A Good Day

Some days are repetitive.  Some days are tiring.  Some days are better than the day before.  Some days are good.  Today was a good day!  Actually, we have lots and lots of good days around here with our little princess.  So, I guess I should say that today was a very good day!

Millie Janalee is approaching six months, and it is killing me!  How did my 6 pound 13 ounce itty bitty become this massive six month old.  Well, she's still little.  But compared to how we brought her home...she is massive.  At six months old, there are lots of changes going on. 

Especially now that we are home for a while.  No traveling.  No shuttling her back and forth to family members' homes or ballgames or vacations.  Just us.  At home.  It's been refreshing and nice.  We still send pictures daily to the grandparents and aunts and uncles.  We still Facetime them too.  But, our day to day activities and nighttime routines are back!  And, to be honest, Millie Janalee never skipped a beat.  She went right back to her schedule when we got home.

One of Millie Janalee's fascinations right now is not a toy or movie or activity.  Her biggest fascination is Farley!  She watches him all day long.  If he moves his head, she watches.  If he stands up, she watches.  If he runs to the television, she watches.  She LOVES Farley.  She reaches for him when he is close, and she wants so badly to play with him.  He, on the other hand, could care less.  Ha!  I'm sure he's rolling his eyes at this little person who took all his attention away.  I've been feeling guilty about that, so today we had a Farley play day.

We took a stroll to the mailboxes today with Farley in tow.  This is not the easiest adventure since Farley has absolutely NO training walking on a leash!  Millie Janalee and I played in the floor all afternoon.  We got Farley to come close enough for Millie Janalee to pet him and play with his hair.  I even got him to sit still long enough for a picture or two.

I have a feeling that the older Millie Janalee gets, the more Farley will run from her.  Mostly to protect his fur, I'm sure.  Ha!  I hope he knows how much Millie Janalee adores him.  She is infatuated with our furry firstborn, and it is so fun to watch!

When Farley barks, though, it startles Millie Janalee so bad!  It is hil-ar-i-ous!  She pokes her bottom lip out like she's about to cry and looks at me for help.  Her arms fly up in the air, and her eyes get as wide as they can.  I love it.  And hate it.  I mostly hate it when she's drifting off to sleep and BAM she's wide awake.  I laugh now...but in the moment there are no smiles!

I caught one of these moments on my iPhone the other day.

Besides her infatuation with Farley, there are many other things we enjoy doing these days.  We have stopped rolling over lately for some reason.  I'm thinking it may have something to do with the fact that she has been held since November.  Nothing wrong with that at all!  But, I've been trying to work with her on it.  Especially rolling from her back to her front.  She tries so hard and wants to SO badly.  But, we just can't manage to get over that shoulder.  It'll come.

Today, we had lots of fun during tummy time.  She also wants to crawl so badly it makes her cry.  She sees something she wants (usually Farley), and she can't reach it.  So she cries.  I love to see her reach her hands out as far as they will go and her legs go straight out too...resting all her body weight on her round little belly.

She lifts her body all the way up by straightening her arms.  But she still can't reach.   Then she lowers her arms and pulls her little legs up under her.  But she still can't move.  Once she figures out that she needs to do those things at the same time, she'll be unstoppable!  She's gonna be a mover and a shaker I'm sure.

We practiced our crawling motions today with toys, with Farley, with Mama's help, and with a few tears.  We stopped eventually.  After all, I'm not wanting to rush any of this for sure!

I love this age because she loves to play with everything!  Most things go straight to her mouth, and everything gets waved around in the air.  We pulled out some new toys today.  Actually, these rings were a Christmas gift for "Baby J" LAST Christmas!  It was so surreal pulling them out today and watching our daughter play with them.  She's such a smart little girl.  Millie Janalee knew exactly what to do!  I pulled the first two rings off and handed them to her, and after she chewed on them and waved them around...she started trying to put them back on!  Of course, she wasn't able to get the hole exactly lined up with the post.  But she tried.  She knew it was supposed to fit.  Oh, and did you notice that she's sitting up with a little assistance now?  Yep.  It's crazy!

I did the unthinkable today too.  I turned it to PBS when I noticed she was getting sleepy.  She played quietly with her paci and her dollie as she laid on her vibrating mumbo pillow.  After a while of a fixated half asleep stare at the show, she drifted off to sleep with her dollie under her arm.  Such sweetness!

Who cares if she went to sleep to Wordgirl?!  Not me.  I imagine it won't scar her too bad.  She woke up 30 minutes later, and I moved her to her bed to finish her nap.  Daddy walked in the door around 5:45, and she was ecstatic.  She loves to see Daddy walk through the door! 

Russ, Millie Janalee, and I went out to dinner tonight as a Party of Three.  We had a delightful time, and Millie Janalee was SOOOO good!  The waitress commented on how good she was every time she came to our table.  She smiled, cooed, and watched us eat our supper.  We never even had to get her out of her car seat.  After dinner, we stopped by Red Box to pick up some movies for the weekend.

Yep.  It was a good day!  And I look forward to many more ahead!