Bristol is 6 months old!

I'm behind on several other posts, so this one is a little out of sync, but I wanted to get it done first... before she ends up being 7 months old - lol!  :)

Our baby is already 6 months old!  How is it possible that she's half a year old?!  Time sure is flying. 

Bristol had her 6 month well-baby visit on December 27th.  She weighed 13 pounds, 15 ounces (10-15th%) and was 25 inches long (25th%). Still a peanut, but she is growing consistently, staying in the same percentile range, so that is good.  She is meeting and exceeding all of her developmental milestones.  Dr. Akrawi was impressed with her strength and determination.  ;-)  She is quite strong-willed and likes to do everything on her terms.  She did not want to bend her legs to let the doctor check her joints and he had a heck of a time getting her to bend them.  She just locked them and held her ground.  But she finally decided to bend them so he could finish the exam.  She was so good and happy, watching every move Dr. Akrawi made, wanting to touch every instrument.  She even had a little conversation with him.  She loved Dr. this time.  She had another round of vaccinations, which she wasn't too thrilled with. But she calmed right down as soon as I cuddled with her. Unfortunately, she didn't tolerate them too well again.  She always has a pretty rough 24 hours or so after she gets her shots.  Poor girl.  

Bristol is such a joy.  She brings us all so much happiness.  Carson still just adores her and is such a doting big brother.  Lately he has been telling Kevin and I how hard it is to be such a good big brother... to set a good example, to give so many hugs and kisses, to watch out for her so she doesn't get hurt, to play with her, and to hear her cry.  LOL!  But he always says there is no other way to be.  And he really is an amazing big brother.  He and Bristol are still each others' favorite people.  

From 4 months on, I think babies are especially fun.  They just learn and absorb so much so fast - and it is so awesome to witness. Bristol is very expressive with her facial expressions, tones of voice/babble, and emotions.  I think she takes after her mama in that respect.  ;-)  She gets quite loud when she is playing... especially in her exersaucer.  She sure loves that thing!  She seems to be our rough and tough child, too.  Carson mostly played gently in the exersaucer... not Bristol.  She is already jumping in it and just makes so much noise while she's in there.  She's just learning so much so fast, too.  It just amazes us how much she changes and learns from week to week. 

Bristol is rolling both from front to back and back to front and has been for a couple of months now.  But she's not like Carson where he would roll all over the place.  She just goes one way or the other and is satisfied.  She is able to scoot/army crawl around some... she mostly scoots backwards right now, though.  And she is trying so hard to get her knees up under her.  We are thinking that crawling isn't too far off.  Bristol sits quite well now, too.  She rarely tips nowadays and is quite stable.  She also loves to stand.  She is trying to pull herself up on a few of her toys and loves to hold on to your fingers and take steps.  She is definitely very interested in learning to walk... but we're totally ok if that takes awhile still!  With Carson, we were so anxious for him to be mobile... but with Bristol, we're hoping she isn't mobile as soon as Carson was!  :) 

We've started some solid foods with Bristol recently.  We're just taking things very slow.  With her sensitive system, we figure we're better off safe than sorry.  We're taking a different approach than we did with Carson.  Rather than starting off with baby cereals, we decided to skip those (and all grains, for that matter... until her 1st birthday) and start right with some vegetables.  And we did not start with the pureed veggies in jars, I just mashed up some sweet potatoes that I'd cooked with a pot roast for her first food.  No pureeing, just mashed up.  She didn't gag once... and she LOVED them!  She is quite an impatient little eater.  She wants the food shoveled in.  She's very good at eating already and keeps most of it in her mouth.  So far she's had sweet potatoes, peas, carrots, chicken broth, and prunes.  We had to break out the prunes last night to see if they will help her poo.  She went from pooing several times a day (the messy, liquidy breastfed poo) to not going for 4 days now.  She doesn't seem to be in any discomfort from it, but it is concerning me.  

Bristol loves her bathtime.  She gets very excited when she sees us getting her tub out.  She can hardly wait to get in the tub before she is splashing in the water, making quite the mess.  I think its time we move her from the kitchen sink to the bathtub.  

She is a pretty good sleeper.  She's been routinely sleeping through the night for awhile now - though she does wake once during the night at times.  But mostly she is sleeping through.  She is still our night owl, though.  She does not like to go to bed for the night before 9:30/10:00.  If she falls asleep before then, she'll only sleep a short time (10-15 minutes) and then be up until after 11:00.  So if all goes well, she goes down around 9:30/10:00 and she'll then sleep until 7:00am, at least... and even then she's not ready to get up for the day.  She'll only be up for maybe 10 minutes - just long enough to get her diaper changed and have a snack.  Then she's out till 9:00/9:15am.  If she wakes during the night, it's usually around 2:30/3:00am.  She wakes on nights when her teeth are bothering her especially.  She just goes in streaks with it.  

I could keep going on and on, but I figure this is enough for now.  I'll be back later this weekend (I hope) with a few catch-up posts (November, Disney trip, December, and Christmas).