And She's Off!

Addelyn just reached a very important milestone - she can scooch now!  She just started doing it all-of-a-sudden on Friday, November 4.  She was trying to get to an expired health insurance card on the floor of all things.  It's so funny, though, because she still prefers walking, so if she's in a bad mood she will yell at me the whole time she's scooching to get a toy.  Another funny thing - she prefers to scooch on my bedroom carpet rather than the carpet in the room she usually plays.  Jake thinks it's because the bedroom carprt is longer and she can get more purchase with her feet.

Speaking of milestones...first steps at 6/12 months??  I'm not sure whether to count this as her first steps, but Addelyn did take four controlled steps the other day!

After that, I had to run out and get her one of those toys that she can push around:

Now that Addelyn is sitting much better, I decided to start bathing her in the bathtub.  She LOVES it! Her favorite thing to do is lay down and kick and splash!  Her first bath in the big girl tub was on November 1.

Jake's birthday was yesterday, and for it mommy made daddy a nice dinner (rainbow trout with green beans and cous-cous) and Addelyn fingerpainted daddy a picture (that was an adventure...).  To my utter surprise, Addelyn only tried to eat the paint/paper one time!

The "Before"

The "After"

The work of art

The Happy Daddy

And here's Addelyn's new favorite game:

Stats:
Age:  6 3/4 months
Weight:  19 lbs, 3 oz
Length:  26.5 inches
Drinks:  about 5 7oz bottles of milk per day (1/2 of which is formula)
Eats: baby oatmeal mixed with 1/2 jar of veggie or meat baby food at bedtime, & rice cereal mixed with 1/2 jar of veggie baby food followed by 1/2 jar of fruit at lunch time.  Her favorite is bananas and her least favorite are peas and chicken.
Sleeps: 11 hours/night - 9pm-8am  (usually wakes up around 4am for a bottle)
Naps: 2 hours after lunch and 2 hours in the evening (5-7)
Awake for: 2.5-5 hours at a time during the day.
Clothes size:  mainly 6-9 month, some 12 month
Motor skills:  sitting up unattended, rolling over tummy-to-back and back-to-tummy, rocking on hands and knees, standing while holding on to something, standing alone momentarily, scooching, pulling herself up to standing, and we're working on getting onto hands and knees from sitting without falling over.
other skills:  babbling, going backwards in her walker, shaking a rattle
words:  no words yet...unless you count mama, but I don't think she knows what it means.
signs:  she understands "milk" and "up" and we're working on "change diaper", "help", "out", "fall down", "play", "tired", "night night", "book", "bye bye", and "eat"

Addelyn's First Halloween

In the spirit of Halloween, Jake, Addelyn, and I went to Bloomsberry Farms - it's a pumpkin patch/corn maze/petting zoo etc... just outside of Cedar Rapids.  Addelyn LOVED it.  We fed some animals and Addelyn even got to pet a pig!  The lady that worked there said that the pig was lonely because all of the kids thought it was gross and never petted it, so Addelyn gave it some love.

                  

 

We also slid down a big slide, sat in a big pile of hay, went through a corn maze...

                

                

             

...posed for some more pictures...

...And finally we went to the pumpkin patch to pick out Addelyn's very first pumpkin!

Addelyn loved her first Halloween!  we handed out candy for a couple of hours...

...eating some along the way...

That's a banana Laffy Taffy.  Don't mistake her facial expression for one of confusion...this is definitely a look of utter concentration.  This solitary piece of candy turned Addelyn into a MONSTER, and helped her to discover her "angry voice" (when the candy was taken away she yelled at me quite forcefully)

...then Addelyn got all dressed up in her bunny costume and we visited a friend and a couple of our friends' parents.

Addelyn with her carrot.  And her bunny friend has a carrot too!

nom nom nom!!!

Stats:
Age:  6 1/2 months
Weight:  18 lbs, 3 oz
Length:  26.5 inches
Drinks:  about 5 7oz bottles of milk per day (4 oz of which is formula)
Eats:  4 teaspoons of rice cereal mixed with 1/2 jar of veggie baby food at bedtime, & rice cereal mixed with 1/2 jar of veggie baby food followed by 1/2 jar of fruit at lunch time.  Her favorite is bananas and her least favorite are peas and chicken.
Sleeps: 11 hours/night - 9pm-8am  (usually wakes up around 6am for a bottle)
Naps: 2 hours in the late morning (10-12), a short one in the afternoon (sometimes) and 2 hours in the evening (5-7)
Awake for: 1.5-5 hours at a time during the day.
Clothes size:  mainly 6-9 month
Motor skills:  sitting up unattended, rolling over tummy-to-back and back-to-tummy, rocking on hands and knees, standing while holding on to something, and standing alone momentarily
other skills:  babbling, going backwards in her walker, shaking a rattle
words:  no words yet...unless you count mama, but I don't think she knows what it means.
signs:  she understands "milk" and "up" and we're working on "change diaper", "help", "out", "fall down", "play", "tired", "night night", "book", "bye bye", and "eat"