Makenzie is 6 months!

 I can hardly believe that half a year has gone by already. It seems like just yesterday we were in the hospital anxiously waiting to hold our new little girl in our arms. Now she is already 6 months old. She is half-way done being a baby. It makes me so sad, but at the same time we love watching her grow. Makenzie is at such a fun age and is learning so much. She is such a happy little girl and so easy going.  We just love her to pieces.

 Here are the stats from Makenzie's 6th month: 

Height: 25.3 in. (28th percentile)
Weight: 15 lb 3 oz. (31st percentile)
Head Circumference: 42.8 cm (58th percentile)
Clothes: mostly 6 months
Diapers: size 3

Eating: Makenzie is now eating solids once a day at dinner time. She has enjoyed sweet potatoes, carrots, peas (not a huge fan though), prunes, squash, apples, and pears. Her favorite so far seem to be the sweet potatoes and prunes.

Sleeping: Makenzie is now back to sleeping at night. FINALLY!!! About three weeks ago we had finally had enough. After talking with our doctor we read a book on sleep and determined that we were the main cause for Kenzie not sleeping. This was for two reasons. First, she was going to bed too late for her 'sleep rhythm' and second, we were going in during the night and feeding into her sleep issues instead of letting her learn how to self soothe. So, we had to toughen up and do the old cry it out method. We are not very good at this, but the first night we tried it we purposely did it right as we were getting Morgan started with her night time routine so we knew we would be busy and it would be easier to 'tune out' the crying. That first night she cried 25 minutes. She woke up twice to eat, but that was it. She ate and went straight back to sleep. The next night was even better, she only cried 10 minutes. I wish I could say things have since then gone perfectly, but they haven't. But overall she is sleeping again. The downside is that we have found the 'magic window' of bedtime for Makenzie is 5:30-5:45 pm. Yes, that's right she goes to be before 6. She then sleeps until 5:30 or 6:00 waking to eat twice, usually around 11:00 and 3:00. We love that Makenzie is sleeping at night again and she is much happier again, but it really makes doing anything in the late afternoon hard. We are total home bodies right now. Our next thing to tackle is trying to get her to nap during the day. Currently she feels that napping for 20 or 30 minutes three times a day is enough. I on the other hand disagree. Of course as long as she sleeps at night I am a pretty happy lady.

Likes:
* Baths. Makenzie loves to splash in the water and will stay in the tub forever if you let her. She can be totally losing it, ready for bed, and if you stick her in the tub she becomes totally happy and smiley.
*Her jumperoo. Makenzie has learned how to really get her jumperoo bouncing.
*Raspberries. Not the kind you eat, but the kind you blow. The kid will blow raspberries non stop all day long some days. She also loves to 'beat box.'

Dislikes:
*Loud noises. Makenzie does not like loud noises and will hide in my arms if I am holding her and she hears a loud noise. She especially dislikes the blender and coffee grinder.
* Having her neck stretched. This has been challenging for a while, but now that we are trying to put her to sleep on her own it is even more challenging since I used to stretch her after she fell asleep in my arms. We try to do it when she is in a playful mood and make it into a play thing rather than stretching, but she is really smart and usually doesn't fall for it.

Here are some cute pictures and highlights from Makenzie's 6th month: 

* We went to a birthday party for her 'cousin' Lucas and she got the play with her BFF Macie.

It was the day after this play date that Kenz started doing her push-ups. I really think she watched Macie very closely and took notes.

Kenzie has really struggled this month with napping. On Halloween I tried everything to get the girl to nap so she would be up for Trick or Treating. The old dryer trick did not work, so we ended up driving around Vail for 30 minutes. Morgan kept asking me "Mommy, where are we going? What store are we shopping at?"

Makenzie has been enjoying more solids. This month she had sweet potatoes, carrots, peas, prunes, squash, apples, and pears. She enjoyed them so much one night that she tried to feed herself. 

 Makenzie and Morgan love to spend time together. Morgan has been trying very hard to be patient with her sister while trying to teach her how to play ponies. Unfortunately Makenzie doesn't quite understand ponies yet, instead she just wants to eat the fences which annoys her big sister.

 Makenzie is now trying to use a sippy cup. She loves to chew on it and occasionally will take a sip, which always surprises her. She gets this look on her face every time like hey, what was that?

Makenzie is so ready to start crawling. She now gets up on all fours and rocks. She has gone in a forward motion a few times, but still can't quite get the hands down.