Comparisons

I always find it fun to play the "who does Baby look like?" game.  I can't be the only one who enjoys this game.  So let's take a look at who Kayden looks like, shall we?

Here is Kayden:

Here is Daddy:

Here is Mommy:

Here is Levi:

And here are her twin cousins at a similar age (who I've heard her compared to over and over and over again):

So what do you think?  Who does Kayden look like?  Thoughts?

Six Months Old

Six Months.  Half a year.  This milestone comes with alot of accomplishments that indicate that our little baby is, in fact, growing up!

Kayden started sitting independently this month!  She was almost there last month at this time but now she's got it.  Mostly.  She still gets tired and tips over eventually, but for the most part she's pretty steady on her bum :)  Kayden hasn't rolled over on her own yet.  She's been helped over numerous times by her well-meaning, very helpful older brother but she has yet to do it by herself.  I think she's just so content however we leave her that she doesn't really feel like rolling is necessary!

Kayden has started solids.  As in oatmeal cereal and wheat cereal.  I wouldn't say that she has a preference.  She doesn't seem to LOVE either one.  But she gets some down and doesn't gag so I'd say that's a good start.  It looks like the texture is what she's most finding an adjustment.

Sleep this month has actually been worse than almost ever before.  The exception would be a few nights in the first two weeks of her life when she would randomly want to be awake for a couple hours in the middle of the night. But that was sorted out quite quickly and since then she has almost always been up twice a night with a five hour stretch at the beginning of almost every night.  This month we stepped back and allowed her to space out her daytime feeds if she so desired.  Until now, I'd been assuming that whenever she got fussy after 2 hours, she was hungry.  Turns out she wasn't necessarily hungry and she now goes 3-3.5 hours between feeds.  The theory was that she would start to sleep a bit longer at night if her daytime feeds were spaced out a bit.  Umm...complete opposite.  She started eating every 3-3.5 hours day AND night.  Which was a setback in terms of getting a full night's sleep, that's for sure!  But we have done some sleep training (NOT cry it out but also NOT feeding her every time she wakes) for the past 3 nights and I'm happy to say that she slept her first (?) 8 hour stretch last night!  Kayden wakes for the day around 8am these days.  She naps between 10-11am, between 1-3pm, and again between 5-6pm.  Then she goes down for the night around 8pm.  Kayden has started sleeping in her bed (still in our room) for all naps as well as night (until now, she's been napping in the stroller while walking, on our bed, and other random places).  And we tried a few nights with her in Levi's room in the crib, which went well, but we decided to wait until she's sleeping through the night before making that a permanent arrangement. :)

Kayden weighs about 15lbs now and is wearing mostly 6m clothes, though she's moving rapidly toward 6-12m and 9m sizes.

Kayden loves her Jolly Jumper.  She jumps so energetically, it's so fun to watch!  She loves to watch whatever her brother is doing. Levi can make her laugh like nobody else, mostly by throwing things to our dismay - always a big mess to clean up after they've been playing!  She also likes peek-a-boo and will laugh so hard when Levi's little face pops out from somewhere unexpectedly. She is also fascinated by Lennox, who leaves her alone for the most part.  Kayden doesn't like loud noises, they will often make her cry as we found out at the local car show this month.  She enjoys walks, we hardly hear a peep out of her when we're out with the stroller - and not because she's sleeping!  Kayden is in the stage of putting everything in her mouth and her little hand gets a firm grip on anything within reach.  Kayden is fairly ticklish, mostly on her ribs...tickles are always good for some laughs :)

Kayden's eyes are still blue (yay!)...they're a dark blue with an even darker ring around the outside of the iris.  They are gorgeous.  She still has her bald spot on the back of her head and the rest of her hair is pretty sparse too.  I don't think it's thinned too much since she was born, but her head has grown so her hair now looks alot thinner than when she was born!  Hopefully it'll start growing before too long!  Some days it looks like there's a smooth, new layer coming in underneath so here's hoping!  Kayden doesn't have any teeth yet but the way she sometimes chews makes me think that they could be close.

Kayden is such a joy.  She's only really fussy when she's tired, dirty (she CANNOT be dirty or overly wet for long), or hungry.  Or when she's supposed to be sleeping but wants to be awake - in fact, I can hear her right now...silly girl.

Happy half birthday, Kayden!  Daddy said I should bake you a cake today to celebrate so tomorrow we might have to do that because it's far too late now.  We love who you are becoming as we see your personality coming out more and more all the time.  You are sweet and patient.  Fun-loving and full of joy.  We love you Kayden Grace!