We're MOBILE

It's been a while! Lots of changes in the Soheili house these days. For one, I left my job and am taking what I like to call a brief intermission from work to stay home with Helen. I am taking full advantage of this moment in time where I can spend every day loving her, teaching her and enjoying her.

We have had such a good time- lots of play time, talking, laughing, singing, reading, plus so far we've taken trips to the aquarium, several museums, art galleries, and of course the mall! She's an experienced metro (subway) rider at this point, and acts very non-chalant about the whole thing. "too cool" :) haha. She's truly a hoot these days, ornery smile and all. Here's a little about Helen at 6 months...

Stats:

13 pounds, 25.5 inches long -- ya, her weight is only at the 4 percentile right now, even though she's a great eater and a happy girl. weeker" chart- she's at 13%> We ARE keeping an eye on it, because the % dropped this time, though the Dr. was confident it's likely a fluke and she'll be back up to her normal 10% range next time. I have a feeling it has a lot to do by the calories burned in her new found army crawl!

Eating:

I am still exclusively nursing Helen - she eats 5-6 times per day, every 3 hours. I think many babies have moved to every 4-5 hours by this age, but she is insistent on keeping the every 3 hour schedule. We did two for a LONG time, so 3 hour actually feels nice and gives mom a bit more freedom! 

Two weeks ago, we introduced solids. I decided since I'm at home and love to cook - I'd give baby-food-making a try and I'm hooked. One of my mom's friends (Sally) bought me "Baby Love" written by famed DC Chef Geoff and his wife, NBC correspondent Norah O'Donnell. I absolutely love it. I bought the Beaba (baby food maker) off craigslist but havent used it once because all the recipes simply require a blender and ice cube trays. In a few hours and probably under $20 invested so far, I have made about 90 frozen portions of organic sweet potato, butternut squash, carrots and peas. We decided to start with veggies (her first was mashed avocado), then will add in fruit, then eventually rice/oat cereal as we move to 2 then 3 meals per day. The Dr. said by 9 months, she should be having 3 meals per day and will probably drop one breastfeeding.

So far, solids are going great. Helen loves them -- I think peas and sweet potato are her favorites so far. She's a pretty big mess when she eats (oh and downfall to making food? those fresh, bright colored vegetables are STAIN city). She's also SOOOO distracted by the dogs, particularly Buddy who has figured this gravy train out and taken to licking her veggie covered hands mid-feeding. So helpful, Bud, thanks. I literally have to close him out of the dining room lately because she can't focus on anything BUT Buddy the second he enters the room. 

On the MOVE:

Helen is officially army crawling. The Dr. mentioned she might do some things early because she is so light. I discovered this when I stepped out of the room for about 2 minutes to defrost her food and she had moved from middle of her play mat to about 10 feet away UNDER.OUR.COUCH (where all the computer wires are). I literally had that heart in throat feeling when I walked in and she had utterly disappeared from the mat. Needless to say, I won't be doing that again! Later that day I saw her in action - if she sees something she wants, she'll pull herself on her forearms, grunting and gripping at the ground. It takes a lot of work- but she can get anywhere she wants. Determined.lady. Now she's on the move at all times.

She's also started pushing her legs in as though she may be getting up on all four soon. SCARY. I walked at 8 months and Sie walked at 10... so both our moms have warned us already. "She'll be mobile soon, just wait.. then there's no catching her." 

She is also sitting up really nicely for periods without support, but still will throw herself backwards or forwards so we have to keep our hands near.

Helen loves:

Buddy/Tinkerbell. Dad. Gigi (visited a few weeks ago and got to really bond). Bath time, especially the part where we take her out of her mini tub and lay her down in a couple inches of water in the big tub. She LOVEs this and kick kick kicks away, with a huge grin on her face. Smiling - she's almost always smiling. Singing; current favorites include itsy bitsy spider, row row row your boat, ABCs, and that old classic Wheels on the Bus.

Also loves walking the dogs in the baby bjorn (reaches for everything, and of course talks to the dogs). Laying across my lap kind of like a mini-obstacle course. No idea why she likes this, but something about it she seems to enjoy. BOOKS. Good grief books have got her attention. Though frankly she seems much more interested in eating them than reading them, lets be honest. She actually has started getting frustrated ("eehhhh" noise) when I take them away or keep them out of mouth reach.

Airplane. Especially when Sie plays in front of our entry way mirror - swinging her up close to the mirror and then away- LOVEs. 

Changing her diaper/clothes. She still uses this time to do the most talking and grunt-like giggles. Even when she's tired and ready for bed, she can usually push past it on the changing table with tummy rasberries, yum-yums (a Grandpa classic), and silly noises.

Being nosey. It's actually pretty funny to watch her in action. Like when we were on the corporate bus on the way back from the US open (golf) - lots of business convos going on around us and Helen is arching her whole body backwards, listening intently and staring at the two men talking shop behind us.  

Helen loathes:

Bed time. haha. When she's tired, she will fight a nap or bedtime like a champ. Luckily, it doesn't last long, and she is able to comfort herself to sleep with the help of TWO loveys, one Chubby Bunny and a wubanub paci. My mom warned me against rocking her to sleep (because she did with me every night & I wasnt able to sleep without it!); well the days where that is even an option are long gone. When she's really sleepy, I try to rock her and calm her down a little before laying her in her crib- but she's not having it these days. She grabs my face with her bitty hands and comes at me with a crying, wide open mouth. No idea why, but I usually let it happen (crying, gnawing on nose) for a minute or two... well... because it's so dang cute. 

Shots. I'm thinking that's to be expected. She's a little on edge the entire Dr's visit to be honest, but this time at least humored the Dr. with some smiles and talking.

Her personality:

From what we can tell so far, she seems very observant and engaged. She's been like that since the moment she was born, lifting her head to listen and locking eyes when you talk to her. She's also always moving (no wonder she can't keep weight on!) We think she has an ornery side; case in point this new "fake cough" she's started which includes "ack ack" noises followed by smiles/giggles. When I imitate her, more smiles. She's also very sweet, still cuddles me tight and smiles so much it warms my heart. She's hard-working, grunting and huffing and puffing to pull herself to each and every thing she wants. 

I'm sure it's not obvious at all but... we think she hung the moon. :) Sie always tells her "you brighten my day Helen" - no matter how hard work has been that day. One of those big gummy grins and we're done for. I pray every day that she continues to be happy, healthy and knows how much we love and care for her. 

We're flying to Houston (for my high school reunion) next week (Just Helen & I- Sie's flight is on Thursday so he didnt have to miss work) and I'm pretty scared to see how it goes! Me + car seat + luggage + diaper bag + toys + active/non-stop baby. should be fun?? I'm going to arm myself with lots of toys/distractions because I'm really not sure how the whole "sitting still for 3 hours" thing will go now that she is so much more active. Last time we flew, she was still sleeping quite a bit and would fall right asleep in my arms for the majority of the flight. I really hope there's a tolerant, understanding, playful individual sitting next to me. :)

Some recent pics of the little lady:

sitting on the Mall during the Folklife Festival. Just love that face.

cracks me up. She likes to grab fistfuls of his fur. luckily, Buddy takes it in stride. as long as someone's paying attention to him- he's good to go.

Visiting Dad at work - Capital one is fantastic for families- here she is hanging out in one of the "nursing rooms" - so nice to have that option.

Gigi's here!!

Gigi reading one of our favorites "Are you my mother?"

Her first taste of solids - yummy avocado. As you can see, she likes to "help" me with the spoon. ;)

And this is usually how things end. 

Sweet potato!

I just love this pic.

Her monthly pic - little HAM!

On one of our daily dog-walks

Snapped a few at her 6 month appt on Friday. I can really see the resemblance to her dad in these. I swear she woke up Friday and had a bunch of new hair. yaay.

p.s. Hair and eye color.. the jury is still out. Every other day someone tells us she'll be a blonde, or she'll have dark hair like her dad. I've always thought she'd have very dark hair like his - but it's too soon to tell. Her eyes look almost olive to me, but I really don't think they're finished changing colors either.