Callie: 6 months old!

This is my baby girl at 6 months old!  I just love her so much and

every monthly birthday makes me sad!  I want her to stay a baby forever!

But then again, every month gets more & more fun!

Here is the summary for Callie when she was in her sixth month (when she was 5 mos old):

(PS....this post is really late. She is going to be 7 months old this weekend. But I couldn't just skip this post altogether).

EATING

Callie continued to eat every 3.5 - 4 hours during the day. She still nursed and then would take about 6 ounces of formula from a bottle. Halfway through the month, at 5.5 months old, we started feeding rice cereal to Callie. We waited longer to start this than we did with Caeden and I was so glad we did! She learned how to spoon feed so quickly and easily with very little spitting out of the cereal. We also introduced a sippy cup at this time, just offering water after each meal. By the end of the month she still had not mastered the cup, but were working on it. Callie likes both her bottle and cereal warm....I'm sure I'll regret that in a few months when we have to switch her to regular milk. But oh well...it's too late now. 

SLEEPING

Callie still took 3 naps a day, usually 1-2 hours each. Of course, every once in awhile we would have a day with short naps, but most of the time, she was still a decent mapper. At night she slept from 7pm - 7:30 am. She randomly started waking up at night to eat, but we wondered if this was because she was ready to start more solids. But when she would wake up in the middle of the night, mommy would nurse her and she would quickly go back to sleep. She was still swaddled this month. We tried one arm out again, but within a few days, her sleep was going downhill. So we went back to swaddling her, and decided we would try again next month. 

PLAYING

Callie started to laugh more this month. She wasn't as sparing with her giggles. She LOVED to stand and play in her Exersaucer...she would entertain herself for quite awhile in this. It was also fun to see her grabbing toys out of her toy box and just playing independently with them. And Caeden and Ella often kept her entertained throughout the day, as usual. She would just sit and watch them forever. She put everything in her mouth and would love to chew on things. 

Playing in her ExerSaucer outside!

Playing with Daddy on the floor

 I think she's outgrowing her swing,

ya think?

SIBLINGS 

Caeden still loves Callie very much and loves to hold her and play with her. She is actually very accepting of his rough play and often laughs and smiles at him, even when he's doing things that I'm cautious of (getting in her face, "patting" her belly, etc). 

Caeden wanted to sit in Callie's high chair...

and then hold her!  Apparently she had fun too!

Here he is trying to feed her!

NEW COUSINS

As mentioned before, Callie has gained two new cousins in the past two months - both girls!  We finally got all three girl cousins together for some pictures this month!

 Lyla (1 week old)

Callie (5 months old)

Elise (4 weeks old)

EASTER

Callie celebrated her first Easter this month, at 5 months old. Obviously, she was not old enough to differentiate the day from any other, but we still included her in all of our traditions. You can read THIS post to read a full account of our egg dyeing, Easter basket fun, and dress pictures!

DOCTOR VISIT

Callie had her six month appointment and seemed on track for everything. She was in the 70th percentile for weight and the 75th percentile for height. She has mastered all of her milestones....except still not rolling over! She will push up on her arms, but never rolls over. However, because she is doing everything else, the doctor was not concerned. She said that Callie has just moved onto better things...and will eventually roll over when she's ready. She also got 3 shots that day and handled it like a champ!

6 MONTH STATS

Weight: 17 lbs 1 oz

Length: 26.5 inches

Clothes size: 6 mos (some 6-9 mos)

Shoes size: size 0   (0-3 mos)....tiny feet!

Diaper size: size 3

MILESTONES 

While 5 months old, Callie began: 

• Sitting without support (see this post for more pics)
• Picking up any toy she wants and playing with it

Little Callie, 

You make us smile all the time...Especially with your big belly laughs!  You are getting super attached to Mommy, and I love every minute of it!  We love you so very much!!!

Bubbles!

One day last week, we ran the jacuzzi and added some bubbles!

Boy, did Caeden have fun!!

I sure love my little man!

Pretending to sleep on a bubble pillow

Look who's SITTING!!!

On Easter Day, at 5.5 months old, Callie officially started sitting up!  This means she can sit without support, for several minutes, without falling over....at least until Big Brother comes to "love" on her!  

She is such a big girl - loving to sit up and play with all kinds of toys now!

Easter 2013

Easter was filled with lots of fun activities this year (as is every other holiday in our family).  :)

As soon as we finished celebrating St. Patrick's Day, we moved onto Easter!  Last year, we started doing Resurrection Eggs with Caeden.  But being only 2.5 years old at the time, he had a limited understanding of what the Easter Story really meant.  This year, we did the Resurrection Eggs again, but added a little fun to it!

Each night before bed, he knew there was an egg hiding in his room.  So, he would look all over for it...and when he found it, he would of course look inside.  We would then talk about the various objects that were in the eggs each night, and read the Bible story to go with it.  He had a much greater understanding of Jesus' death and resurrection this year!  There were several times leading up to Easter that I heard him telling people about all the things that happened to Jesus - and he seemed to remember every detail!  While we emphasized Jesus' love for HIM each night, it was mainly the details of the story that he remembered.  However, it did lead to lots of questions about heaven (and death) that we got to answer.  It's so great seeing his little mind try to comprehend the Gospel - and we just pray that he decides to accept God's gift of grace at an early age!!!

But of course, we also like to do the traditional Easter traditions also!  So a few nights before Easter, we dyed our Easter eggs!

We started the genius (Pinterest) idea of using a whisk 

last year - and love it!  It keeps the egg from 

rolling off your spoon or dipper!

And of course, Callie had to get in on the action too....

This picture is just to show off her

cute bunny pajamas!  LOVE the bunny

tail on her little bum!

And her bunny slippers!

The night before Easter we did Resurrection Rolls for the first time with Caeden.  This is a fun tradition to start with kids....If you're interested, here's the link for more information!  Being the night before Easter, we reviewed the crucifixion that we had been discussing the previous few weeks.  Then we explained how they buried Jesus with this activity.  

The marshmallow represents Jesus.

So we explained how they put oil on Jesus' body...

(we rolled the marshmallow in butter).

Then they put spices on his body...

(we rolled the marshmallow in cinnamon/sugar).

 Then they wrapped him in a cloth (crescent roll).

And put him in the tomb (oven). 

We baked them while he was sleeping, and

the next morning, this is what he found.... 

JESUS' BODY WAS GONE!!

HE IS ALIVE!

p.s. - these were a yummy breakfast too!   :)

Now, at 5am on Easter morning, I woke up to the awful sound of my husband regurgitating all of his food from Saturday - yes, he had an awful stomach bug!  This meant we did not go to church on Easter morning...  This was so hard for me!!  I mean, celebrating Jesus' resurrection is the whole reason for Easter!  But I knew that it was more important for me to take care of my husband and celebrate the resurrection in my heart.  I'm telling you - this was the first Easter in my whole life that I've never been to church!  It was sad, but I knew it was right...  

So, after Daddy was awake enough to walk into the kitchen just for a few minutes, we let the kids see their Easter baskets!  Daddy didn't want to miss out, so we waited until mid-morning, (when he felt like he could handle getting up) but surprisingly Caeden didn't even ask about his basket before that!  

 His expression when seeing his basket!

Checkin' it all out...

CANDY!  The best part!

Then it was Callie's turn:

Reaching for her eggs!

Checkin' out her new pacis and bows!

And trying on her new sunglasses!!

Hee-hee!

Now, the plan was for my parents to come down for the afternoon and have Easter lunch with an egg hunt at our house.  Normally we have lots of family come - and everyone contributes a dish.  But this year, my parents were the only ones available to come.  Their contribution was the ham, but it was already at my house so I could cook it.  Sooo....this meant I was going to be cooking the entire Easter meal by myself. Well, I had relied on the fact that Reid could tend to the kids while I cooked.  Little did I know that Reid would be very sick on Easter morning.  So I had to enlist some help during Callie's morning nap...  Caeden was my yolk-masher for the deviled eggs, and he did an awesome job! 

And even though we didn't go to church, I still

wanted to dress the kids up for some pictures!

And this year, Callie fits in her Easter basket!

Playing with her dress...  

Brother & Sis!

Since Daddy was sick, it was just mommy that

got pictures with the two kids:

(but we're planning on re-dressing up soon

and taking some pictures with Daddy!)

THEN IT WAS TIME FOR..

THE EASTER EGG HUNT!

Between my parents and us, we had 95 eggs to hide!

The kids had a blast! 

This was his routine for every.  single.  egg.

As soon as he found one, he would open it...

Take out the candy...

And eat it... 

I'm pretty sure that only half of his eggs still had 

candy by the time the hunt was over. 

Even though Daddy was sick, and we didn't get to go to church, we still had a great Easter!  We are so glad that Caeden is starting to understand the grace Jesus showed us on the cross!  And thankful to God himself for sacrificing his Son for OUR sake!