All Things Elise & Alina: Happy 6-Months to our littlest Valentine

Happy 6-months sweet baby Valentine!

Baby Alina turned 6-months-old yesterday! It's both exciting and bittersweet. I already miss my tiny and cuddly baby girl, yet also feel immeasurable excitement in knowing that we get to continually discover her little personality and interests as she grows into her toddler years. Also, it is really fun to see just how much she wants to keep up with her big sister. Alina is in complete awe of Elise, and she immediately lights up the minute she walks into the room. I think the most exciting part of her impending toddler stage, is that she and Elise will become little play buddies and keep each other entertained. Watching the two of them smile and laugh together is the greatest reward, and with each new week they interact and play more frequently. Despite all this talk about Alina growing up, she is still the baby, and we plan to fully enjoy the next 6-months with her, before the final curtain call on babyhood and that giant leap into toddlerdom.

Diaper changes + feet time = very happy baby

Alina really is an adorable baby girl. She resembles a little doll with her chubby cherubic cheeks, button nose and big blue doe eyes. Whenever I take her out, people stop to comment on how cute and doll-like she is. She has a very sweet temperament too. One of the things I find so cute is that she LOVES diaper changes. It's during diaper time, that we often get the most laughs and smiles from her. She is very cooperative and not at all squirmy during all her changes (quite the opposite of big sis Elise). She also loves to grab her toes and either chew on them or see-saw to her little heart's content. Mommy used to do this as a baby too. Alina really is my little chubby-cheeked doll baby twin, in both looks and habits. See the photos below for a comparison. I think we look pretty similar!

Not quite crawling, but rolling and creeping all over

Mommy as a baby - see the resemblance?

Although she is not fully crawling yet, she is very mobile. She will roll and creep across the floor to get where she wants to go. She just started pushing up on her knees in the crawl position, but has yet to take those first synchronized steps to propel herself forward. She is a pro at rolling over, so she usually just twists, turns and flips to get across the floor to where she wants to be. She will now sit up for brief periods of time, with a little help from mom and dad. She has yet to pull herself up or stand, which is fine by me as I have a bad case of, "second baby syndrome" - the obvious antithesis of first baby syndrome, in which you push your child to hit all their milestones as early as possible. With second baby syndrome, we're certainly not in a rush for her to grow up and know that she will hit all those milestones when she's good and ready.

Feet time again, she loves see-sawing around :)

Her adorable smile, which she flashes all the time now

Alina makes all sorts of consonant sounds now; "ba, da, ma, ga", and it is like music to our ears. She also communicates her mood by her monotone "ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh" (when she is content/competing for dominance over Elise), squeals (when she's really happy) and what I affectionately refer to as "her baby bird noises" little chirps, peeps and squeaks (these are usually sounds of contentment, but sometimes get very shrill if she's upset). Some of her noises are just so incredibly amusing or cute that they often stop me in my tracks. We plan to start teaching her baby signs very soon.

She is also a great sleeper. She has a 2 hour morning nap, 1-2 hours in the afternoon and she sleeps from 7pm - 7am, rarely ever waking up at night. As a baby, Elise was a sound sleeper too; all-in-all we've been pretty lucky in that department. She does cry when we put her down for nap and bedtime, but is usually calmed fairly easily by lullabies, rocking and her light up musical seahorse (aka - her chubby-cheeked twin heheh). I can't express enough how grateful I am to have sound sleepers, because so many babies do not sleep through the night.

Enjoying feeding time after taking control of the spoon "airplane"

We just recently started Alina on rice cereal and solids. Her first solid food was pureed peas! It was so funny watching her take that first bite. Her facial expression was priceless; it was a mix of confusion, disgust, and curiosity (in that order) haha. After that initial bite, she quickly got the hang of things and ate up an entire half jar. Mmmm, baby mush. Her favorite part of eating is watching momma turn an ordinary old spoon into a super-duper, high flying airplane. She giggles and laughs every time, although her laughs soon turn to frustration if she isn't able to capture the plane and fly it herself. I had almost forgotten how unfussy babies are when it comes to food, then again it's not like they have much choice when we keep shoveling spoonfuls into their mouth. Oh how I wish the old zig-zag airplane spoon tricks worked to get our toddler to eat her vegetables.

Baby girl all bundled up after bath time

Alina's 6-month growth stats:

Height: 26.5 in (77th percentile)

Weight: 13 lbs 14 oz (18th percentile)

Alina's pediatrician said she looked very alert and healthy, and that she appears to be surpassing all the typical six-month milestones. I was concerned to hear that her weight was so low relative to the average, however, her pediatrician didn't seem worried and just said to start more solid feedings. I have her on the same feeding schedule and amounts as I did with Elise, but she is much littler. I'm not too worried, as she has been eating well, maintains a good temperament, and stays active. She should be gaining more once we increase solid food feedings and begin to supplement with an additional daily formula feeding. Downside: The diapers are going to start stinking here real soon. I still nurse her three times a day. My goal is to continue until she is at least nine-months-old.