Everly is 6 months!

Just a couple of days ago, our Everly turned 6 months old! Here are some things to remember:

• She weighs 15 lbs. 14 oz. and is 25.75 inches long. For her weight, she is in the 42 percentile.
• She is a great sleeper! She has been sleeping 12-13 hours a night and taking naps during the day. But, her naps are not always on a schedule. We can almost always get a normal morning nap in except for church on Sunday or dance on Friday. But, afternoon naps are the toughest because I'm either picking Grace up at 1:30 on Tuesday and Thursday and then Atticus every day at 3:00. So, I generally have to wake her during those times to go pick up kids. And she does not usually fall back asleep in the car. Thankfully, she is really good at putting herself to sleep so sometimes I come right back home, put her right back in her crib and after a little bit, she falls back into a nap. But, I sure do hate to wake her up when she is sleeping so soundly. She is also no longer in a swaddle; she sleeps in a sleep sack; and she sleeps on her tummy most of the time.
• She will roll all over the living room and her crib. She doesn't love playing on the floor by herself, but if she is in the mood, and I don't make eye contact, haha, she will roll around for awhile until she gets stuck or doesn't have anything close to play with. 
• She is so close to sitting up on her own. She can sit up for a little while on her own, but then she falls over and sometimes gets upset about it. And she can't push herself back up to sitting up yet. But, otherwise, she prefers to be sitting up to play and prefers Vic or I be right there to play with her!
• She loves to play. She likes the stacking rings, or unstacking them I should say. She loves her Nuby bead necklace and we just got out the musical play table without the legs. She is starting to really push those buttons. She will also chew mostly on her bunny lovey and her stuffed giraffe. She will even look at little books and then of course put them in her mouth!
• She stays pretty quiet most of the time, but when she gets to talking and cooing, she gets loud!
• She's actually tall enough to start jumping in the jumperoo now! 
• She has now cut two teeth this past month. They bother her off and on. They are the two middle bottom teeth. 
• She still takes a paci and can even put it in her own mouth now! We've noticed this when she is in her crib playing.
• She is starting to get out of 3-6 month clothes.
• She is still in size 2 diapers.
• She still sticks her tongue out all the time! She is also starting to blow bubbles when she plays. 
• We started her on rice cereal and oatmeal about 3 weeks ago. Those two things have gone fine and while she almost always scrunches up her face at the first bite, she has liked both. So, we tried applesauce and she liked it, but on the 3rd attempt, we noticed around her eyes and up the sides of her head, her skin started breaking out in a little rash. It wasn't bumpy, but it was definitely something irritating her skin. The first time, we'd been outside and I thought maybe something else in the air or grass might have bothered her. But, when we realized it happened again after applesauce, we stopped the applesauce. She had some prunes one night and it did the same thing. We went back to only cereals for a few day and then introduced carrots and while she did NOT like carrots so she only got a few bites in, she did not break out at all. So, we haven't been very consistent in anything except cereals yet. We will re-introduce things a little later on but I hope we don't have food allergies in our future. 
• However, the CUTEST thing she does right now is this. If I am holding her in my arms and I try to eat something or drink something, she attacks whatever it is going into my mouth. She will grab onto my cup and pull it towards her and put her mouth on it and then realize she doesn't really know what to do with it. It is so cute! She will do the same with any food I have and just grab at it. I will try to post a video soon. It's so funny!
• She is still in mama/daddy mode. If anyone else takes her, she just cries. Rascal! She's also starting to get into that part of being held where she wants to move around a lot, which makes me more aware of not letting her throw herself out of my arms!
• She is pretty calm and very observant. She will watch the older kids all the time but when they start to pay direct attention to her, she comes alive! She laughs and smiles and loves the attention they give her. And, she loves to lay on her changing table or in her crib and either pull up her feet to her mouth or have me blow kisses into her stomach. She just laughs and laughs! She loves the element of surprise the most! I will pretend to be minding my own business while playing with her and then grab her with a kiss or a squeeze or something and she will jump and then just laugh and laugh. I'll do it over and over and she loves it!
• I still love to snuggle her and always hope she is so tired before she goes to sleep at night, that she will just fall asleep nursing and then let me hold her awhile. As long as something doesn't wake her up...ahem...Atticus and Grace...I get to snuggle her as she sleeps for awhile before I lay her down. But, many times, she is just ready for her bed while awake. I'm not worried thought; the phase of coming to our room at midnight to get into bed with us is still in our future! ha!
• She's just still the perfect little fit to our family. I feel like she just sits back and watches a lot (but seriously, how do you get a word in with Atticus and Grace being so busy all the time?), but I am seeing more and more of her little personality emerge and notice it a lot even when it's just she and I spending time together on Tuesday and Thursday mornings.  How are we halfway to that big 1 year birthday celebration?