own - adding even more cabinetry in the kitchen, a 4-seasons room (waaaaay down the road).

The public school district has a great reputation, so we won't have to pay for Goddard anymore.  (Looking forward to that savings, though I've talked their price down by helping them with Freecycle treasurers and volunteering at events, which it still seems like NO OTHER PARENT DOES!) ANd, we won't have to worry about sending the kids to Keeneyville District (here), where I found all those typos in the preschool screening information! I already sent an email to the elementary school principal saying that we're potentially / hopefully moving into the district in February. He called me almost as soon as I hit 'Send!'  He invited us to come in for a tour whenever we're ready.  We just chatted briefly, but I'm already impressed.

FersonElementary has a choice of half-day (2 hr 15 min) kindergarden or full day (6 hrs).  (Not sure how 2 is half of 6, but...) Full day has a tuition that is less than Goddard's 1/2 day (4 hrs) 3 days a week, even with my discounted price! We're leaning towards that option, though *I* don't feel ready for my baby boy to be in full day, 5 day a week school! While Ferson also has a preschool option (for pay), we're planning on taking time to settle in and getting familiar with the new town, parks, library, local programs, etc. Then, we'll start the new school year in the fall.

Keeping our fingers crossed that we don't have a blizzard in February again so we can close on Feb 3 and visit Atlanta from the 9-16 while the movers do their magic.!

Celebration time

We went out to dinner to a new restaurant in Roselle that has been getting a lot of rave reviews. It's called 8000 miles, which is the distance from Roselle to a city in China where the main chefs and their operating partner met. (Here's an article from the Daily Herald.)

The menu was Chinese - Japanese fusion. While there were a lot of sushi choices, there were still plenty for non-sushi eaters like us. I had a mildly spicy basil chicken; Raj had garlic chicken; Shawn had sweet & sour chicken; and even Lilly feasted on a few grains of fried rice. Shawn hijacked my pomegranate & lime mocktail and I got stuck with his apple juice - I really got gypped!  The whole meal was all really flavorful and we understand what all the excitement has been about.  I'm sure we'll be going back.

Little did we know, but the evening out was actually a celebratory one. While we were eating, Mr. Haque, our realtor called. Our offer on a house in St. Charles was accepted!

We placed an offer on the house in late September (admittedly low-balling their asking price), but they came back with a counter-offer that was higher than what we were willing to agree to. We were under the impression that their counter-offer was as low as they were willing to go - take it or leave it.  After our offer, they held an open house, but it must not have been productive. We had also been told that the owners were going to take the house off the market for the winter, since it's such a slow time in the housing industry. I guess the owners didn't want to sit on it for another season and start over again in the spring. (We think they already live somewhere else.) They ended up accepting our original offer!

Moving on up.

Lilly's Lullaby

Lilly can sit by herself

A Question

S2: Where did Aunt Jennifer go?

Me: Back to her home, Honey. A while ago!

S2: Oh, why???

Me: Because that's where she lives.

S2: Why can't she stay here?

Me: I would like that, too, but J2, E, & D would miss her and she would miss them.

S2: Oh, ok. Are we going to see her again soon?

Me: Well, not for a little while, but we'll see her at Christmas time at Oma & Opa's house! 

S2: With J2, E, & D??!!

Me: Of course!

S2: Ok. I can't wait!

I want to be a ballerina when I get bigger...

...just like my Mommy.

Raggedy and Lilly

Lilly, 6 months

 

Monster Smiles

Shawn was begging for a snack, but wasn't keen on any of the options I suggested until...

Monster Smiles

1 apple, sliced (We had one Jazz apple left)

 peanut butter (I hear honey and yogurt also work well)

Mini-marshmallows (we only had large with chocolate swirl, but I cut them down to size and we'll say the brown color added to the effect)

We also needed toothpicks because our top lips slid around a bit.

Shawn wins the "clean teeth smile" award.

 

So our Monster Smiles needed a toothbrush and braces - badly! But, they were delicious and fun!

 

Leggy begonia finds a mentor

It's almost as if it fell in love with GG's painting. I've only ever gotten a couple of short lived blooms on it & it's always been leggy. Now that it's reached her picture, it burst into blossom!