Miss Coraline… 6 months old was here before we blinked our eyes.
This month, Coraline got her very first tooth, swung in the swing, and became quite the little grabber. Last month was all about toes, and this month is all about hands! She will reach for anything in front of her and started to reach for puffs to put in her mouth with her fist. She’s tall enough now that she can touch the bottom of the exersaucer and can sort of spin around.
Coraline loves to chew on things. Our little teether particularly loves the rings but is pretty indiscriminate. She had a bit of a rough time for 3 nights, getting up for about an hour each night during the worst of the teething breaking through.
We fed her sweet potatoes and carrots this month, her first foods after cereal. Meemaw fed her her first vegetable after we went to the fair, sweet potatoes, and we got this funny face. By about day 3 for each food she seemed to like it more.
Coraline sometimes makes a funny “chewbacca” sound as her teacher calls it when she has liquid (spit or food, yum) in her throat. She’s so silly.
We tried the sippy a couple times this month but didn’t focus much on it. She mostly used as a chew toy. Soon enough!
The doctor told us she’s basically only getting enough calories to maintain and recommended we add to her bottles, so we will start doing that. Our daycare provider recently suggested that as well saying that she’s having more of an appetite recently! From being in the 50th percentile at birth, she is now in the 16th. Coraline is just over 14 pounds, and is smaller than Jameson was at 6 months.
Coraline got all dressed up for her first school pictures just before turning 6 months, but we haven’t gotten back the photos yet. We dressed her in this adorable outfit which her teacher said made her look like Rosie the Riveter, haha. Jameson got dressed up to match, and hopefully we’ll have a photo of them together. He said he wasn’t interested that morning (and fussed all the way through getting ready in a button up shirt), but he did request to get a photo with her in the evening, so I am hoping they had success.
Perhaps one of the most special moments this month though came from interactions between Coraline and Jameson. Coraline is really starting to react to him and his big grins and laughter cause her to imitate and respond to him. Coraline grins and smiles readily, but only laughs when getting nuzzles on the belly or during peekaboo sometimes in the evenings when she gets a little slap happy with exhaustion. I loved seeing her laugh in response to Jameson!
And of course she has become an expert sitter. She loves sitting up! Coraline still tries to pull herself up at the chest pretty unsuccessfully but when she’s lying down its enough to see to splash around in the tub, which she loves to do.
We are slowly trying to introduce more flexibility into Coraline’s sleeping habits; not necessarily on purpose but just for practicality. We have extended her bedtime from 7 to 8 successfully, though she requires some TLC to get there. Right now, she really needs a 7 o’clock bedtime to stay her usual, cheerful self. She is pleasant all day and most evenings, which continues to be a wonderful difference between her and her brother who required quite a bit more (focused) attention. Coraline just wants to be held!
And speaking of sleeping, we seem to have passed a hurdle, and she now consistently sleeps through the night, except (understandably) while at the peak of teething. She can also roll the other way, belly to back, but will not demonstrate it except in dire circumstances. She hunches herself all the way up on her knees like she’s going to crawl, and I think she just teeters over onto her back. I know she’s done this at least twice from observing the monitor before and after, but I don’t think she’ll ever be a pro at it until she has another way of doing things anyway. She still mostly loves to be on her belly and is happy to play that way for long stretches.
Now that we’ve reached this perfect 6 month stage, pre-crawl and post-sitting… I would be happy to stay her awhile. I love this stage, and this little girl.