McDaniel Family Journal

So much has happened since I last updated you.  You can now sit all by yourself for incredibly long periods of time, and you love it. You still haven’t rolled over yet, and you don’t seem to have any desire to move or scoot yourself, but I think that’s because you love having mommy and daddy take you everywhere.

Your verbal skills are developing everyday. In the evenings when we take the puppies out, I tell them to “go” and you make “g” sounds at them the whole time we’re out there. I swear you’re trying to hurry them up as well.  You yell a lot now, too. You’ve figured out that you can get very loud, and you love to do so.

You’ve graduated on to Gerber Stage One foods, and boy do you like your pears! So far, carrots and peas are your least favorite, with peaches and pears being your favorites. You’ve also had green beans, squash, applesauce, bananas, and sweet potatoes. We tried to give you a cheerio the other day. Yes, I know you don’t have any teeth yet, but knowing that it would dissolve, I thought you’d have fun picking it up. I was wrong 😉 You have a habit of gagging on anything new put in your mouth for the very first time, and this cheerio was no exception. Even though, the cheerio was no where near your throat, you gagged until about 2 oz. of what you had just eaten spewed forth. Needless to say, we’re going to hold off on the cheerios for a while 🙂 

Napping is still a big to-do with you. You don’t like it, you don’t want to do it, and regardless of how bad you need one, you fight it until the very end. You really are afraid you’re going to miss something. Grandma says that as soon as daddy and I leave the house in the morning, you’ll go to sleep, but if one of us is there, which sometimes your daddy is, you won’t go to sleep until we leave.

I tell you every day how funny you are. You can use your hands like a pro now. The other day I went to offer you one of two things, either your soft Pooh rattle or a red, doughnut, plastic ring thing and you reached out and took them both!

You also like your feet. Your right foot is almost always up in the air regardless of what you’re doing, and you like to suck on your right big toe. To see you do it in the bath tub is the funniest 🙂 You’re not as stingy with your giggles anymore, either. Every night while your bath water is running, I pull off all your clothes and your daddy and I take turns kissing your belly and under your arm to make you laugh. We have a great video of that, too.

You had your very first Thanksgiving the other week. You got to eat a little bit of pumpkin pie and some cool whip and you really liked it. You’re still going through a phase of not wanting anyone new to hold you, so you cried a bit at Uncle John’s but that’s okay…you looked adorable doing it. The day before, your daddy and I went shopping and got you a ton of winter clothes including a button-up dress shirt, khaki’s, and a navy blue and forest green sweater. Everyone just ooh-ed and ahh-ed over how cute you were. We love to dress you up!

You’re not breastfeeding any more. I am very sad that I had to stop, but since I have to go to work you’ve gotten used to taking a bottle and the pump didn’t enable my body to keep up with how much you needed. 6 months is very good though, and you did a great job. I’m very proud of you. 

Your Grandma Ann comes to watch you every Friday afternoon now, so that she can get to know you better. You still cry when you first see her, but I think every week you get more and more used to her.  You’re still not sleeping through the night, but you are down to 2 feedings and just two or three pacifier needs.  I’m exhausted and hoping that you’ll start sleeping better soon 😉 

You are growing out of your swing! While it’s swinging you’ve figured out how to lean all the way forward and hang off the front! You won’t fall because you’re strapped in, but we still make sure to supervise you now while you’re in it. You fell off the couch the other day too. Not on my watch, I’d like to point out, but on Grandma’s. She had you propped up with your boppy, but you took a nose-dive anyway. You were fine, and only cried for a sec. I think it scared you more than anything. But so far, that’s the only time you’ve been hurt. Pretty good, huh? 😉

Filed under: What Brighton is up to now on December 4th, 2006