arden rae - twelve months

seriously been writing this update for a couple weeks now and just never finished...

Pass the tissues, she's one!  I'm pretty much still in complete denial.  I'm not sure when I'll believe that she is actually a year old, but it isn't happening yet.

Even though I'm trying to hold on to her baby-ness as long as possible, Arden is turning more in to a little tiny person.  She blows me kisses when I say I love you, she can point to her ears and feet, she signs more, eat and all done.  She is truly starting to understand the world around her, and is working on making a little place for herself.

Arden had her well child visit on January 16th.  She started crying when the nurse measured her head, was still upset during the exam, and completely lost it when she had to have a blood draw and four vaccines.  Man I hate the one year appointment!  The good news?  She's growing!!  She weighed 16lbs8oz landing her in the 7th percentile.  7th!!!  You know you've had a shrimp when 7th percentile sounds absolutely huge.  Her length was somewhere between 26.5 inches and 27.5 inches.  The nurse measured her twice at 26.5 inches, which is what she measured at 9 months as well.  While the pediatrician was in the room he marked her length on the paper on the table and measured with a measuring tape, getting 27.5.  So.... somewhere in there.  27.5 inches is 4th percentile.  Small, but still maintaining a curve.  I've since started the weaning process, so out of curiosity I attempted to weigh her at home this morning.  My method showed 17 pounds, so I'd say we're doing just fine.

I attribute most of Arden's weight gain to mac n cheese.  But also?  She doesn't spit up anymore! I thought the day would never come.  In hindsight I think it was a bigger issue than I made it out to be when she was under seven months or so, however I'm still not sure there is a whole lot that could have been done about it.  She actually spit up a little bit on her birthday and it surprised both her and I, and that is when I realized I hadn't noticed her spitting up in probably a month.  It is so wonderful to not be constantly covered in sour milk, or scouring things to wipe up puddles when were out and about.

For the most part Arden is wearing 6-12 month sized clothes.  The ones marked 9 months fit fine, except leggings are starting to get a touch short.  12 month ones also work, but are a little baggy.  And at the same time she was in a 3-6 month onesie and sweater last weekend and it wasn't excessively small on her.  Ha.  It is things like that, that show me just how small she still is.  And when we encounter other babies her age.  She is wearing a size 3 diaper and who knows what size shoe.  We uh, don't often leave the house in real clothes, and when she does, she has some '6-12 month' fleece booties on.

We have started moving towards weaning a bit.  I'm in no rush to cut her off completely, but up until about a ten days ago, we were still nursing 5+ times a day.  I love keeping some of her tiny baby qualities around but I can part with a couple of middle of the day nursing sessions and not be sad about it.  So far she still isn't real pleased about drinking anything out of a cup.  We've tried a variety of cups and a variety of liquids, and she usually just ends up pissed and pushing it away, or just plays with it.  She is becoming more and more picky about what foods she'll eat as well.  Mac n cheese is still a hands down clear favorite.  I have yet to find an amount of mac and cheese that she'll say all done to.  She also likes spaghetti, a variety of fruits, pancakes, waffles, breads, crackers, and squeeze pouches.  Not a fan of most veggies, meat, anything too healthy.

Arden is generally still maintaining her 'best sleeper in the family' status.  We had a couple weeks of her sleeping 11+ hours through the night, but in the last week or so she has been waking up.  The first couple of nights she was sick and running a fever, so I wasn't all that surprised.  Now I'm not exactly sure what is waking her up.  She is still congested with a cough.  She might be getting more teeth (her 5th and 6th popped through without me even noticing!).  We've cut nursing sessions so maybe she is making up for it.  Who knows.  She has slept better the two nights we've given her motrin before bed, so maybe it is some sort of pain waking her up.  She is also on the verge of dropping the morning nap.  Both yesterday and today she wouldn't fall asleep for it.  Yesterday she only napped about 80 minutes in the afternoon where she was usually napping a total of 3 hours or more between the two naps.  Today she has been asleep for 2.25 hours thus far, so hopefully if we move to the one nap schedule permanently she can stretch that nap toward the longer end.  She goes to bed between 8 and 8:30pm and is usually up for the day between 7:30 and 8am.

Developmentally I'd say Arden is still behind in gross motor skills, and I'm pretty sure the other girls had slightly better communication skills, but she is definitely making progress!  She has gotten fairly good at cruising, and doesn't need a ton of support to walk around with my hands.  And in the last week she has figured out how to walk with a push toy, and also tries to push various pieces of furniture around the house.  She does not stand unassisted, but she also refuses to try.  If I attempt to stand her up she turns into a limp noodle.  I still wouldn't be surprised if she was closer to 15 months when she finally started walking, but I also would love to see her standing on the beach when we go in March.  We'll see!

As far as words go, Arden really only says hi, Elsie and Thea.  She also kind of says tickle, cheers (important skills clearly, being able to cheers), go and Jayhawk.  Maybe some other random things  She waves when you say hello or goodbye, and though not always a good source of communication she does nod yes or no.  And she points for things she wants.  One afternoon I swear she plain as day said Daddy, but hasn't done it again.  I think she calls both Chris and my dad 'dada' at the moment.  Just in a more emphatic whisper voice when she is talking about Papa.  It's cute.

I'm pretty sure Papa is Arden's favorite person to blow kisses to.  I can't remember how it started, or who it started with, but when the kids blow him kisses Papa pretends to get knocked over by them, or at least jumps like they really hit him.  Arden thinks this is the greatest and pretty much starts blowing him kisses as soon as she sees him.  The other day he was at my house, in the kitchen talking to Thea.  Arden and I had been upstairs.  When I opened the door to the room and she heard his voice, she looked at me with a little grin on her face, and said 'muah' in the cutest little voice.  She couldn't wait to hit him with a kiss.

I can't say Arden is a huge fan of toys.  She is a huge fan of crawling around and looking for things that aren't hers and climbing the stairs and opening drawers and in general seeking out mischief.  But most toys in general do not hold her interest.  When the big girls are at school, she LOVES to play with all their tiny things if I'm in their room putting away clothes or picking up or anything of that nature.  One afternoon she spent a solid twenty minutes trying to squish a tiny American Girl apple into an American girl pencil holder.  Whatever floats your boat girl.  She loves to crawl around with tiny things stashed in her hands too.  Usually if I say, "Arden, what did you find?" she'll offer up whatever tiny bit of trash she is carrying.  Occasionally she is attached to her discovery, and clutches it with both hands under her chin like a prized possession and grunts at me.

She has the cutest little scrunch nose cheese face that she gives to strangers when we're out and about.  She'll wave from the cart like she is in a parade and makes all the older women around us melt.  Unfortunately several of them take that as in invitation to get closer and even touch her and she usually bursts into tears.  Whoops.  Baby Shark and Shake it Off are her jams.

Arden my dear, you are such a gift.  I am so incredibly grateful God gave me you.  You've completed our family in the most perfect way, and this year has been a blast.  I don't want you to grow up, but I can't wait to witness the person you become.  Love you love you love you.

arden rae - eleven months

started writing this update on the 15th, going to try and not include anything since then!

Less than a month until my little caboose is one.  Fastest year yet!

Arden's personality has changed and developed so much in the last month.  She is still a rather tolerant easy going girl, but this pint size baby can throw quite the tantrum if she isn't getting her way.  She is angry if something gets taken away from her, if we close a door to somewhere she was hoping to go, or if she isn't getting the food she wants.  There are some foods she LOVES to eat.  I think those foods (cheese, mac n cheese, spaghetti, really varieties of noodles and breads) have contributed to a decent weight gain over the last few weeks.  Nothing official but I think she is right about 16 pounds, which I think might land her somewhere between the 5th and 8th percentile.  Quite the jump for our peanut!  I look forward to having an accurate measurement at her one year well check.

When in public people generally guess that Arden is between six and eight months old based on her size.  At this point it has almost become entertaining.  I mean I'm terrible at judging ages of kids, adults, I just stink at it, so I'd be wrong no matter what.  But strangers always look so shocked when I say she is actually ten or eleven months.  Can't blame them at all, she is wearing mostly 6-9 month clothing, though the 6 month onesies still fit just fine.  She is wearing a Carter's 6m in these photos.  An exciting development is that shoes are now staying on her feet.  Unless she throws them off on her on of course.  Still wearing a size three diaper.  Our tooth count is now at four, with the fourth one just barely peeking through the gums.

I'm getting a little nervous about weaning Arden.  For the most part she does well with solids, but thus far has shown little interest in a cup.  We've only put water in a straw cup and a regular sippy, and she will play with them.   But doesn't really drink anything.  Maybe in the next couple of weeks I'll try to put some breastmilk in there and see what happens.  With the weight gain issues we've had I can't imagine weaning her without knowing she'll drink enough milk.  I'm not in a huge rush to fully wean either, I'd be happy to continue nursing a few times a day.  But right now we're still at five to six times a day and I'm sort of over that.

Her growth motor skills are also taking off.  Arden figured out how to get into a seated position on her own about two weeks ago, and has been trouble ever since! :)  She is pulling up on everything, has more or less mastered going up the stairs, tries to climb everything.  She hasn't really figured out how to cruise along furniture but will transfer between places.  But if she were moving along a bench or something of that nature she tries to turn and actually walk while only holding with one hand, which usually doesn't end well.  Her preference is to grab my hands so she can actually 'walk' wherever she'd like to go.

I can't really decide if Arden has said her first word or not.  She has three very distinct sounds that she uses for words, but they don't really sound like words.  She 'says' hi, peek, and "tis tis tis" which is her version of tickle tickle tickle.  If we were to count one of those, I would say her first word was tickle!  So funny.  She still rarely says mama or dada, and it doesn't really seem to be in context.  But if I ask her where Daddy is, she definitely looks for Christopher.  She gets really excited and 'talks' about the Christmas tree, and tries to say 'ho ho ho' for Santa.  She also will try to meow for a cat, say woof for dog, and knows an owl says whoooo.  I think she also makes an 'ah ah' sound for monkey but it is hard to tell.  Arden LOVES to wave at people, she puts her arms up in the air when we say touchdown, and has very recently started blowing kisses.  Sometimes she will also lay her head on the floor and pretend to snore.  So cute.

Arden's favorite toys seem to be... anything that is not one of her toys.  Typical.  She makes a mad dash into her sisters' rooms and scours for all the choking hazards she can find.  Hatchimals, LOL doll accessories, stickers, beads.  She loves them all.  Oy.  She really enjoys putting things in a container and taking them back out over and over again.  But her favorite thing to do right now is see what she can find that fits down the 'hole' in the living room.  The spot where I believe you'd turn on the gas for fireplace?  She'll find something, and start trucking it as fast as her little army crawl can take her to see what happens when she puts it in.  I think we've lost a handful of small toys, and even a fat crayola marker to that hole.  I'm hoping it loses appeal sometime soon!

Bath/shower time is also a huge hit.  If Arden isn't trying to crawl into one of the girl's rooms, she is heading for the bathroom.  She gets very jealous if the big girls are in the shower and she doesn't get to go in.  She has even started to notice the sound of the water coming through the pipes, so if Chris takes the girls up to shower while I'm with her down stairs, she gets excited and tries to make it up to the bathroom.  After a particularly messy spaghetti night we popped her in the kitchen sink to wash her off.  When we got her out she was SO MAD.  So mad.

I wish I could pause time.  Arden, I love you sweet baby girl.

arden rae - ten months

I've had intentions of getting a nine month post put together, as well as adding the photos and publishing Arden's birth story, but here we are at just over ten months and neither has happened.  So I'll put the birth story on hold yet again and back date the nine months photos another day.  TEN MONTHS OLD!

Knowing that Arden is my last baby has allowed me to relish in every bit of her tininess and just enjoy the stage she is in without really wishing it away.  On the flip side, it makes the passing of time tug at my heartstrings so much more.  I can't believe how far away her newborn days seem.  And then I look at Ryann and can hardly believe that she ever was a baby and did I miss it all?  These days are so fleeting and it chokes me up more than I care to admit.  I understand all those sappy old ladies in the grocery store.  It's not realistic to enjoy every single damn moment with your kiddos, but you have to absolutely cherish what you can because these moments are gone in a flash.

wipes my tears

Arden!  Sweet girl is growing and changing so much and becoming more and more fun every day.  New challenges of course but so fun.  At her nine month appointment she weighed in at 14 pounds 8 ounces (3rd percentile) and was 26.5 inches long (11th percentile!).  While she is still a tiny little thing the pediatrician felt comfortable no longer having regular weight checks.  She has continued to grow at a slow but mostly steady rate since 4.5 months so I'm just going to enjoy her looking like a tiny little baby for as long as I can.  I tried to weigh her on my scale on Monday (the 12th) and my best guess is 15 pounds 2 ounces or so.  I'll be thrilled if she hits 16 pounds by the time she turns one.

The only other points of conversation at her appointment included constipation (a serving of prunes every other day still can't keep the kid regular) as well as her gross motor skills.  Arden has been much much slower to become mobile than the other girls which had (has, let's be real) me a bit worried.  But just like her growth, her progress in that department, while slow, has been steady.  She is now army crawling all over the place and loves to explore.  She also really enjoys pulling up on things, but doesn't get herself into a seated position on her own yet, therefore she often doesn't realize many opportunities to try.  She is thrilled when I offer her my hands to pull up with.  And recently she has started to enjoy 'walking' while holding my hands.  It is awkward and I can't say she completely grasps the concept just yet, but she has fun doing it!

While she still does fairly well being toted from activity to activity, Arden isn't quite as content to just sit in my lap or be held anymore.  The desire to crawl gets her every time.  Most recently when she was at dance with Elsie, Thea and I, I wound up letting her crawl on the floor of the small mall the studio is located in.  Her sleeper was so gross and dirty by the time we left but she just was not at all happy when I was trying to hold her.

Arden's sleeping and nursing schedule has pretty much remained the same the last couple of months, though I think we are the verge of a change.  She goes to bed around 8pm, has been waking about 4:45am to nurse, and then up for the day around 7:30.  She takes two naps, at roughly 9:30am and 2:00pm, each lasting about 90 minutes, give or take.  The afternoon nap is usually the longer of the two.  In between all that sleeping she nurses about five times and eats lunch and dinner.  Arden still very much loves purees as long as they aren't a straight green vegetable.  She has also been doing fairly well with table foods.  The only thing she has truly turned her nose up at are eggs.  Why do none of my children like eggs?!?  I'd be happy to scramble some nearly every morning if someone else would eat them.  Spaghetti is a very clear favorite.  Well the noodles anyway.  She ate some meatball if I put it in her mouth, but steered clear of it when picking food up off her own tray.  She also seems to really like carrots.

We have had one instance where after eating some cinnamon and brown sugar bread, little red spots popped up around her mouth.  Nothing drastic or too concerning, but I did notice.  And cinnamon is possibly a cause of a similar reaction in Elsie.  So who knows, maybe I have kids with a cinnamon allergy?  It's strange.  Otherwise no real ill reactions to any foods including strawberries and peanut butter so that's good.  We've started offering her a straw cup with water in it, but she mostly just plays with it and throws it on the floor.  I know she has managed to get water out of it a time or two, but not very much.  I'm looking forward to offering her the full blown Thanksgiving meal.  Her third tooth just starting popping through maybe ten days ago? But it isn't visible unless you're really looking.

Most recently, Arden has been, I guess, startling us?  For fun.  She does this little growl with a sudden jerky motion and just laughs and laughs when I act like she scared me.  I think the entertainment is mutual, I have no problem playing along because her giggle is so sweet.  One day I took Ryann, Elsie and Arden to Target.  We were just walking along, Arden in the cart, and she looked at a random stranger and let out a big growly rawr.  The man was taken back at first, and then laughed.  I was surprised she clearly directed it at a stranger.

She also really enjoys when I make animal noises.  She gets a big grin on her face if I meow like a cat or bark like a dog.  I think she tries to meow but who the heck knows what she is doing.  I need to go through our books and pull out more that have animals in them because she'll only sit still for one if there are parts to touch or plenty of animal noises for me to make.  Arden does like to help me turn the pages, she uses just her little index finger to slip between the pages and flip it over.  So cute!

Arden hasn't said any words yet, but babbles up a storm.  She is beginning to point at things and show a bit of recognition of items when we ask her to locate them.  Just a bit.  She says mama and dada but not with any sort of meaning.  Mostly says mamamamamama when she is upset and da da da da on repeat.  Lately it sounds like she is saying 'yeeeah yeeeah yeeeah' a lot which can be rather entertaining.

Another thing Arden has really picked up in the last couple of weeks is 'dancing'.  When we're playing music sometimes she'll go absolutely nuts.  Waving her arms, shaking her head, clapping her hands, just kind of bouncing all over the place.  She sometimes puts her play phone up to her ear, or rather just kind of holds it up against her head.  She loves pulling a pile of toys out of a container.  It doesn't really matter what toys or what container as long as she can dump it piece by piece all over the floor.  Recently we were in the playroom and she pulled several things off the shelf, moved on to the play kitchen and managed to open the cabinets and empty it's contents, and then crawled off to another space to explore.  Can't exactly say she is the clean one of the bunch any more.

We celebrated Arden's first Halloween in the past month.  She was dressed as a bunny to fit in with the girls' enchanted forest theme.  She left the ears on so I'll call it a win.  We didn't take her trick or treating, just left her home with my parents to pass out candy.  But she seemed to be getting a kick out of the kids coming up to the door.  Until she got overly tired of course.

Overall Arden is just a joy.  We have our moments, but mostly she is just an easy going happy baby and I am so incredibly grateful for that.

Arden Rae I love you so very very much!  

arden rae - eight months

MAKE IT STOP.  I truly look forward to being in the big kid stage of life and seeing what our family can do without a baby and irrational toddlers in tow.  BUT, writing these posts make me teary.  Arden is such a sweet little baby and I simply can't soak her in enough.  Her precious little hands, her squishy little feet.  I'm trying to burn them into my mind forever.

I was reading over last month's post to see what I needed to update for this month, and that already seems like ages ago!  Arden has changed so much in about five weeks, as has our schedule.  We're falling in to a routine and it shows in my stress levels.  Lol.

Arden had a fantastic weight gain at our last appointment.  For her little self anyway!  We saw the pediatrician on August 28th, and she weighed 13 pounds 10.7 ounces (2.7th percentile).  Nearly a pound of weight gain in four weeks, the most she has gained since she was two months old!  Since then she has stopped waking twice at night, and while she is loving solids, her digestive system is struggling to keep up.  Arden hasn't been miserably constipated, but you can tell she is trying to go and just can't.  So we haven't pushed too much food.  In my attempts to weigh her this morning, I got 14 pounds 4.8 ounces.  If I'm doing my math right she JUST maintained a half ounce per day gain, which is the minimum they want to see from her.  Fingers crossed we can keep it up.  She was also 25 inches long on the 28th, which is also 3rd percentile.

We can finally use the 9 month and 6-12 month sized clothes without them looking totally ridiculous.  It is making me actually get her dressed more often, because there is a short window of time left that I can stick her in the summer stuff from that size.  Arden is still wearing a size two diaper, but I did stick a couple of size three's on her, and they aren't awful.  I tried to put her in a cute pair of 0-6 month Pediped shoes I had that were Elsie or Ryann's or something, but they look so clunky and ridiculous.  I'm thinking moccasins will be the only route we can go when the weather cools off.

Arden generally nurses six times a day.  When she wakes in the morning, after her first nap, before and after her second nap, before bed, and once in the middle of the night.  She is up for the day between 6:45-7:15am, goes down for a nap around 9:30am, and then her second nap of the day is dependent on how long she slept for the first nap.  Usually her morning nap is 45 min to an hour, and the second nap is two hours, give or take.  Her and Thea's afternoon naps have been lining up for the most part and it is absolutely glorious.  Bed time is between 7:15 and 8pm, depending on how her naps were, what activities we have, and how irrational the other children are being.

This girl is definitely showing food preferences already.  We started with avocado, and then worked our way through all the vegetables.  Over the last month we added in pears and prunes, and she most definitely loves pears most of all.  She now gags on pureed green beans and will not eat more than a few bites.  She has gotten the hang of getting puffs into her mouth most of the time, so I really want to incorporate some more whole foods this month.  Gotta add some more calorie dense foods to the mix!  She has had water in a sippy cup and it startles her every time.  I guess just because she is used to her liquid being warm?

She is still pretty content just laying on the floor and playing with toys, with little interest in moving around.  But she is becoming more and more mobile.  She uses a combination of log rolling and the WEIRDEST crawl to get around the room.  It is so incredibly inefficient and looks like she is trying to swim.  But if she really wants something she can make it there!  She tries to get to her hands and knees and sort of rocks, but she just hangs out like she has no idea what to do.  She is fairly sturdy sitting up, but I don't think I'll feel comfortable just leaving her on a hard surface or anything until she is getting to the position on her own.  She'll make attempts to go from seated to laying down to get a toy, and it only ends well about a third of the time.  She does enjoy pulling to stand with my hands, but she isn't at all sturdy once she is up.

Arden cut her first two teeth over the last month!  It wasn't long after we switched her to the crib, so between those two things sleep was pretty brutal for a while.  And she was just down right sad sometimes.  Her top gums look a little puffy like another tooth might be thinking of coming in, but nothing to see there yet.

Girlfriend is definitely a mamas girl.  If I hand her off to someone, she either cries, or watches me like a hawk to make sure I don't leave the room.  And then she pitches a little fit if I do.  She is constantly my accessory, being toted around on my hip.  To the point that honestly I sometimes forget that I am holding her.  She just hangs out, watching the world go by from the safety of my arms.

She likes when I sing to her, especially Itsy Bitsy Spider.  We try to read books on occasion, but she just gets pissed when I move her hands to turn the pages.  Toys that she can shake and make noise seem to be her favorites.  Her sisters are great fun until they try to make her 'cozy' with pillows and blankets, or take their toys out of her reach.  She gets a kick out of Daddy playing peek a boo, and hates when he takes her out of the shower.  Most of the time she is a champ in the car, and generally makes a decent dinner date.

Arden girl, I love you something fierce.

arden rae - seven months

written August 16th

STOP GROWING!  Or rather, just stop getting older child, please?  Gah.  It is so incredibly fun to watch Arden grow and change and learn, but it kills me a little bit every day to know I'll never have another baby, I'll never be in this stage again.  I just love it so much!  Well most of it anyway.

Arden is such a sweet, tiny little thing.  Our last weight check was August 1st, and she tipped the scales at 12 pounds 11 ounces.  Ha.  If I had to guess, based on the rate she has been gaining weight, I'd say she is at most 13 pounds 3 ounces.  Reality is the most she has ever gained is roughly three ounces a week, but her spit up has slowed down considerably in the last few weeks, and she has also been sleeping like crap, so I'm hopeful that maybe her gained picked up a little bit.  We're going to do one more weight check at the breastfeeding clinic around August 24th, and then we are following up with our pediatrician on August 28th to establish some sort of a 'game plan'.  Mostly, I'm over the constant weight checks, and she has managed to maintain the first percentile for about two months now, so I'm hopeful that if nothing else, we can feel comfortable with checking in once a month tops.  And decide if there is any testing we need to pursue or just go with she is a small kid!

Currently Arden is still in the 3-6 month clothing.  I keep hoping that she'll suddenly grow out of them, and I know she will eventually, but I've got more than a handful of rompers I purchased specifically for her that I doubt she'll ever get to wear.  Such a bummer.  And not that we have any shortage of clothes, but I like to buy some coordinating things, and I just never know what size to get for her if I'm looking forward.  She is also still in a size two diaper, and never wears shoes.  We did move from the extra small zipadee zip to just the small.  Progress!  Ha.

Sleep got a little more interesting in the last two weeks.  Arden has finally figure out this whole rolling thing.  Which is great, except twice she managed to flip face down in the rock 'n play, so we were forced to make a quick switch to the crib.  I admit it has gone better than expected.  The first three nights bedtime was tough.  She would cry a fair amount when I laid her down, but really only the first two nights did I feel like she was truly upset.  Since then it has been more of a complaining cry.  The real bummer is that she just isn't sleeping as well.  She is waking up twice at night instead of just once.  And naps are usually 90 minutes tops, but generally just an hour.  So nothing horrible, but I had it so good before.  Ha.  She is also at the age where she is really on the verge of dropping that third nap.  Some days if her first two naps are longer we skip it, or if we're out and about and she doesn't fall asleep, a third nap just doesn't happen.  But she still shows some tired signs right about two hours after she last woke up.

Between the changing up of naps and trying to incorporate solids and not losing any nursing sessions, I feel like the days are sort of a hot mess.  But hopefully we get it all figured out soon.  Arden is becoming more and more interested in solids and food in general.  So far she has tried avocado, pureed chicken (which she absolutely HATED), sweet potatoes, sweet peas and green beans.  She has also had puffs for about a week now.  The first couple of days trying those was rather comical.  Arden clearly liked them, opening her mouth wide and excitedly, but once the puff was in her mouth she just didn't know what to do with it and her faces were hilarious.  She is getting the hang of it though!  We need to add another meal, I'm just being lazy about it.  I very much look forward to being able to just give her little bits and pieces of our meals.  I'm just not quite comfortable with it yet.

Despite swearing I saw one starting to come in, Arden still doesn't have any teeth.  She drools like a maniac so I think they're coming, but really I have no idea.  The other three all got their first tooth between 7 and 8 months, so we've got to be close, right?  These girls are by no means carbon copies of each other, and Arden is veering furthest from our norm, but overall they have all been pretty similar as well.  She is just tiny and has little desire to move, probably because I carry her all the time, and if something is out of reach there is usually two or three sets of little hands willing to push a toy in her direction.

Arden is getting stronger and better at sitting every day.  And thankfully since the rest of her growth motor skills haven't taken off yet, I might actually get one of those babies who just sits there and looks cute for a little bit.  All three older girls were crawling by seven months.  Arden is managing to scoot her body around here and there, and can sometimes figure out how to roll to get what she wants, but overall she stays put and I love it.  Now that the big girls are back in school I'm hoping to do some cleaning and purging, and hopefully by the time Arden really is on the move the playroom will be mostly safe.

Overall Arden is very easy going, but she is starting to be more and more of a mama's girl.  If she is tired she is anti strangers.  And she also throws the most ridiculous little fits if something isn't going her way.  Mainly if she drops a toy, a toy is out of reach, or something gets taken from her.  She tolerates a lot from her sisters, but they can definitely overwhelm her, and I foresee her being pretty vocal if they are bothering her.  At the moment they think it is no big deal if they take something from her, but girlfriend has a good grip, the hair pulling is going to happen.  I just know it.

I just love you sweet little girl!

arden rae - six months

Excuse me while I go cry in the corner.  Halfway through my last baby's first year.  I absolutely love watching her grow and I'm excited for a life with older kids (and maybe a little more sleep?) but the thought of her growing and never having another baby puts a lump in my throat.

But I couldn't have asked for a better last baby.  Just look at that sweet little girl!  Arden loves to observe and take in the world around her.  She is generally a happy babe, and only gets upset when she is tired.  Last week Chris and I took her out to dinner with us, and after I nursed her she didn't make a peep the entire time.  Just sat in her car seat or my lap and watched us eat while waving a toy around.  She's a winner.  I can tell she is starting to pick up a touch of stranger danger, but for the most part she is willing to let anyone hold her.  A lot of the time Arden keeps a pretty stone cold face, but she has the funniest little smirk she gives out when someone is trying to get a smile out of her.  Like, "People, I think you're kind of funny, but I won't give you the satisfaction of a full on smile." I just love this kid to pieces.

Arden is still our pint size little babe.  At her six month well check she weighed in at 12lbs 5oz (1st percentile) and measured 24.5 inches long (4th percentile).  She has managed to maintain the 1st percentile for about six weeks now, so hopefully she's found her curve and will just be a small little kid.  No big deal.  But we're still not to a point that anyone is comfortable enough to let her go the full period between well checks, so we'll be back at the breastfeeding clinics for weight checks every few weeks.  Her head circumference was 42.5cm, which actually put it in the 56th percentile.  This is only funny to me because Thea's head was regularly on the small side, and apparently Arden's is large for her size, but they both look the same to me.  Haha.

We're hoping that Arden's spit up will continue to lessen allowing her to hold on to more calories.  And that with the addition of some solid foods will help fatten her up.  So far we've only given her mashed avocado mixed with a little bit of breast milk.  The first few days she really didn't eat much of it, and was gagging a lot, but day four and five she actually began to open her mouth and want more and managed to put down nearly 1/8th of an avocado each day.  Surely that will start to help the weight gain a little bit!

Eczema continues to be our other biggest battle.  I feel like Arden is sticky A LOT, because we are trying to keep it from flaring, but with limited success.  If we miss an application or if I have Arden outside for a period of time it gets bad fast.  It is so frustrating.  I shouldn't complain, I know that other people deal with much worse.  It has just been difficult to get the other girls outside because I worry about Arden getting to hot or sweaty, and in general it is just annoying to always need to be putting stuff on her skin.  But in the grand scheme of life I guess I'll take a happy healthy girl with eczema over some of the alternatives.

Miss Arden is no longer the unicorn sleep champion, but I can't hate on it too much.  I was waking her to eat if she hadn't woken me by 4am, but now she generally wakes up by herself some time between 2 and 4am.  There still isn't any bit of a consistent schedule to her sleep habits as far as the clock is concerned, but that has more to do with us being on the go than it does her.  I also think she is starting to get her bottom teeth which might be contributing to some night waking.  She falls asleep on her own in the rock 'n play for naps, and will fall asleep on her own at night if she doesn't fall asleep nursing. 

We tried to switch over to the crib again, but she struggles to settle in there, and doesn't stay asleep, and just does a lot more crying.  She was able to fall asleep in the crib while she was swaddled, but then she was nearly rolling over.  And she doesn't settle in the zipadee zip in the crib.  By seven months though, I'm just going to have to bite the bullet and work through the tears.  I keep hoping that she'll start being more efficient at rolling and sleep on her belly and all will be well.  Just not the case yet.  At least she is sleeping in the zipadee zip in the rock 'n play?  Making a little bit of progress.  She is taking three naps a day, each of them between 1-2 hours.

Arden can now sit up for short periods unassisted.  Really she can last several minutes if she doesn't get too distracted, but she isn't sturdy enough for me to just plop her down and trust her to stay upright.  She definitely prefers to be sitting though.  When on her back or doing tummy time her interest in being mobile is minimal.  She can roll belly to back, and back to belly, but very rarely does it.  I'm toeing the line between appreciating the fact that I don't think she'll be crawling any time soon, to being overly worried about her inability to move around.  But with a death trap of a home full of LOL dolls, hatchimals, little legos and other various choking hazards, we're just going to appreciate her inability to move.

She actually likes to be in a standing position now.  I was so worried because she didn't have any interest in supporting her weight on her legs, but that quickly changed.  When she is seated, I can help pull her up to standing position fairly easily, without her wobbling around too much.  She doesn't jump around in her jumper yet, but she is starting to bounce a little more.  We're going very slow and steady with this gross motor stuff.

Arden made her first trip to Omaha in the last month.  Maybe not as big of an adventure as Disney World or Georgia, but she is still doing a fair amount of traveling!  She was great in the car on the way there.  Slept for about half the drive, I nursed her, and then she just played with her toy for another hour or so without fussing at all.  We didn't fair quite as well on the way home, and she pretty upset for the last 25 minutes of the drive.  But overall I'd call it a success.  While in Omaha we visited family and made a stop at the zoo.  It was toasty but Arden did great, snoozed a bit in the stroller, and just looked around and did her baby thing.

Arden, don't hate me when I smother you with hugs and kisses and try to keep you my tiny baby forever.  I love you so much.