It happened! Last Thursday, January 22, 2009 (also Yong’s birthday, happy birthday Yong!), Allie was six months old! She is filling her (and our) waking moments with giggles, squeals, chuckles and lots of love. She is an excellent hugger and cuddler, but hasn’t quite yet mastered kissing, and she can be quite the babbler. She still enjoys tossing her toys overboard and making us pick them up for her, and she is getting quite good at manipulating toys, books and such. Vin’s and my glasses are rarely without her fingerprints on the lenses somewhere. Some biggies: she rolled over on her own steam! Yayyy!! She can practically sit on her own (we need to help her balance a little but she holds herself upright quite well). We are done with the stories of Ambrose Bierce (the Civil War short stories turned out to be too disturbing for us) and we have started on the short stories and poetry produced by the Crab Orchard Review. And she and Lily have had some interactions – Allie has even petted Lily. Although we have to be careful that Allie isn’t too rough and spooks Lily, there is an uneasy truce between the two. 🙂
Allie still hasn’t cut any teeth yet although her gums are pretty hard now. We just got back from the pediatrician for her 6-month check up – the girl is doing well, and is of average weight but she is taller than 75% of her fellow six month olds. I support that’s not really much of a surprise, for those of you who may know Vin in person ;-). We will also be starting on solids shortly! Woohoooo!
OK seriously, I should stop chit chatting and get to the main event. The pictures!
[[image:allie147a.jpg:Angel-kissed:center:0]]
* Mouse over the pictures for captions
We started the day with cake for breakfast, and Allie enjoyed some gymini action.
[[image:allie146a.jpg:Half-birthday cake:center:0]]
[[image:allie145a.jpg:Enjoying the gymini:center:0]]
[[image:allie144a.jpg:I can shoots u?:center:0]]
Don’t worry. Allie did not have any cake, she only had cake-flavored milk from her personal milkmaid later ;-). OK these next two pictures are actually from a couple days before her half-birthday, but I can’t help adding them to this entry as I love them so much.
[[image:allie142a.jpg:Rugged tummy time:center:0]]
[[image:allie143a.jpg:Airplane!:center:0]]
Back to what happened on the day itself. So after breakfast, Allie got changed into her special half-birthday outfit. The dress was a present from Opah and Atuk, and Vin got her matching pink tights to go with it so her legs would not be cold. We spent some time sitting in the crack between the sofa cushions, reading and looking at her art cards.
[[image:allie148a.jpg:Lily wishes Allie happy birthday from a safe distance:center:0]]
[[image:allie149a.jpg:Card in each hand:center:0]]
[[image:allie151a.jpg:Can you say “photonegative”?:center:0]]
[[image:allie150a.jpg:More card action:center:0]]
[[image:allie152a.jpg:Mama joins in the merriment:center:0]]
Then followed some tummy time!
[[image:allie153a.jpg:Do you like my birthday outfit?:center:0]]
[[image:allie154a.jpg:Tipping her head:center:0]]
[[image:allie155a.jpg:Close up as she enjoys tummy time:center:0]]
The rest of the day just kind of flew by (like our days seem to do these days – I can’t believe that it has been six months since Allie was born!). I worked, Vin worked, Lily napped, and Allie napped, played, and went along on schedule. Here she is hanging out with her Papa in the office:
[[image:allie159a.jpg:A little skeptical:center:0]]
[[image:allie160a.jpg:But Papa talked her into it:center:0]]
[[image:allie161a.jpg:Happy on Papa’s lap:center:0]]
She did hang out in the stroller a bit:
[[image:allie156a.jpg:What? I’m busy:center:0]]
And Mama carried her around:
[[image:allie157a.jpg:Mama’s little angel:center:0]]
[[image:allie158a.jpg:Giggles for Mama:center:0]]
Then it was almost bedtime, so it was time to take off the pretty dress and put on a sleep and play (boy, those tights sure are tricky – they did not make changing her diaper very easy).
[[image:allie163a.jpg:Is it just me or does this look like a picture of me (Sila) as a baby?:center:0]]
No doubt the sepia tint helps to disguise her pink skin 😉
[[image:allie164a.jpg:Papa helps her sit at the gymini:center:0]]
[[image:allie166a.jpg:She loves to play with an empty water bottle and flip it around:center:0]]
[[image:allie165a.jpg:Laughing gleefully:center:0]]
And then she started to get tired around 7:30 (bedtime is at 8:00).
[[image:allie167a.jpg:Rubbing her face against Mama’s shoulder:center:0]]
[[image:allie168a.jpg:Falling asleep during Jeopardy!:center:0]]
After her full day, Allie fell asleep in my arms even before we could put her in bed. We took her upstairs, and placed her in the bed without her waking up. Good night, darlin’!
One thing is for sure, Allie is growing fast, and is the sweetest little baby we could ever wish for. She definitely has us hooked around her little finger. She took the jabs at her six-month check up like a trooper, crying only the slightest little bit. Oh, in case you have been reading along with our adventures, even though we tried hard to be “Mak” and “Dad”, as it turns out, Allie will call us Mama and Papa. We seem to keep calling ourselves that in spite of having planned to be “Mak” and “Dad” before Allie was born. So from now on, the blog entries will reflect that accurately.
A happy Chinese New Year to everyone! And now Allie wants ang pau! 🙂 To end this entry, my favorite picture taken on Allie’s half birthday – happy birthday, love!
[[image:allie162a.jpg:Drools and laughs with Papa:center:0]]
