The Orosz Family: Grace is 1/2 a Year!

Happy 1/2 birthday to Grace! Lots happening in her world! We'll go straight into the bullets with the half yearly Grace update!

Sitting at the table! She's in a high chair now with the help of some cushioning. Now we request two high chairs when we go out to eat - that makes for some fun maneuvering at restaurants.

First restaurant high chair at Tijuana Flats

Speaking of food - she loves it. So far she's tried oatmeal cereal, carrots, bananas and blueberries. All she loved and she wanted more. I need to get into a better groove of setting her up for breakfast. Those particular foods were firsts only because they were sitting around already. I was much more planned out in what William's first foods would be, but really - who cares. They're eventually going to try it all and order really doesn't matter in the long run. She's even had a mum mum cracker.

First Mum Mum

Rolling, scooting, pushing, twirling her way all over. When will she crawl? Doesn't matter because she manages to get her body wherever she'd like to go. Sometimes I watch her do this and wonder how exactly she got 5 feet away from where she originally started...

Watch me do a 360!

Got into the walker yesterday for the first time. Her first ride was courtesy of William though. He pushed and she went flying across the kitchen. Of course she laughed very hard.

Loves William. I was doing laundry a couple days ago and William was entertaining her. He'd throw his blanket in front of her, lay down pretending to sleep then pop up again -- Grace would then hysterically, I mean hysterically laugh. I'm so excited to watch them "play" together more. She is always watching him and smiling. I know when she's getting fussy if I can get William in front of her then she'll calm down until I can get to her. I ask him to show her a book or a toy.

Hugs! Or wrestling?

Sitting up very well! She still flops to her stomach or back, but it's done more purposely now than even a few days ago. It isn't such a traumatic fall. I can sit there and watch her not feeling like I have to hold my hands out to catch her. She'll sit there and play with a toy. Or just sit there and watch William. Then she's getting into her four point position - knees and hands - bouncing back and forth.

Grace had her first Valentine's Day. Daddy bought her a flower! She went to a Valentine's Day party too - slept through most of it, but she came home with many valentine's.

My 1st Valentine's Day!

Brotherly sisterly Valentine's love

Grace's first Valentine's and first flowers

Fully on the bottle now. We did the same timeframe with William and it seems to work for everyone involved! I'm glad we nursed for this long! My expectations were that it would be very hard, but it was actually very, very easy - until the end of 4 months when she developed a routine. Her and William started waking up at the same time and she's hungry and he's hungry - but he's still too little to be left alone at the breakfast table and I feel bad leaving him in bed while I feed her in the a.m. When there was no schedule I could "manipulate" her feedings and time them with what was going on. Now she likes her naps at certain times and feedings at certain times, and I'm not going to wake her to feed her so that we can be on time somewhere because then she's not a happy camper! She's also completely distracted and feedings took much longer because she wanted to watch William or check out the noise happening behind her or what's Maggie doing...? Now she gulps the bottle, she's on a routine and the three of us are on the go all week! Plus, Daddy can now help :)

Passed out from the bottle

She's still taking a third nap in the day. Though yesterday we skipped it and look what happened above. She ended up passing out on the floor. The third nap aka cat nap is still necessary, but I can see she's getting better at spacing out those first two naps making the third not as long. I imagine in a week or two it will be gone forever. I'm amazed at how identical her and William's sleep schedules have been (MINUS the 1st month. William was a terror and Grace was simply amazing). Grace is doing exactly what William did with night sleep and day naps. I can't relate to the stories of babies that don't sleep through the night or take rests during the day. I don't know what the secret is, but I will say you gotta be consistent and don't give up trying to get them down for rest! At night time she is exactly like William. Finishes eating then when I put her in the crib she peeks out from the top at me. I say night night Grace! And then you can watch on the monitor as she makes herself comfortable and puts her head down to rest. Such a good baby putting herself to sleep!
Grace has been very healthy -- clearly a very good reason for nursing! With William going to nursery school and the gym the germs he's bringing home are endless. She has had a stuffy nose twice, but no fevers and both of those stuffy noses went away very quickly.

As you can see - we're having lots of fun and everyone is doing really well! Grace turned 6 months in a blink of an eye. I'm not joking. Clearly the most cliche statement ever, but Grace was just born in my eyes and here she is now moving all over the floor nearly crawling... stop growing up so quickly, little lady!

Grace's wellness visit for 6 months is on Tuesday. Keep you posted on her stats!

Here are some pictures from her 6 month photo shoot ;)