Our precious little baby girl turned 6 months last week.  Honestly, she isn’t so little anymore.  I haven’t weighed her in some time, but if I had to guess I would say she is already pushing 16 or 17 pounds.  We go for her 6 month check-up this week so we’ll find out for certain soon enough.

This 6 month point has definitely marked some change.  Not only is Harper eating solids, but she is also learning that solids can be constipating!  She is also learning that while her sisters are eating dinner, she may be missing out on some quality family time.  Our once so easy baby, while still easy, just wants to be a part of things…Justin and I find ourselves holding Harper now at the dinner table…she isn’t shy about reaching for our plates or food.   

Now when Harper is placed on the ground, WE have learned to expect that we must keep a close eye on her or she will roll from one side of the room to the other.  She is still always happy, smiling, and her happy grin has started to let out even more giggles.  Her core is becoming stronger and she has recently started sitting up…and she sure is proud of herself. 

We had a 6 month photo session yesterday and our precious little baby had a great time being Daddy’s subject.

Seriously….6 months…where has the time gone baby girl!   Looks like WE ARE ALL loving every minute of it!

We went to Cartoon Cuts in Fairoaks Mall.  Grandma, Grandpa, and Harper even came along for the experience. Emerson was scared and cried some but was finally okay once she sat in Daddy’s lap.  The woman cut off more than I was expecting, but at least it is all even now (or mostly…I seriously think I could do a better job in the future just as long as Emerson cooperates).  Avery watched while Emerson had a haircut and kept asking when it was going to be her turn.  She sat quietly in Daddy’s lap while the woman cut off the tiniest bit.  Both girls recieved a lollipop and their First Haircut Certificate when they were done.

BEFORE….

DURING…

AFTER…

On the way home, we made a special detour to our NEW HOUSE! Yes, Justin and I bought a new house in Vienna over the weekend and we hadn’t yet told the girls.  So we surprised everyone and drove by our new house and then went to lunch to celebrate the purchase of our new home and the girls first haircut!  More to come on our new home in later blogs!

Towards the end of December, Harper began waking at night all of a sudden.  At first it was about once a night and then it turned into two and sometimes even three times a night. For the first week, I kept thinking maybe this was a short phase she was going through.  But this pattern continued and each time Harper woke, I would nurse her and she would go right back down so I figured it was Harper’s way of saying, she was hungry and breast milk alone was no longer keeping her little tummy full.  At the same time our new nanny had just started and we were getting ready to potty train the girls, so I was really trying to hold Harper out just a little longer so we weren’t introducing too much change at once into our household. After several weeks of waking up to feed Harper two or three times, I was becoming very tired and decided it was time to start solids.  We started with rice cereal.

I think her first feeding went relatively well.  I remember the girls first time eating and Justin being so distraught because they cried and pushed their food away and I remember him thinking they would never learn to eat.  Harper was quite the opposite…she enjoyed her rice cereal and took every opportunity to suck her thumb between bites because her hands were so messy with rice cereal that even her fingers tasted good.

We then tried banana, which is so far one of her favorites.

We have also tried peas….

…probably not one of her favorites to date (but we have only tried it once or twice)…

We have tried Sweet potato, which she enjoys.

And we have also tried green beans and prunes.  

In the last week and a half Harper had a little cold and became constipated, so we scaled back her food some and have been holding out on introducing more foods.  We’re just now getting back on track with a goal of eating twice a day for now.  As we have introduced foods, there has definitely been a noticeable change in the amount of milk she has been drinking…at least with her bottles she often leaves a lot leftover. Let’s hope Harper’s tummy feels good this week so we can introduce one or two more foods…maybe even some pear!