Miss Scarlett's Six Month Pictures

Here is Miss Scarlett at six months!

We found a wonderful local photographer who does great work for a very reasonable price.  Both the price and the quality of work is FAR better than what we've had at national studio types of places.

The Princess and the Swimming Lessons

Since June, 10th, both Scarlett and Christian have been taking swimming lessons every Sunday morning.  

Scarlett's class involves a long of songs and repetition.  We take them to the wall often so the can learn - over time - the wall is the "safe place to be."  

She is remarkably calm during class.  Much of the time, she's just looking around, sucking on her hand.  

For the first couple of classes, I kept Scarlett above-water.  On the third class, it was time to put her under.

Needless to say, it was uncomfortable for me - but I know it is part of the process and a crucial step.  The goal of swimming lessons isn't to create an Olympic swimmer, but rather to get Scarlett comfortable in water and over time, help her to know what she is to do if she finds herself submerged in water (i.e., heaven forbid, falls into a pool).

We learned that when submerging a baby, it is important to put her head completely under water.  Apparently, if she's not completely underwater, when she feels air on her head, she'll take a breath.  So it is important to put her completely under water.   Of course, it is just for a moment and then I quickly bring her back up.

And her dunks are always preceded with "One, two, three ..." and I lift her up, and then put her under.  The second week we did this, she got this wide-eyed look on her face as I started the count to three, and I knew she somehow understood she was about to go under.

Today, her teacher commented that it is impressive Scarlett is okay floating on her back (well, I'm supporting her).  She said many babies get upset at the sensation of water going over their ears.  But Scarlett actually seems to enjoy floating on her back.   I love it when she sticks her legs straight up in the air as I pull her along.

Since we're at an indoor swim school, these classes are year-round ... not just summer classes as are at outdoor pools.   Christian is really enjoying himself in the lane next to us, and since both kiddos are doing so well, I think we'll keeping doing lessons for the foreseeable future.   Child drownings seem to dominate the news in the Phoenix area and so to us, it is extremely important that our kiddos learn to swim as well as possible.

A Little Personalization Please

I asked a friend to put Scarlett's name on some onesies ... here's the first one.  Isn't that adorable??

The Princessa's First Uncontrollable Laughter

At long last, Miss Scarlett laughed uncontrollably.  Until now, her laughter has been rather muted and though we know it is laughter, didn't sound like it much. 

But just listen to her now! Sooo very cute! :)

Since we'd never heard her laugh like this, Christian thought she was upset and was hesitant to proceed.  But we convinced him she was laughing ... and he perked up and made her laugh some more!

The Jumperoo

The time has come for Miss Scarlett to learn all about how much fun a jumparoo can be!  Christian absolutely loved this jumparoo ... and I'm sure Scarlett will, too!

Miss Scarlett Turns Six Months Old!

Our beautiful Miss Scarlett is now six months old - can you believe it? Here are the running statistics:

Six Months:
Weight: 14 lbs, 7 oz (5th percentile)
Length: 24.25 inches (5th percentile)
Head: 17 1/4 inches (85 percentile!)

Four Months:
Weight: 12 lbs, 6.5 oz
Length: 23.75 inches
Head: 16.5 inches

Two Months:
Weight: 9 lbs, 15 oz
Length: 21 inches
Head: 15.5 inches

One Month:
Weight: 8 lbs, 9 oz
Length: 21.25 inches
Head: 14.75 inches

Birth: Weight:
7 lbs, 5 oz
Length: 19 inches

Scarlett has essentaily doubled her birth weight. She's a chunky monkey, so she seems to be doing fine. Though, there was a family in the waiting room as we left the doctor's office, and they have a 2 month old baby who is 14 lbs - same weight has Scarlett. She had a much smaller head than Scarlett, but the rest of her (from what I could see) didn't really seem to be larger than Scarlett.

We've just got a petite princessa, I think. The doctor said nothing about her size - in fact, Jonathan was the one who researched the percentiles listed above.

These days, Miss Scarlett is rolling aroud like crazy. If I take my eyes off her and then look back a few moments later, she's completely rolled herself away from her original spot.

She's still waking up twice a night. The first time is often around midnight, and Jonathan gives her a bottle. The next time she awakens is anybody's guess. We're trying to not feed her for that second awakening, because she doesn't need it and we're trying to break her of waking up. But that doesn't always work out as planned.

Scarlett still doesn't like to sleep much in the morning - unfortuantely. But, I am able to (most usually) get Christian and Scarlett to both nap at the same time in the early afternoon. YES! And since both kids are asleep in the evenings (by about 9:00pm or so, Jonathan and I are out of each kiddos' room), we can watch TV, or work on the computers ... or I can do laundry or clean the kitchen, etc.

Scarlett attracts a lot of attention - there's just something about a baby girl that draws people in. I readily hand her to anybody who is interested in holding her. I remember with Christian, we didn't know many people and so he wasn't accustomed to being held by "strangers" and he's always been hesistant around people he doesn't know (not a bad quality to have, I suppose). So I'm hoping that by having Scarlett interact with a variety of people, we can steer her towards welcoming new people, rather than fearing them.

We're still working with Scarlett on eating solid foods. So far, we've done rice cereal, oatmeal cereal, bananas, peas and sweet potatoes. She's just not a fan ... she'll get there one day.

Little side note:  I thought it was interesting that Christian was so much bigger than Scarlett at this age:

Scarlett: @ Six Months:
Weight: 14 lbs, 7 oz (5th percentile)
Length: 24.25 inches (5th percentile)
Head: 17 1/4 inches (85 percentile!)

Christian @ Six Months:
Weight: 17.2 ponds (50th percentile)
Length: 25.5 inches (25th percentile)
Head: 18.75 cm (100th percentile)

The Princessa's First Independence Day

Miss Scarlett celebrated her very first Fourth of July today, which included a little nap while waiting for her first-ever parade to start.  I just can't stand how CUTE she is!!

The evening before at the bike decorating party:

Let the parade begin (and take a nap!)

Scarlett Gains Some Independence

It has been a few weeks since we tried leaving Scarlett in the nursery at church.  We were unsuccessful at the time.

Somehow, tonight I fet compelled to try again.

There were severa other children there tonight - a few around her ago, a couple of toddlers.  So there was activity and toys to keep her attention.

Laid her on the floor on her tummy and somebody rolled a toy to her and she was instantly interested.  I stayed behind her and rubbed her back and then left.   I checked on her a couple of times and was relieved to find she was never upset.

When we picked her up, she was being held by a grandfather-type who was enamoured with (as pretty much everybody is). 

I'm just so impressed that she was okay without us.

She gets held by a lot of "strangers" - usually teachers at Christian's school.  They all just adore her there!  And yesterday when I dropped Christian off at VBS, I was holding her (rather than her being in car seat) and the check-in lady held her while I got Christian taken care of.

I wish we'd had such a variety of people when Christian was an infant who could hold him. Might have prevented the separation anxiety he experienced (and somtimes still experiences).  But, it is impossible to tell.

The Big Day: Rice Cereal

Today was the big day we (specifrically Jonathan) had been waiting for:  Scarlett's introduction to "solid food" (aka, ric cereal).   She wasn't too sure what to think!

And of course, a lil' video of the big event!

Miss Scarlett's Swimming Class

Miss Scarlett had her first swimming class today and she did great! 

The water was nice and warm and she didn't mind going in at all.  I'm not sure what the class size is supposed to be, but Scarlett and I were the only people in the class this week, so it was like we had our own private lesson, which was nice!

This first class was just about getting her used to being in the water so we'd do things like lifting her out of the water and going back in, moving her though the water in large circles, taking her to the edge and putting her hands on the edge so she knows that is her "safe spot,"  pouring water on her head through a cup with holes in the bottom, etc.

The last thing we did in class was to put Scarlett on a foam platform that floated on the water.  She was put down on her tummy and after a few moments, started to protest, as she's still not a fan of being on her tummy.  But she was content longer than I expected.

Christian was in his own class in the lane next to us.  His class then moved to the other side of our lane and when he noticed us nearby, he'd tell his classmates and teacher, "LOOK!  It is my baby sister, Scarlett!"  He's still so proud of her!

The classes are each Sunday for 1/2 hour and are held year-round (the pool is indoors), so the kiddos will be in the classes as long as we'd like - we're not just limited to the summer season.  And I'm so glad we're able to do this with Scarlett at such a young age!

Miss Scarlett is Five Months Old

Our sweet princessa, Miss Scarlett, turns five months old today!

She's just so cute, and a lot of fun to interact with .  She loves to hold onto her feet and pull them up to her chest.  Actually, she loves to grab just about anything within reach - often my hair.   I'm debating cutting my hair, as I did when Christian reached this age.

We're on the verge of starting Scarlett on solid foods.  We were going to do it this week, but Scarlett has been having a hard time keeping her milk down.  Lots of "projectile vomiting," which usually lands on me (eeew).  We thought we maybe narrowed down the culprit to my love of McDonald's Frozen Strawberry Lemonade.  I had three over the weekend (ever had one?  They are delicious!).  But, she threw up again today, and my last lemonade was Sunday.  So ... who knows.  

Scarlett has now slept through the night for two nights in a row.  It is amazing how much better one's day is when having received a full night's sleep.

Scarlett's rolling around a lot these days - both back-to-front, and front-to-back (I posted two videos below for your entertainment).   She tends to get pretty upset once she's rolled onto her tummy, and then I have to rescue her.  She knows how to roll over to her back, but I think she gets so worked up about being on her tummy that she doesn't realize she's got the solution herself.

A Trend has to Start Somewhere ...

Our Miss Scarlett still isn't sleeping through the night.  She's been scooching around her bassinett a lot lately while sleeping and I was wondering if to shrinking confines of her bassinett were disrupting her sleep.

This is how she looked yesterday morning:

We decided it was time to set up the crib.   She went down, as usual, at around 8:00pm ... and shocked us when she didn't wake up to eat until 4:30am.   That is just about 8 1/2 hours.  YES!

In fact, after her feeding at that time, she stayed up for a bit ... but then let me put her down to sleep ... IN HER CRIB.   Another YES!

She's got plenty of room in her crib now!   Now we just need a mobile, and she's all set.  Until I get the mobile, I put up Hello Kitty wall decals for her to look at, as Scarlett loves Hello Kitty. :)

We'll see how she sleeps tonight.  I'm hoping for the best!