The Elf is 6 Months

Annelise will be 6 months old on Friday. I am jumping ahead a bit, but wonder if I will get another moment to post before Friday. These days I must take advantage of every opportunity and not think I will get another one like it!

Annelise gest more cute with each passing day. She smiles more, alughs more, and is able to tolerate more and more time entertaining herself. These are all monumental occurences, as the first 12 weeks of her life someone had to hold her around the clock. She still struggles with bouts of fussiness, but they are mixed with wonderful times of smiles and giggles. Since her baptism 2 weeks ago, she has been a different baby. I keep saying that Tinnin must have baptized those demons right out of her. (this is a joke folks...)

Yesterday I went down to the nursery between our fellowship time and the service to feed Annelise. I received a glowing report that she had been doing splendidly. After I fed her I put her back in the room. The infant room has a couple of permanent workers, one of whom is named Lydia. We LOVE Lydia. Miss HC was with Lydia from about 7 months until 15 months and she just adored Lydia. After the service Dave picked up Annelise. Lydia was handing her to Dave and said, "She cried...a lot." To which Dave responded, "Yea, she cries a lot. Different than Hadleigh, huh?" And Lydia was like, "Yea, completely." So the elf can go from being a sweet, giggley little baby to screaming her head off in 2.8 seconds. It is an art.

In other news, she is a very laughy baby. I can get Annelise to laugh very easily, and I can get her to belly laugh which is hilarious. When in a good mood she will let anyone hold her. Last Wednesday she refused to go to sleep at her appointed 6pm. She wanted to stay up and see all her community group buds. So, as folks arrived she was passed from one set of hands to another and never complained. Once everyone had a chance to "touch her" we dropped her back into her crib and she slept until 2am.

I think Annelise is more of a free spirit. She isn't married to a schedule and I Just never know what I am going to get in the day. When will her nap be today I wonder every morning. And when I put her down to bed I wonder when she will be up in the night. The night sleeping thing is getting to be a problem. These days she is very sporadic on how she sleeps. Last night she was up at 11, 1230, and 5 (and so we started the day at 5). Yesterday she was up at 10, 12 and 3...the night before she was up at 2. This has made it hard to get into a pattern of sleep for us. Sometimes when she wakes up I am in a dead sleep and it just is painful to wake up at the wrong time. I do feel like she needs me when she wakes up, but I think there will be an end to my compassion if this cycle continues. Like the 11 and 1230 thing last night almost killed me.

Generally I feel like Annelise has more hair than HC did, but I was looking at pics of HC last night, and maybe I am wrong about that. Annelise is still leading the pack with her ability to grab and shake and play with toys. She has started getting more tummy time and seems to enjoy that more and more. She also loves her exersaucer...that thing rocks!

She has some good balance and is almost sitting up on her own, and I expect that to happen soon. Her two top teeth are not in yet, but I know she is working on that. She is a major biter, so we will see how long I can nurse after the top ones emerge. At this point she refuses to take a bottle...bizarre. She has refused to take one from the day she was born. I tell you, she is particular! I am hoping that will change as we begin to introduce her to solid foods. This is the week...yummy oatmeal and sweet potato is on the menu!