6 Months!

Dear Makenna,

Happy six month birthday!

This past month has been an exciting one for you with lots of firsts.

The month kicked off with a trip to Chicago for my cousin Colleen's bridal shower and bachelorette party. You and I traveled by ourselves and the boys stayed home. You did so well on the plane and to my delight slept for most of the flight. You met a lot of my mom's family for the first time and enjoyed being held constantly by your Nana or one of my many aunts. I was so impressed by how flexible you were during the trip. We slept in a couple different places, and you seemed to adapt pretty easily. We toured the home of Frank Lloyd Wright and while you got a little fussy because you were tired, we all managed to enjoy the tour. In true Irish fashion, you went to your first pub...or three. Thankfully, all the pubs were smoke free so you and I could join the rest of the family. You also had your first sips of water. We were window shopping one morning and you seemed really hot in your stroller. You appeared to enjoy the cold water and I'm sure the puddle of it on your chest helped cool you down too. You still spit up all the time and I think you managed to get each of my aunts a couple times during our visit. Thank goodness for the Tide to go pen.

I finally found a Whole Foods that carried the bottles I'd been searching for. I'm so happy to have them because the glass bottles we've been using leak all the time. The new bottles are plastic but BPA free and they also have the colic reduction insert similar to the Dr. Brown's bottles. A sippy cup of the same plastic was also purchased. I can hardly believe you'll be drinking out of one of those before too long.

You love to play with your feet and spend quite a bit of time grabbing at your toes. You've also discovered how to hold things with two hands and check them out. Prior to this, you would bat at things and grab onto them, but you had a difficult time moving them around in a controlled fashion.

You have yet to get any more teeth. It feels as though the teeth on either side of your two bottom teeth will be coming in soon. If the constant gnawing on your fingers and drooling is any indication those teeth will be breaking through your gums any minute!

You're a great sleeper, even though you've been a bit restless the last couple nights. I attribute your wakefullness to teething, a cold and maybe a growth spurt. I really hope that's the case and you start sleeping through the night again soon! In case you aren't aware, your mom and dad really like their sleep.

You still love to play pat-a-cake and peekaboo, and now you initiate bunny kisses and open mouthed, slobbery "kisses" on the side of our faces. It always catches me off guard when you bonk foreheads with me and rub your nose back and forth against mine. We both usually end up with red spot on our foreheads...but it's well worth the red spot for a bunny kiss!

You have a quick and easy smile. All I have to do is glance at you and one of your big grins appears, often accompanied by your frog croak. You make this noise when you're happy and it makes the rest of us laugh, which in turn makes you do it more or if you're really tickled you'll belly laugh. Your smile is still as evident in your eyes as it is on your mouth. I love to watch the twinkle in your eyes when you're happy or think something is funny.

You're ticklish. You can blame me for that, I'm really ticklish too. When your dad and I were dating he used to tickle me all the time. Now I can usually get out of a good tickle match by pulling your brother into the mix. He's really ticklish too and LOVES to be tickled until he screams "mercyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy!"

You continue to grow like a weed. At your well visit you weighed in at 20 lbs and 26.5 inches. That puts you at 97% in weight and 78% for height. Have I mentioned that the pediatrician guesstimates you'll be about 5'9" as an adult.

Your a bit of a drama queen. If we don't respond quickly enough or in the way you want you get really mad and scream at the top of your lungs. I'm not a fan of these moments now, I can only imagine how trying they'll be when you're two. Thankfully you can be pulled out of a temper tantrum as quickly as you fall into one and the only time you get fussy is if you're tired or hungry.

You can sit up for a few minutes at a time now and are really proud of that skill. You talk and smile the whole time. I think you like it so well because you can reach your toes really easily. Those toes and your doll are your two favorite toys currently.

Your introduction to different foods has been fun. As I give you bites I often make an "Mmmmmmm" sound. Now, as you eat you constanly make that sound. It's amazing to watch you change and develop and start communicating through actions and noises. Along that line of thought, we've started signing with you. So far we're using the signs for drink, eat, all done, more and tired. You seem intrigued by the hand motions, I'll be interested to see when you start doing them yourself.

I love you Makenna, you're my favorite girl!

Love,
Mom