Dallas is SIX months old!

I had great intentions of posting this on Dallas's six month birthday, but since that day also happened to be Dustin's birthday, it didn't quite work out. Then I was going to post it the day after, but my body decided that Friday would be a GREAT time for me to get a stomach bug, so it still didn't get done. And now it's Saturday night AGAIN AFTER MIDNIGHT and here I sit typing this post. *sigh* I'm just hoping that tomorrow I'll feel a little bit more normal and less like I need to run towards the bathroom at any moment.

I actually started keeping a list of everything new Dallas has been doing, so rather than write everything out in my usual wordy way, I'm just going to do bullet points.

This month, Dallas...

• eats her toes constantly.
• spits -- raspberries, sticking her tongue out, and making the "K" noise open-mouthed (do it...you'll see what I mean).
• fake coughs.
• laughs a little bit more, but we still have to work hard for it!
• rolls over from stomach to back no problem.
• can roll over onto her stomach, but doesn't like to so it doesn't happen very often.
• reaches for EVERYTHING! Food, hair, the phone, Baggie, whatever! And if she can grab it, it goes straight into her mouth!
• likes to drink water from a cup, and has started using a sippy cup.

• is FASCINATED with Baggie. If Baggie walks into the room, Dallas will stop whatever she's doing to watch her. Baggie is very good about letting Dallas pet her, too. We love Baggie, but she can be mean sometimes, and we have been very proud of her that she hasn't retaliated when Dallas has pulled her fur. Don't worry -- we're being very careful with both of them.
  
• looks at and tries to grab at the tags on her toys, blankets, etc.
• babbles constantly! She's saying dada a LOT and has said mama a few times. Not sure if she really knows what it means, yet. Her favorite word is AY-YAI-YAI-YAI-YAI!
  
• makes kissing noises.
  
• will play on a blanket by herself for a long time! She won't stay where I put her, though. She always ends up laying half way on the floor.
• drools a ton and chews on her hands and fingers, but still no teeth.
• is learning to give kisses. I will make the noise "Mmm-uahh!" as I kiss her, then put her mouth on my cheek and make the same noise. She seems to know what I'm doing and gets pretty excited when we play that game. It's so cute!
  
• LOVES to play peek-a-boo! She will pull the blanket up over her face and back down all by herself. She will play this game for HOURS if you keep saying "Where's Dallas?" and "There she is!" every time. Again, she gets so excited! I can tell she's really proud of herself for figuring out stuff like this.
  
• sits up unassisted. I won't walk away from her, though, unless she's sitting with the boppy pillow around her, just in case.

• has gotten to where she is VERY good at restaurants most of the time. We're going to a nice place next weekend for Dustin's birthday, and I hope that she does well then. She does well when there's a lot of new things for her to look at.
  
• doesn't really like the nursery at church. I always feel bad for the nursery workers, and I hope that she'll grow out of this.
  
• wakes up every day around 7-7:30 and will play in her bed for about half an hour before I have to go and get her.
  
• is supposed to go to bed around 8-8:30 every night, but Dustin and I have a hard time sticking to this schedule. Some nights we won't start her bed time routine until 9:00 or so, but she almost always goes to bed without a problem.
• has recently started waking up a few times a week in the middle of the night. I've heard that this is normal. If she is crying and I have to go in and feed her, I'm normally back in the bed in about 15 minutes, so it's not that bad.

• is very unpredictable as far as naps are concerned. Some days she'll take like a 2 hour nap, and other days she won't sleep for more than 30 minutes at a time. It makes it very difficult when I have somewhere to be and I don't want to wake her up from a nap.
  
• went through a phase where she wanted me to carry her around all the time. Thankfully, this has passed.
  
• has learned to whisper. She'll talk really loud, then really soft. Again, I can tell she's proud of herself when she learns how to do stuff like that.
  
• has become a booger factory, but hates to have her nose cleaned. She'll let me wipe her face with a wash cloth, but will cry as soon as I start on her nose.
  
• takes baths sitting up in a little tub in the big bath tub.

• learned to fake smile, and it is SO CHEESY! I love it!
• wiggles all over her bed in her sleep. She always sleeps on her side now (she rolls that way herself) and one night she even rolled over onto her tummy!
• is back to loving her swing and her exersaucer (thank goodness!!)
  
  

• nurses 6-7 times a day.
• has tried rice cereal, oatmeal, carrots, butternut squash, peas, apple juice, and pears. She will not eat the pears. I want to make all of her baby food, but I just bought some at first until I could get a baby food kit. Dallas ate the store-bought baby food no problem. I have not been able to get her to eat homemade food, yet, other than a little bit of peas. I can't seem to get the texture right, and she'll gag until she throws up. Not fun. We're going to work on it a lot next week. I've got a whole bunch of homemade sweet potatoes for her to try next.
  
  
  
  
  
  
• wears size 2 Pampers diapers.
• wears both 3-6 month clothes and 6-9 month clothes about equally. Of course, there are some things in the 3-6 month clothes that are too small, and she's pretty close to fitting some of her 9 month pants in length.
• was 16 lbs, 10 oz, and 26.5 inches long at her 6 month doctor's appointment.