6 Months

Holla! Six months y'all!

The last six months have literally flown by. It is a little alarming to think that Nico is already half a year old. When I look back on what Nico was like and what she could do when she was just born, and compare her to now it really is amazing.We are endlessly entertained by this little dab.

Nico took her first road trip last month. We drove all the way to Boise with my sister and her four kids. Nico did remarkably well, and slept most of the way. While we were there she had her first boat ride. There was a little crying at first, but the heat of the day and being smushed into an infant lifejacket helped her to fall asleep pretty quickly.

On the drive back to California, this time just me Mike and Nico, we only stopped three times (and once was just to get gas) pretty good for almost 12 hours. We did take a longer stretch in Truckee, ate and headed over to a park so Nico could move around, and show us her newest trick of being able to sit up on her own.

Nico is an expert roller, and pretty tenacious when it comes to getting something she want, even if it is across the room. I am not sure how much Nico weighs or how long she is (her six month checkup is next week) but she certainly is getting chubby and has the most delicious thighs.

Sleeping. I don't even want to talk about it. Let's just say that the little lady prefers to sleep on a down comforter over almost anything else. And every once and a while she likes to wake up at around 3:30 am and hang out for two hours, refusing to go back to sleep. Charming.

Nico is happy to be out and about, she would much prefer being out than in the apartment any day. So we take lots of walks and she is a great little shopping companion. She is very curious and is interested in anything that we are holding or eating (more on that later). Nico likes to flail her arms and leg around when she is excited. She smiles lots and is ticklish on her sides (just like her dad) and if you get her really laughing she will sometimes snort. We are really enjoying this stage. Nico is so responsive and fun. We love her so much!

How about another yell?

Peonies

Just because they are so pretty.

Must stop biting my nails.

5 months

I should have posted this four days ago, but you know how things get. Has it really been five months already? Time has been flying by.

So, what is new with Nico? Nico usually wakes up at 6:30 or 7:00. She is on a pretty solid nap schedule, taking at least two sometimes three naps a day, one at nine and one at one in the afternoon (please note, all these boring details are mostly for me and any Grandmas that are interested). She eats about every four hours, and is very interested in participating when we are eating at the table. We are about to finish her first book James and the Giant Peach, she has been pretty attentive as I read it to her which came as a big surprise to me.

Nico has discovered that she can get around by rolling, and often gets stuck on her baby gym or on a couch leg. She puts anything and everything in her mouth. Her favorite thing to put in her mouth is a finger or two, usually mine, and my hair. If my hand, or hair is not available Nico will suck on her feet or gnaw on her thumb.

We were putting Nico to bed around 7 or 7:30, and for a while that worked out fine. She would cry for a bit and then go to sleep. After a few weeks of putting her to bed early she started to cry longer and longer in the evening, like she was fighting her early bed time. We finally figured out that she really was not ready for bed that early and so now we put her down at 8:30 or 9:00. She goes right to sleep, and everyone feels way less frazzled when bedtime rolls around. We also discovered that she really likes to sleep on our down comforter. She nuzzles her face into the duvet and falls asleep.

Nico has yet to sleep through the night. She wakes up at one and four in the morning to have a snack. I am not sure how we are going to cut out theses little late night snacks, since my efforts to do so have been met with loud protests. So for now I am just happy to cuddle my sleepy baby.

She has started to make all sorts of different sounds and different faces. She drools lots and blows bubbles. She is very happy and talkative right when she wakes up. I have been trying to go to bed earlier so that I can be as bright eyed and happy as she is in the morning. I can't adequately express how much we like her and how much we really, really love her.

Yelling

Meltdown

4 month checkup

Nico had her four month checkup yesterday, along with another round of immunizations. She is 12 pounds 9.5 ounces, and in the 18th percentile for weight. 24.25 inches long and in the 46th percentile for height (that is hair over two feet tall). Last Friday Nico discovered her feet, and I don't think there is anything cuter than seeing her sucking on her toes.

Today she rolled over from her back to her tummy for the first time, and I almost missed seeing it! I got roll #2 on video. Last week we let Nico "cry it out" for the first time. She went on for an hour and twenty minutes. That was awful. We decided it was time try letting her cry herself to sleep because she was starting to only want to fall asleep on me, and after feeding her at night she would only go back to sleep of I let her sleep on me.

Now Nico falls asleep after 15 or 20 minutes of crying, and goes right back to sleep after I feed her at night. She still has not slept an entire night in her "room" because I bring her back into our room and in into her bassinet to sleep until she wakes up for the morning. I am not quite ready to have her completely out of our room yet.

all smiles

Just a warning, I am going to overload you with pictures of Nico.

Silly green PJs and a silly hat. She was so happy until we put her to bed.

Nico's eyes are always puffy in the morning, which is my favorite.

Chillin on the couch.

She loves Sophie. Loves to chew on her face that is.

crying

Just because she looks so cute.

4 months

Well here we are four months old, I can hardly believe how fast time is flying by. Nico looks a wee bit underwhelmed in the obligatory couch and pillow shot.

It is really hard to get a picture of her smiling because when we pull out the camera she stops what she is doing, giggling, smiling, and just stares very soberly at the black box obliterating the photographers face. What can I say, she really likes looking at people's faces.

A few days ago she started to reach out straight in front of her. Now she can actually grab the dangly things on the baby gym when she is under it, no more staring at those little toys just out of reach. She has begun to stretch her arms out to us now, so that she can grab at our hand, face, whatever, and suck on it. Nico smiles very easily, but it takes a bit more effort to get her to laugh. When she does laugh it is usually a loud squawk, or a high squeal. We love it when she favors us with a laugh, we feel so privileged.

Nico is still sleeping in a bassinet in our room. She wakes up a few times at night to eat and usually goes right back to sleep. However, in the early hours of the morning she gets a little restless and noisy, and she ends up in bed with us so we can all sleep a little longer.

We are still just as smitten with her as ever.

rollin', rollin', rollin'

For the past few weeks every time we put Nico on the floor for tummy time we get out the flip just in case she decides she is going to roll over. Consequently we have lots of videos of her drooling on the floor and getting really mad, she does not like tummy time. Last Tuesday she decided to roll over. Now she is able to roll from her back to her side and I am sure she will roll all the way over any time now. Please excuse my screechy voice.

*Edit - Better quality video

bonnet

I can't get enough of her sweet face.

satchels and batchels

I keep going back to look at these darling handmade, leather satchels and batchels (a satchel with an additional handle on top) so I figured I might as well post them. Find them here in all sorts of colors like purple and yellow as well as more traditional black and brown.

3 months

Sunday Marked three months that we've had Nico. As you can see Nico is getting rounder, and squishier. She is an expert at holding her head up and swiveling it all over to look everywhere. I mentioned in a previous post that Nico found her hands and loves to suck and slurp on them. She has also become quite talkative, and likes to chirp, squeal, and coo. We of course are delighted to hold long dribbly conversations with her.

As far as sleeping goes she is still waking up a few times at night to eat, but she is much quicker about going right back to sleep. She loves to have a soft blanket put up to her face when she is falling asleep in her swing or car seat. We discovered this calms her down pretty quickly when she is tired and fussy, she just snuggles into her blanket and dozes off. We've taken to calling her Burka baby because many times all you can see are her eyes when we wrap her up. Don't worry we are not going to smother her, and we don't do this at night :).

She still likes to be swaddled at night and for some of her naps, but she is getting to be quite strong and can break out of a swaddle if we don't do it nice and tight. Her legs are getting to be pretty strong too. She loves to kick them, and she can stand without too much help from us. This next bit may be too much information for you, but it is a very real part of life with Nico. Nico is a really gassy baby. I'd say she has pretty average burps for a baby (without much spitting up) but as far as other things go, she could rival a grown man. I guess she really is our daughter. We are so glad we've got Nico, and I feel so and lucky to be able to stay at home with her and watch over her.

film

We recently started using an old Bronica S2 medium format camera that used to be my dad's. It's all manual so we will use our Nikon to check the exposures beforehand. Very slow process, and there is an anxiousness waiting to see how it turned out. Mike would say that film IS dead but this camera has turned him around.

Sorry about the quality, our scanner sucks. They look much better printed.