Half Birthday Stats

Andrina had her 6 month well baby pediatrician's visit today. She is 25 inches tall and 14 pounds, 7 ounces. She reaching all developmental milestones on time and her physical growth is going great! She's at roughly the 50th percentile for height and weight. Oh, and her doctor said again that, "she really is a beautiful baby", just like when she was not even a day old. Awww! I love it when people notice how beautiful you are Sweetie. I worked so hard to grow you and give you life. You're so sweet and smart too, I'm so glad I got the best baby possible. I love you more than anything and everything there is combined.

Happy Half Birthday My Love!

Wow, Andrina is 6 months old today! I can't believe it! She has grown and developed so much! Happy Half Birthday Sweetie! I love you! Today we made baby handprints in clays for you. We'll find out your weight and height tomorrow since today is Sunday and there are no well-baby visits on Sundays.

Look at her really pushing herself up!

Baby Activities

Last month when Andrina and I visited April and Anne, we went to a session of story time at the library in their town. Andrina did great and we both enjoyed it so I went online to our library's website to see what programs they have available for Andrina. Well they have an infant story time once a week for babies up to 11 months old but, get this, you have to register for it! Can you believe that! And you have to enter your library card number to register! Well, I don't have a library card. I've been in college and graduate school for, what, years and years, finally finished grad school so I have had my share of the library when I was writing my dissertation. Oh wow, there's something I am relieved to have finished if I may digress....

Anyways, I had to go to the town library today, register for a library card for myself and Andrina (since the program is for her I have to register with her library card number. Seesh). I got our library cards, registered Andrina for the winter sessions of infant story time and registered myself for a parent's "early reading" workshop for her. Whew. That was a lot of work to simply be able to take my baby to story time. I found out that you can't just show up for story time, like at April's library which is really disappointing since my best friend lives in a different town so we can't take our babies to a program at the library together. Which, by the way, our property taxes go towards that stuff. Becca and I would have to register for Mommy and Me or Gymboree in order to do structured activities with our babies together. And Andrina is a day shy of 6 months old and Ryan is only 4 and 1/2 months old too. It's really disappointing that there are such restrictions on baby activities at such a young age.

I also went to a infants through pre-school open house today. I'm interested in Andrina starting structured activities but I learned that at her age, it's more like day-care for babies than it is a school; it's a full-day, 5 days a week "school" for babies up to 15 months old. Once Andrina is 15 months old, she could go to as little as 2 half days a week at this particular pre-school I visited today. That is more of what I was looking for for her. Beginning structured activities and learning and socializing with other children on a part-time basis, not day-care. That's ok though, because for right now, I think story time at the library and maybe a few Mommy and Me classes will be enough until she is a toddler. I do spend A LOT of time playing with her, reading to her, singing to her, encouraging her motor skills development, and talking with her at home. I am proud that I am doing everything I can with her for her to have the best start in life.

Time For Solid Food

Well the event that I have been postponing has finally happened. Today I gave in and started Andrina on solid foods, rice cereal for now. I've been putting it off and putting it off. Andrina probably was ready for cereal about a week ago but I just could not do it. It's been a psychological hurdle knowing that she is growing and every day she is less and less of a baby, and her eating solid foods instead of just milk has made that concrete for me. I loved nursing Andrina while I could and I loved giving her milk in a bottle too. She would be so sweetly cuddled up against me, her head resting in my arm and I could just gaze at her and drink her in while she drank her milk. I loved rocking her while she drank. I enjoyed those perfect Mommy-Baby moments so much and I hate the idea that someday they will end. So I fought it by putting off solid foods for as long as I could justify doing it. I'm thankful that at least the pediatrician agreed with me waiting until she was almost 6 months old to do it. I don't think I could have done it when Andrina was only 4 months old. It was difficult for me to do it but I finally did it. And of course when I was all alone later I cried.

Andrina handled the cereal pretty well. She does not appear to love it but she did open up her mouth and did eat some of it today. I let her do whatever she wanted while she ate. She put her hands in her mouth while the cereal was in her mouth. She smeared it on the highchair try and spit some out. She even put her hand in the bowl and squished some between her fingers. Thankfully I was able to enjoy her enjoyment of it instead of just being down that it is another step for her in growing up.

New Toys

I don't spend much time blogging my feelings and thoughts except as they pertain to Andrina. After all, she is the reason why I started a blog in the first place. I started this blog to share pictures and news of my baby with my friends and family without having to bug everyone with emails all the time. I very rarely have a blog entry that does not have photos or writing about my daughter. Well, guess what? More of Andrina! Here are a bunch of pictures of her playing with new toys and using toys that she is ready for now.

Bumbo fun! The Bumbo chair is a loaner from Auntie April and I found the tray at Target. We love them, since Andrina is so small, it helps to keep her in the chair and her toys within reach. Until she throws them on the floor that is...

Always the happiest baby!
Having fun with the toy kitchen set from Auntie April for Christmas.

Andrina loves the lights and sounds on it.

Finally ready for the stationary entertainer that I bought her months ago!

And she loves it!

Look Mommy-my feet just barely touch the bottom of it-

I can spin myself around in it to play with all of the toys!

Baby Games

For about a week now, Andrina has been more interested in playing with her bottle than drinking her milk. She'll push the nipple around in her mouth, smile, laugh, make bubbles, basically just playing and socializing more than eating. Some days it has been taking her 2 hours to finish a bottle. Some days she won't eat then a few hours after her meal time she'll start crying really loud and fierce and then she'll finish her bottle in no time. It was frustrating at first but now it is not bothering me. When she starts to play her "baby games" with the bottle, I just take it away and try again in about 10 minutes. I know she is not going to go hungry so it is no big deal. She is still consuming enough milk in one day. Starting solid foods will be interesting...

Happy New Year! Happy 2008!

Last night I actually got to go out with friends while Andrina stayed home with a babysitter. Tom and I celebrated New Year's Eve with my best friend Becca and her husband Eric. Ryan got to stay home with his nanny too. Here's a picture of me and Becca (after many, many martinis). Happy 2008!