6 Months Old!!

Allie turned 6 months yesterday. It is really hard to believe that she has been here for half of a year. Our lives are much busier than before, but we wouldn't trade having her here for anything. She is such a happy baby. She makes us laugh and smile all the time.

It has been so much fun watching her grow and develop. Shortly after turning 5 months, she became a pro at sitting. We are able to let her sit and play without being right beside her. And now if she does lose balance, which doesn't happen too often, she will roll as she falls so that she doesn't get hurt. Around 5 and a half months or so, she finally learned to roll from her back to her tummy. She had been able to roll from tummy to back since before 4 months, so it was exciting for her to finally get to where she could roll both ways.

This last Monday, she army crawled for the first time. She had been getting up on her hands or forearms and knees and rocking for awhile, and occasionally moving forward with her head down to the ground. But she never deliberately went after something before. On Monday she was at her babysitter's house, who has an 18 month old girl named Madison. Madison had a package of wipes that Allie really wanted. Madison did not want to share them, so she took some steps back from Allie. Allie then rolled a few times to end up at her feet. But Madison then went further away and Allie gave up on rolling. When Madison was done with the package, she dropped it on the ground a few feet from where Allie was. So Allie went for it and army crawled for the first time. Later that day, Nikki and Allie visited some friends. Allie's little friend Elizabeth was playing with a crinkly book that looks a lot like her own and decided that she wanted it, so again she army crawled a little forward to get it. She wasn't going far distances, but she had learned.

Through the rest of the week she worked on improving her army crawl and she can move pretty quickly if she wants to. Today was the first time that she really saw something more than 3 feet away and went for it. First it was the straps from her portable highchair hanging down, then the diaper bag, and then the tray to her portable highchair. So between rolling and crawling, she can get to just about whatever she wants. As Nikki's mom says, "there will be no peace for us for a long time."

Allie first learning to get on her knees

One of her favorite things to roll to (and now crawl to) - the cords to our laptops

Again, going after cords. This time she started several feet away and ended up with the cord around her leg. She was in heaven.

And here's a quick video clip of Allie going after her rubber ducky.

On Thursday night she finally starting saying a vowel-consonant combination. Daddy would always say, "ma, ma, ma, ma" to her to try and get her to say that first, and Mommy would always say, "da, da, da, da" to try and get her to say that first. So what was her choice? "aba, ba, ba, ba." Wouldn't you know it? She will do things her own way.

We have started giving Allie baby food. The first food was the typical rice cereal. We mixed it with breast milk so that she might like the taste better. At first she wasn't so sure, but she has come to like it (a little). We next attempted green beans. We didn't have any other food to try, or at least any other vegetable, so we mashed some of our canned green beans. Mommy and Daddy got a good laugh from the faces of disgust that she made. It was not a hit. So next we bought some sweet potatoes, which she has come to like best. We then tried carrots, but she is not so keen on them either. Oh, we should also mention that she loves to be in her portable highchair. She sits and plays with toys very well. It is great when mom is needing to make dinner or do something around the house. (Or update the blog, like she is now.)

Here are some pictures from her feeding experiences.

First feeding in the swing (before getting the portable highchair)

Another feeding in the swing

Before (1st time using highchair)

After (hard to see the mess since it is rice cereal)

Not a fan of carrots

Allie has gotten a little big for her baby bath tub, and since she is such a good sitter, we have started giving her baths in the big bath tub. She seemed a little nervous at first, but now has fun in it. She still hasn't learned just how fun splashing can be, but she likes playing with things in the water, like her little turtle and cups.

Allie has such a sweet and funny little personality. We wonder if she is going to be a shy girl. At home, she is smiley and laughs, but when we go somewhere else, like church or a friend's house, she is much more serious and smiles very little. She likes to take things in, it seems. She will just watch and look at people. As we have mentioned before, she has an odd sense of humor, too. She still laughs at random things, such as when we make weird noises - really weird noises. It's hard to remember what makes her laugh, because it is random. But something that she gets from her mamma's side of the family is laughing a lot more at night when she is tired (Alton girls, you know what I am talking about).

Something that may just be age-related, but may also be personality (likely a little bit of both?) is that she protests having toys taken away from her. It really makes her mad and/or sad when we take paper away from her, too. It may be too early to teach sharing, but we can only imagine what a task that will be when the time comes. Something else she has started learning is that her parents will pick things up when she drops them. When she has dropped all of her toys from the swing or her highchair, she will look to us to get them for her. And by the time we turn around, she has already dropped 5 again.

Allie is also very vocal. For those of you who have had a phone call with someone in the Gale residence recently, you have likely heard Allie talking in the background. Unless she is eating or sleeping, she is usually making noise. She is also quite a squealer. For the laughing she doesn't do during the daytime she makes up with squealing. Here is a clip of one of the sounds that makes us laugh most. It is of her gurgling her spit. You may need to turn up your volume.

She has also been teething for awhile. We are pretty sure she started around 3.5 months when she started drooling like crazy and loved having her gums rubbed. But alas, she does not have any pearly whites to show for it yet. But throughout the 2.5 months of teething, she has had different teething toys of choice: our fingers, her toes, her rubber ducky, and most recently - a scraper for non-stick pans that is made out of hard plastic and silicone. Anything to keep her happy.

Also for awhile, she would always raise her bum up in the air. Whether her shoulders were on the ground or on her boppy, it didn't matter. She also loves to do this when we are changing her diaper. We don't love it as much then as she does. But she is cute doing it. Here's a picture to end this post.