6 Months (almost)!

I thought I'd do a 6 month post a day early, since I've got a major assignment due in a few days and probably won't have time tomorrow. 

6 Months already! It's definitely been a wild, sleepless ride. In some ways that horrific 7pm-7am labour  is still so vivid that it seems like yesterday, but it's also hard to believe that she's only been here for half a year. I can't really remember what life was like without her, and on the few occasions that I've had any time to myself I've felt kind of lost and bored.

In summary, so I don't forget what she's like at this age (I'm sure this will be amazingly boring to anyone but me and Lucas), at 6 months Olive is:

* still not sleeping through the night. In fact, she's nowhere near it. Waking up, on average, from 3 to 6 times. I'm amazed I'm still walking, though I do appear to have aged at least 5 years since she was born.

* starting to throw tantrums when she doesn't get what she wants. She's always been a screamer, but now she's doing the whole throwing her head back and going stiff and screaming. Terrible two's at 6 months old :/ 

* sitting up on her own and getting (sort of) close to crawling, but I predict that she might walk before she crawls.

* loves playing with her toys, but even more so with plastic containers, receipts, keys, watches and tags.

* falling asleep on her own in her cot (about half of the time) with Sammy Seahorse and her blankie.

* addicted to her dummy. Amazing, since we couldn't get her to take one at all until she was over 3 months.

* loving toddlers and pets. She's constantly smiling at and "talking" to Spencer and Polly. She even has a different voice that she only uses when she's talking to the pets.

* saying "Dad".

* loving Giggle and Hoot and Lucas swears he heard her say "Hoot" the other day. I'll be devastated if she says the name of an ABC kids show owl before she says "Mum".

* getting excited every time she sees me or Lucas, even if we've only been out of the room for a few minutes.

* eating like a champion and has liked every food we've given her.

* giggling like crazy when Lucas plays with her. It's my favourite thing to watch them together.

* still opening her mouth and leaning forward, shaking her head like a baby bird whenever any food, milk or a dummy comes anywhere near her. She's such a funny little bunny.

* also flapping her arms like a little bird whenever she's excited.

* constantly blowing raspberries.

* squealing all the time. So cute to hear her experiment with her voice.

Everyone says this, but I love this baby more than I could have imagined. 

Learning to crawl.

So close, but so far. She's trying really hard but most of the time she just pauses in one of the above positions and can't move, then whinges for me to come get her. 

One thing you don't think about when you're pregnant is the whinging. Everyone tells you about the screaming, so you expect that, but as soon as they are able to make any sort of vocalisation that isn't full out crying they start the "eeeh, eeeh, eeeh". At the moment she does this almost constantly, if her dummy falls out, if she can't reach a toy, if she's sitting up and wants to lay down, if she's laying down and wants to sit up, if she's bored, if she's tired, etc. I'm hoping that the more independent she gets the less she'll whinge, though I hear from mothers of older kids that it never stops. Oh motherhood, what a joy you are! (I joke, she is a joy, and I even find her whinging cute a lot of the time)

The Foxywood tales.

Such a beautiful day for a BBQ lunch with our Foxywood friends!(excuse Olive's dummy chain in every photo :/)

Playtime.

5 months is such a great age. Now that she can sit up she's so cute to watch. She always looks like she's concentrating really hard when she's inspecting her toys (or our keys, or a plastic wrapper, or whatever else she's found to play with). I love to watch her learn while she plays. 

Park life.

We had a lovely morning in the park with lovely sister and lovely cousins.

Babes on the beach.

There are plenty of things that I miss about living in Sydney but to be able to decide to go to the beach at 4pm and be there at 4.05pm reminds me why we moved back to The South Coast. A 2 minute walk rather than 40 minutes to drive 8kms, just to spend 20 minutes trying to find a park. No $8 an hour parking metres at the beach here...no parking metres at all, in fact.

Perpetual motion.

This kid is never still so I figured these out of focus photos represent her perfectly. Since the day she was born she's hated laying down. We spent the first three and a half months carrying her around constantly because she refused to be laid on her back - she had to be facing the world, and in motion, at all times (well, at all times that she wasn't glued to me, being fed or rocked). Now that she can sit up on her own she's a bit happier to occupy herself for a little while. I think she's just the kind of baby who hates being a baby.

P.S. We're not neglectful parents - she scratched her own face.

Another blog.

I know that the last thing the internet needs is another blog, and the last thing I need is another distraction, but I have a baby now and a million photos of that baby. So, here's Olive eating sweet potato off a carrot. 

As for the blog's name, in the morning when I'm getting Olive dressed I sing the Beatles' "Good Day Sunshine" to her.