Isabel at 6 months

It has been so much fun to watch Isabel grow and develop these past few months. She is learning more each day, and it is amazing to watch. We have watched her learn to sleep unswaddled - which admittedly we did a little late (just after 4 months), and it was challenging, but the minute she learned to be OK with having her arms out, she put the middle two fingers of her left hand in her mouth and ditched the pacifier altogether (which she had never really taken to that well). Now she puts those fingers in her mouth when she is tired or needs comfort. Our doctor suspects that she must have done that in utero. We have watched her develop stranger anxiety (which is not always so much fun, but it gives Mommy and Daddy warm fuzzies to know that we are her favorites!). We have watched her learn how to roll from her tummy to her back (no back to tummy yet because she still doesn't like being on her tummy, so she has no incentive to roll that way! Once she is on her back, she is content and doesn't want to go any further!) We have watched her get big enough to use the "standing" toys, like her doorway jumper and her Exersaucer (which I would deem her favorite toy right now. The only thing she gets frustrated with is that she can't get the toys detached to put them in her mouth! She has this funny way of opening her mouth WAY WIDE and pointing her chin toward the Exersaucer toy she wants to put in there, and she gets it as close to in her mouth as she can, sometimes partway in). We have watched her learn to eat solid foods from a spoon. She has liked everything we have given her: rice cereal, pears, peas, green beans, sweet potatoes (too starchy to agree with her system, but we will try them again in another month), oatmeal, carrots, peaches, applesauce, and squash. She is definitely using more energy now, so I am glad to be getting these extra calories in her body in addition to the breast milk and formula she is getting daily. We are still nursing (yay for making it to six months!), and she is getting about 80% breast milk and 20% formula (since I don't get enough while pumping to leave enough for our child care providers to get her through a full day). We have also watched her become an excellent sleeper through the night! Since she was four months old, I can count on one hand the number of nights we have had to get up with her (and two of those were due to the sweet potatoes). She has blessed us in this way, because she is still our "intense" baby during the daytime hours. She will tell us what kind of mood she is in, whether it is happy or sad, in a very loud and demanding way! But we love her just the way she is! She is a little bit of a spitfire like her mommy, and also thrives on routine and consistency, like her daddy. The other thing we love about her is her eyelashes. EVERYONE that we come into contact with comments on how long and beautiful they are. She DEFINITELY gets those from her daddy! Lucky girl! Enjoy the new photos and the video clip...it is pretty hilarious (just taken this past Sunday before church).