Anna Turns 7 Months!

      On Anna's 6 month birthday, we celebrated by giving Anna her first solid food.  The overprotective mommy in me took over and I was constantly worried and wondered if we rushed into it.  I made the transition from exclusively pumping and Anna getting mostly breastmilk to her being exclusively on formula.  There's still some guilt involved in whether or not this would be the best decision, but I really couldn't keep pumping anymore.  Having that much more time in my day is quite liberating.  But I digress.  I decided on giving her green beans first and she was not interested.  She begrudgingly took what I gave her while making faces, gagging, and finally was too upset that I just couldn't go on.  I still continued each day to try at it, every so often trying something new.  We went through green beans, peaches, and avocado.  Then, on a random whim I bought some organic peas baby food.  She made the sort of same reaction she did with the other foods, but after awhile, she decided to keep going and even leaned in for more.  I was overjoyed.  Though she still doesn't seem to care for solid foods.  While at Ty's parents' house, Cheryl tried giving her some banana and she made a sour face.  This girl!  Cheryl then suggested using a fresh food feeder with some watermelon in it since Nathan and Celia's twin boys took to it so well.  She loved sucking on it!  Hooray!  However, I tried it again with no luck.  She wouldn't even pick it up.

      Teething started really showing what it can do though, mostly it's discomfort and lack of sleep for her naps during the day.  She caught a cold a couple of weeks ago and it was so sad and pathetic.  I did enjoy the extra cuddles, but I never like seeing my baby in discomfort.  We went through almost an entire box of tissues that week.  She eventually in lost her sweet little voice and that was the worst of it all.  Luckily, even through it all she was a happy girl and quickly returned to her normal self.

Some things we are loving about Anna right now:

-  She can respond to her name!  I love when she looks at me after I say her name.  She will also look to us if we say "Baby".  I'm trying to not use that so that she will associate her name with herself better, but sometimes I can't help it.  She's my baby!

- Now that she is able to roll over both ways she has had more ability to move and practice getting to where she wants to go.  She started doing this funny little thing where she gets on her hands and feet.  Almost like a yoga "downward dog" position, except she keeps her head up so she can see everything.  She's one curious little lady.

-  Ty has a little "Kip" (from Napoleon Dynamite) that talks when you push his middle.  In an effort to distract her in order to get ready for church, Ty let her play with it.  The head is the only part of the "action figure" that isn't plush and she loves to mouth it.  She also laughs just about every time we push him to talk.  When in doubt turn to Kip.  It's so funny.

- She loves the sound of the camera makes on my phone.  So I now, finally, am able to catch this girl with a smile when taking pictures.  She's a pretty stoic baby so getting her to smile is kind of a big deal.

Some things we aren't loving so much:

-  You'd think by the way she acts during diaper changes (messy, wet, both) we were torturing her to death.  It's quite possibly the worst thing in our lives right now.

-  As I mentioned before, she's pretty stoic.  There are few people or circumstances that can make her break a smile outside of mommy and daddy.  This makes handing her off to people who are kindly offering to help just about out of the question.  In some cases, it's a necessity for someone else to hold her and we all must suffer through the screaming fit, but generally I try to avoid the situation all together.

- Rash...still there.  Not cool.  It's mostly on her shoulders and back now.  I hate it.  It itches for her and she can't help it, but to scratch because she doesn't understand the implications.  I hope we can get this figured out soon.

- We're still working on the naps situation.  Mommy needs them....I mean she needs them....Mommy needs her to need them.