Cara is 7 months old!

Each stage we move into seems to be more fun than the last. Cara's little personality is really starting to emerge, and she's getting to be interactive and so much FUN! My heart is just so full when I think about her and the blessing she is to us.

Stats: At her 6-month checkup about 3 weeks ago, she weighed 16 lbs 15 oz and was 26.5 inches long! She's getting so tall and really chunking up. We're about to have to start leaving our car seat in the car because she's too heavy to tote around with the additional 8.5 lbs. Her head is in the 90th percentile, her weight was 60th and height was 70th. I just love her little round head and her soft, light hair. I could kiss her little head all day long!

Milestones: Cara is sitting up really well on her own and self-corrects easily. She supports weight on her legs when she's in her bouncer or jumper or when she holds on to your hands. She holds her own bottle at every feeding. Her vocal range is really emerging--high and low voices and noises and screeches. She pivots on the ground and ooches a little to get what she wants, but we're not into army crawling yet. She sleeps with her bum up in the air, and I've seen her a few times get up on her knees when she's on the floor, but she hasn't quite put all the pieces together yet. We'll get there. Cara now uses her ducky tub for bathtime, and she LOVES it! We get to play and splash in the water and play with toys. She will be moving up rooms at daycare at the end of April into Babies 2. :( She's now the oldest baby in her class and it's time to make room for other littler ones. I will be SO SAD when she moves, because I love her teachers there more than words can say. I know the next teachers will be great for her, and she will have so much fun being in a more interactive room, but her baby teachers love her like she is their own. They've been her 1st teachers, cared for her the first time she got sick, fed her some of her first bottles and foods and cuddle her every day. These women are angels on earth, and I'm so thankful for them. Now I need to figure out what to get them on her last day! Thankfully, we also transitioned off of reflux medicine, going 2 weeks with just one dose a day and then off completely this last weekend. We're so glad she seems to be doing better on controlling her reflux on her own. Hooray!

Behavior: I'm biased, but she's so smart! It's really fun to see her put things together cognitively. We have a ball popper toy, and she figured out that the little orange knob makes it go. She touches it, but not hard enough to push it all the way down. I have to help her, but she learned after watching me a couple of times how to work it. She communicates with us more by different noises and squeals, and she continues to be so happy. She is just like her Daddy--easygoing, casual and laid-back. I'm glad she's not high-maintenance as often as her Mama is! She gets vocal when she's bored or tired or uncomfortable, but usually we hear her happy sounds of playing and enjoying her environment.

Sleep: We've gotten a new eating schedule, and it's affected her nap schedule, but only slightly. She sleeps from 8:45 p.m. (after she nurses at 8) until 7 a.m Some days she wakes up at 6:30 or so (one day last week, it was 5:30. Ouch!), but it's usually 7 or a little after. She takes a big morning nap around 9:45-11:30 or even 12 and then again at 2:30-3 for about an hour. She used to have a cat nap at about 5:30, but that's when she eats now, so sometimes she doesn't get a third nap of the day. That can make her fussy in the evenings when she hasn't slept in a while. I'm hoping we can figure out this new eating schedule and let her have one more little nap in the evening. She takes all her naps in her crib if we're home, and she still loves a good, old-fashioned car seat nap. She's getting so good at soothing herself to sleep (sometimes even without a pacifier) and putting herself back to sleep if she wakes up too early. It only takes a few minutes of shushing in her crib once she rolls over (which is almost immediately) to get her to fall out. I'm so glad we've moved to a point of consistency with her sleep patterns.

Clothes: Fully in 6-9 month clothes now. Carter's had a giant 50% off sale, so we finished out the things we didn't have for this section. It's hard and time consuming to pack up her old clothes every 3 months. I label them all with our initials in case we share in the future, fold them all nicely and pack them in a space saver bag. They store up in the attic nice and small. So far, 2 giant bags hold all her newborn-6 month clothes. Girls have so much stuff! I will say that I'm glad this size has shorts and skirts (!!!), but sad that it's the last size for pajamas with feet. Gosh, she'll be such a big girl when I have to buy feetless jammies and separates. Not ready...

 Food: Here's our new schedule. I get up at 5:30 and pump in the mornings. I get her a 6-oz bottle ready, plus save whatever extra I have. She eats at 7-7:10 and then we leave for school. I pump again at 8 before school starts, just a few oz, but every bit helps. She eats fruit + cereal at 9:30 and then another 6 oz bottle at 11:30-12. She eats a veggie at 2:30 and then I'm home to nurse her at 5. She has one more veggie at 6:30 and nurses before bed at 8. This way, I only have to send 6 oz of milk to school and I'm able to pump more than that throughout the day. I was only replacing what she was eating when I was sending 2 bottles, and it was frustrating to not have any extra. Cara was flexible enough to push her last couple of feedings 30 minutes back. I had a feeling that she was eating whenever they offered it to her at school, not because she truly was hungry at 4 instead of 5. So far, it's working out well. She has eaten sweet potatoes, butternut squash, yellow squash, peas, pears, peaches, mangoes, cherries and avocado. We're going to do green beans, carrots, bananas and a couple of other fruits this weekend and next week. So far, her favorites are mangoes and sweet potatoes. She HATES peas, but will eat them if I mix them. She makes "MMMMMM" noises when she eats food she likes. I'm glad she's a happy eater!

Likes: still jumping in her exersaucer and sitting on the floor playing with toys. She LOVES Harleigh and Po and giggles whenever they're around. She loves to laugh and make her crinkle-nose smile. She loves to be tossed in the air (not after a meal!), drooling, still rolling over just to the right, hearing us call to her and grinning when she finds us, playing with her cousins, aunts/uncle and her Buck and Mimi, reading books, reaching to grab anything she can find and putting it in her mouth, eating yummy fruits and veggies.

Dislikes: having her runny nose wiped, sleeping on her back, sleeping on Sundays at church (she never does it!), waking up too early in the car on a road trip--we listened to her scream for 30 minutes on the way back from Dallas when her headband came down around her eyes and woke her up. Rookie mom mistake, traveling with accessories.

Favorite moments: Again with the giggling--there is nothing better than hearing her sweet laugh and her belly laughs. Interacting with her and knowing that she is learning and understanding is pretty cool. I just love BEING with her and doing whatever we need to do, but having her with me. She's becoming my little buddy, and I love it so much.

Most challenging: Cara's first scary fever. M&D came to visit a couple of weekends ago, and Mom and I took Cara shopping and running errands all afternoon. She didn't nap much, but she just went along like a champ. Hardly fussy. When we got home, I picked her up out of the carseat and noticed how warm she felt, but she's often hot in the carseat. After a couple of minutes, I noticed her whole tummy and chest were hot too. We took her temp, and it was 103.5!!!! Holy moly. We gave her Tylenol immediately and texted our doctor. She was really restless and would barely sleep, but you could tell she was miserable. That afternoon and evening was a blur of layering Tylenol and Motrin, snuggling, trying to get her to sleep and worrying. We stayed in from church the next morning and had no fever all day. It came back on Monday at daycare, but they didn't make me come get her. Two more doses of Tylenol brought it down to stay. It was so scary because we didn't know why she was sick. Ear infection, reaction to shots, virus, something else? We never found out, but I was so so worried about her for those days. I wanted more than anything to take it from her and help her feel better.

Looking forward to: mobility! I'm ready and not ready for this. I know we're close to crawling and pulling up, so I'm excited to see that happen. But it's going to mean a whole new set of worries and watching. I'm looking forward to her discovering words and making more cognitive connections. Watching her learn is so fun and watching how she changes in behavior and personality. We are just head over heels in love with our Sweet Pea, and it's so fun being her parents.

Up next: Cara's 6-month photo shoot and her first Easter!