Amélie Seven Months

Amélie turned 7 months this week and wow have we seen so many changes in just a few weeks time. She's 16 pounds 15 ounces (7.7 kilos) and right on track being at the 50th percentile for weight. The most exciting development is that she is finally eating! It took a solid month of offering food to her every day until one day she just decided she was ready and now she has three small meals a day along with her normal milk feeds. I think two days of A being very persistent with butternut squash and adding more flavor to her food helped. Her favorites so far are oatmeal with banana and cinnamon, green beans with pear and split pea soup. I'm so happy and relieved she's starting to eat plus looking forward to expanding her palate more.

Milk feeds are still the same as her routine at six months. I've given her water after meals in a sippy cup numerous times, but this week was the first time she grasped the concept and drank some! I'm skipping giving her a bottle completely since I'm with her all of the time anyways now and hopefully by the time I have to go to work, she'll be weaned completely anyways.

As of the past week, Amélie's favorite way to get around it by rolling. If she see's a toy she wants not within reach, she just rolls, spins around on her tummy to get to the right position and rolls again. I'll put her down sitting on one end of the playmat and usually find her on her tummy or back on the opposite end. Her favorite activity lately has been ripping napkins, tissue paper, Christmas catalogs or pretty much anything she can get a hold of. She tried to rip some curling ribbon one day and was very determined, but very upset when it just wasn't ripping like the paper.

Other than that we've been busy this week with a few play dates seeing her baby friends before Christmas. She's still waking up once or twice a night to feed and is up for the day by 7 usually, which means I really need to go to bed now! We're off to the Canary Islands this weekend for Christmas. I remember feeling Amélie move for the first time on a bumpy road while we were there last year and now we get to go with her again, though this time not in my belly!

And a few pictures:

^^She was sitting on the rug just moments before, then decided she was done with taking pics. 

^^From L to R: makeup lesson; bundled in the stroller, Christmas class, opening gifts from Auntie Tiff

^^Cute little shoes, thanks room. 

Happy 7 months Amélie!

Thanksgiving 2014

I'm slowly catching up with everything I need to do now that we have internet again so here are a few pictures from Thanksgiving a couple of weeks back. We celebrated the weekend before with all of the Sensos and then again on Thursday with just our family of three. 

^^A group shot of all of us and all of the food!

^^I made the pies the day before, just your good old classic apple pie and pumpkin pie.

^^Apple pie in the oven.

^^We had turkey chili while Amelie played with some watches. She liked the Rolex the best, of course.

^^Early morning shot of the turkey, 7am. 

^^Table all set and even a little place card for the baby. 

^^I hope Thanksgiving is going to be her favorite holiday too!

^^From the left: green beans with pancetta & onions, baked sweet potatoes, brussels sprouts, mashed sweet potatoes, the turkey, sausage stuffing, butternut squash, mashed potatoes, apple pie, gravy, cranberry sauce and a pumpkin pie (the best recipe here.)

^^Amélie loved the pinecone.

^^I had two plates of this.

^^Our little table. 

^^She kind of liked mashed potatoes and butternut squash.

^^I was soo full.

^^And Amélie passed out after the meal. 

^^Then I made turkey everything the next day - stock, soup and salad. 

I can't wait until Amélie is old enough to understand holidays and how excited I am about Thanksgiving each year. It will be so nice to have her help me in the kitchen each year just like I did with my mom. For now, she sits in her high chair and takes it all in :) 

Amélie Six Months

I've been very late writing this post since Amélie is already 6 ½ months old, but we just got internet at our new place! At 6 months, Amélie weighed 16.4 pounds (7.44 kilos) and definitely feels much heavier already. The biggest milestone this past month is that she can sit up all on her own now. She started off very wobbly and then within a week, she was able to sit up without any support! (with the exception of a few pillows around her in case she loses her balance) She can also roll over from her back to her stomach now, but doesn't do this too often. She is growing up to be very curious and is into everything you give her. She is also super smiley, particularly when she sees A walk through the door from work. As it’s getting darker out so early, she really hates being in the car when it’s dark and cries and cries so A and I have to sing the Wheels on the Bus or the Itsy Bitsy Spider very loudly to get her to calm down.

My last post about introducing solids is now something that has become a little bit discouraging for me. We've been trying to introduce solids for about a month now without any interest from Amélie. I've tried just about every food from the calendar I created and even some jarred food, but nada. She’s learned to seal her mouth shut, make a grossed out face and bob her head from side to side when she’s in the high chair. I've tried before a feed, after a feed, halfway between a feed, morning, afternoon, evening. I've given her food to play with and her own spoon and bowl, but still have been unsuccessful.

The one time she actually opened her mouth for more was when I let her try some mashed potatoes from our Thanksgiving meal, which was very exciting and I thought a start, but then trying a few more times with some more mashed potatoes (sans butter and milk) later on, she decided she was not interested at all. I know I need to look at this time as exploring/playing rather than the way she gets any nutrition, but I feel like I’m out of ideas on what to do. I know she just may not be ready and it feels like the day she will start to actually open her mouth for food will never come, but I have to keep telling myself to stay positive. It’s hard when she rejects it multiple times a day, every day, but all I can do now it to keep offering it so she eventually gets used to it and hopefully will start to have enjoyable food experiences!

These past few weeks, she’s also developed a pretty regular schedule waking up around 7:30 and going to bed around 7:30. She still wakes up once or usually twice for a feed in the middle of the night and throughout the day has her milk feeds roughly every 3 hours. She naps in the morning, then early afternoon and finally around 4ish, but only for about 30 minutes, maybe an hour if I’m lucky each time.

All in all, I can generally get everything I need to get accomplished done and go to bed at a reasonable hour, which I think is definitely helped by the fact she can sit up and play/entertain herself for longer periods now. I’m still dreaming of the days where I will get a full night of uninterrupted sleep, but that will come eventually right?

^^Hanging out in the rainforest

^^"Please don't make me eat any more." 

Happy 6 months Amélie, you bring us so many smiles and happiness each day.