Wine Down: Peyton Brooke {Six Months}

Half of a year. Half of a year, y'all! Oh my goodness, here comes the mommy tears. There's no way that this child is already half way to being one year old. Make it stop. But not really because this age is way too much fun. Peyton is just so adorable and has so much personality now, I am having an absolute blast with her. She turned 6 months old on December 13th, which is Taylor Swift's birthday by the way. Just sayin.

Weight/Length: Peyton had a check-up with her pediatrician this month and mommy got an exceptional report about how awesome her little girl is. Proud mommy moment right there. She got her 6 month vaccines at this appointment as well as her first flu shot. She weighs 16 pounds 7 ounces and is 27 3/4 inches long.

Hair: I'm still unsure about this one. In the sun, her hair looks blonde. However, I think it's looking more and more like a light brown everyday.

Eyes: Officially no longer blue-gray. Most of the time they look green, but sometimes it's a brownish green like hazel instead. Eyes just like mommy!

Diapers: We have graduated into Size 3 diapers now! My goodness, we sure are blowing through these diapers quickly.

Clothing: Peyton wears 6 month or 6-9 month size clothing in everything except for sleepers. She has to wear 9 month sleepers because of the length in the legs. I'm still a huge fan of onesies, bubbles and rompers. Pants are annoying and whoever invented dresses for infants clearly never had an infant before. Two piece outfits for babies drive me insane. I do not want to spend every moment of my day constantly fixing and pulling down a shirt or dress.

Favorite Things: her giraffe WubbaNub, Oball, real food, her high chair, activity seat, the Christmas tree, toy TV remote control, iPhones and burb cloths.

Likes: sitting up on her own, banging objects on a surface, looking at pictures or videos of herself, being held up to stand and dance, peek-a-boo, the itsy bitsy spider, any songs with hand motions, sucking her thumb or WubbaNub, taking her paci in and out of her mouth, biting daddy's nose, food, "dancing" to music, squealing and saying "da-da".

Dislikes: laying down for any reason other than taking a nap, clothing and diaper changes, taking away her bottle or food before she is finished, having dirty hands, cold weather clothes, and not being able to see what is going on around her.

Feeding Patterns: We have been continuing on our regular feeding routine with breastmilk at 8am, 11am, 2pm, 5pm and 8pm, as well as squeezing in one serving of real food at least once per day. However, the doctor just informed me at our most recent appointment that I can increase the amount of real food I am giving her and cut out one of her breastmilk feedings to make room for that. She has still been nursing 4 times per day and having her 8 ounce bottle of breastmilk for her last feeding every night. She is loving the real food and I am having fun watching her learn how to eat it. Thus far she has only tried avocado and sweet potatoes. I have been making all of her food myself, rather than buying baby food in the store. It's fairly quick and super easy, plus it is so much cheaper and I can make a lot food for a lower price and store it in the freezer.

Sleeping Patterns: Peyton still sleeps 11 hours at night and is now on a pretty solid nap routine as well! In addition to her night time sleep, she also takes a 3 hour nap mid-morning and a 2 hour nap in the afternoon. She literally gets up in the morning at 8:00, eats, plays for a little bit and is back down for her nap by 10:00am. This is by her choice too! Come 9:45am, she is rubbing her eyes and giving me that tired look. As soon as I lay her in her crib, she falls right to sleep. She typically wakes up around 12:30-1:00pm. I'm glad that the doctor had me cut that 11:00am feeding out of her schedule because now I have plenty of opportunity for her to take a good nap during this time. The afternoon nap is down to a science just yet with an exact start and end time like the morning nap, but we are slowly getting there. She typically takes her afternoon nap from 3-5pm, but sometimes it varies depending on what we have going on that day. As long as she squeezes that extra nap in at some point works for me. This child loves to sleep, especially at night. Just like mommy :)

Month Six Milestones: Peyton can now sit up on her own, stand very well with assistance, pick up, throw and bang objects, pass objects back and forth between her hands, put her toes in her mouth, eat real food, sit in a high chair, put her paci back into her mouth, play well with toys independently, play alone in her activity seat, bounce/dance to music, look at books on her own, and say her first word, "da-da"!

Mama's Thoughts: I can't believe that we are officially halfway through this first year. There are no words to describe how much I truly love being Peyton's mommy. I have the best job in the world. I love absolutely everything about her, our little family of three and my life in general. I feel so blessed.