Family Memories: Amelia 4-6 months

Time to catch up with the littlest one in the family. Amelia has grown and developed a lot in the last two months! At her 4 month appointment in December, she was 25.75 inches (90%ile) and 18 lbs 2 oz (98%ile.) This week, she had her 6 month check up and is continuing to grow well, despite her case of rsv when she hardly ate. Now she is 26.5 inches (67%ile) and 20 lbs 7 oz (96%ile.) The doctor said it was normal that her height would go lower in the percentiles at some point since Chris nor I are huge. She's still our chunky monkey though. The doctor said she is in perfect health and is right on track developmentally. I think she is average with her physical development which I actually enjoy. Maddie was reaching for things at 3 months, sitting up with the boppy at 4 months, and sitting up totally unassisted at 5 months. Amelia hasn't even rolled over yet and has gotten really good just recently, at sitting up for long periods of time with the boppy around her. I love that she is staying a baby a little longer and that when I set her down, she's basically still there when I get back.

That smile! Those cheeks! Those twinkley eyes! The curled up long eye lashes! She's just too much!

Claire wanted to join in the picture taking. I love this silly laugh/ smile.

And we mustn't leave out Maddie!

Amelia at 6 months.
(Whoops! She was in the same outfit. I try not to do that, but apparently forgot to check. She does have more clothes than this!)

The last few weeks, she has gotten very curious and grabbing for everything. I don't know if I've ever had a baby love her toys as much as she does. She continues to be very happy giving us lots of smiles and laughs. The way she looks at us with a twinkle in her eye just melts my heart! When I thought about having kids after Claire, I kind of felt bad for the younger kids because they get less one on one attention from Chris and me while Claire got three whole years as the only child. Now I realize that it's also a blessing being born later because they are born into a family with siblings that love them and play with them from day one. Claire never had that. I love watching the sibling relationships blossom, and it is one of my favorite things to experience as a mother.

First bath with her sisters in the big tub!

Claire has the responsibility of holding the slippery baby. She's not a fan of that job after a while, so we still usually stick to the baby bath tub, though she's kind of big for it. They were excited to be in the tub together though.

Anyway, I digress. They say not to compare your kids, but sometimes that's just impossible. So here comes a little comparison which isn't meant to be good or bad, just different. So Claire was pretty advanced both physically and socially when she was a baby. She learned to move around on the early side and was speaking very clearly at a young age. Maddie was also early physically, but her speaking took a lot longer to develop. It looks like Amelia will be later than her sisters to start moving around (yea!), but I predict she will be earlier when it comes to speaking. Sometimes it seems like she is trying to mimic the sounds she hears from us, which to me seems amazing for a baby that young. So we shall see, but that's my prediction.

Another milestone we reached was that Amelia started eating solids. I waited until 6 months for Claire and Maddie, but the doctor mentioned that if she started going back to night time feedings, that I could give her a little cereal to keep her full longer. After her rsv, she started waking up in the night to feed, so I started giving her cereal. After a while, I realized she was getting up at night not necessarily because she was hungry, but because she got used to it from being sick. We're working on getting back to a regular schedule. But, Amelia did LOVE the oatmeal I gave her. I've only been feeding it to her once a day (though some days I forget.) Soon, I'll start introducing other foods to her as well. She seems to love to eat! (No surprise there!)

Amelia's first bite of food - oatmeal cereal!

Claire likes to feed her too...

...which clearly makes Amelia happy.

One day, Claire set up a background for a nice photo shoot opportunity. Of course, I was trying to hurry and get out the door for an appointment, but I couldn't resist my little photogenic ones, as well as Claire's cute effort to make a nice background, so I took some pictures per Claire's request.

Speaking of photogenic ones, I decided to take a picture of Chris holding Amelia one night as I don't have very many of those. Of course the other kids wanted their picture with their daddy too so what started out as this: