6 Months

Chloe & Buster

Chloe pushing up tall

Chloe proud of herself after she pushed up with her arms

Chloe looking at the monkeys at the zoo All 3 of us at the Hole in the Wall

Well Chloe is now 6 months old. She is changing daily and from what I hear it won't stop! One of the new things that she loves to do is to blow raspberries and make funny faces. She will go the whole day and all it seems like she does is blow raspberries and make bubbles. She thinks it is funny when you do it to her and she thinks it is funny when she does it. Sometimes she doesn't make the sound or the bubbles, but she pouts out her lips and buffs up her cheeks like she is going to, but then just decides to make the face.

I don't know when you are suppose to teach children words, but we figure that it is never too early to start. So for some of the simple things we make sure to tell her multiple times what it is or rather than saying our dogs' names we say doggies. Then of course we ask her if she can say "ma ma" or "da da" and of course she can't. But what she does do is smile from ear to ear. As if the whole not smiling for the camera didn't show us enough that she may be a bit stubborn like her mom, her grin tells it all. It is like she is saying I know exactly what you want me to do, but I'm not going to do it for you.

One thing that has been very evident this past month or so is that she loves to be on the move. She loves to kick her legs and kick her legs and kick her legs. I feel like she won't learn to walk, but she will just learn to run. Its rather amusing to us, but what is really amusing is when other people notice it. We will be out at a restaurant and she will kick her little legs in her car seat the whole time and people walking by and waitresses always comment about it. To Zach and I it is normal, but everyone else thinks it is strange and will ask if she always is like that. Yes...yes she is. She loves her belly. Ever since she learned that rolling over was fun we can't really keep her off of her belly. She plays on her belly and she can even scoot around in a circle to reach for other toys to anything else that she wants. Within the past week she has really been lifting up on her arms and each time we give her praise for doing so and then she lets out a big grin and falls back onto her elbows. It has been very rare but I have seen her pull her knees under her so I'm sure within the next few weeks she will start to pull them up more and then crawling will be right around the corner.

Chloe has also become much more interested in the dogs. Buster is her dog as he doesn't care if she pulls at his ears or fur or lays on him. He is just happy for the attention. Daisy on the other hand still just wants to come around on her terms or when Chloe is in her booster seat having rice cereal. One of these days maybe Daisy won't be scared of this little baby.
We took our first trip to the zoo. It was beautiful outside in the 80s and it was the perfect time to go. We all put on sunscreen and headed out for a day in the sun. I'm not sure why I was in charge of the sunscreen as I always get burnt, but Zach put me in charge of it. So I lathered up Chloe and off we went. We walked the entire zoo and Chloe stayed awake the entire time. She was sleepy at times, but she did not want to miss anything. Although, I'm not quite sure what she was able to see in her carseat/stroller, but she seemed to like it and we caught her looking at some of the monkeys. Later that evening we were giving Chloe a bath and I asked Zach what the red marks on her knees were and if he thought it was from the carpet when she kicks while she is on her belly. He then told me it was sunburn. Oops...maybe I shouldn't be in charge of the sunscreen after all.

The past few weeks since we have been back from Indy we started "Operation No Swaddle". Chloe was getting out of her swaddle and rolling over so we decided it was time. We decided to stop cold turkey. No swaddle, no pacifier and no middle of the night 2oz snacks of formula or water. I thought it was going to be terrible and we would be up for nights with barely any sleep. Nope...it wasn't too bad. There were a few nights where she would wake up 2 or 3 times, but we weren't up for hours. She is now taking all naps and night time sleep without her swaddle and just with a little blanket. She's back to sleeping through the night so hopefully this continues now that she has learned to put herself to sleep.

Our doctors appointment went well. She weighs 14lbs 6oz and is 26in long. She is still in the 75th percentile for height and is between the 24th and 50th percentile for weight. She did not like the doctor this visit. He has a loud voice and I think that is part of it, but she was giving him the pouty lip as soon as he started talking. He did say that now that she is 6 months and normally parents are a little more calm that he is going to send us to the Phoenix Children's Hospital to see one of the skin specialists there. Chloe has a large strawberry hemangiomas on her belly and our doctor wants us to get it checked out because he is afraid that it will start bleeding when she starts to crawl since it is right on her chest. He said that if it does bleed to just put a lot of pressure on it and to remember that all bleeding stops eventually. I hope this never happens while I am home with Chloe by myself because I'm afraid I may freeze and panic rather than just put pressure on it. They said it may take a few weeks to get an appointment so until then we will just wait.

The next month should be pretty relaxing. The weather is getting warmer so outdoor activities will be limited, but now that she is 6 months we can put her in the pool when the weather is right.