Ellowyn is 6 months old

Ellowyn turned 6 months old last week.  In some ways it feels like that half year has gone by in a blink.  In other ways, it feels like it's been forever.  But one thing is for sure: I am totally in love with this girl.  

Just like her big sister did, Ellowyn continues to slip down the growth charts: she's now 50th for length (down from 75th at 4 mo) and only 10th for weight (down from 25th at 4 mo).  As always, the pediatrician is unconcerned, he just says I have slow-growing babies.  Her head, on the other hand, is big as ever: still 90th percentile for head circumference.  

She's still sleeping great: sleeping for 12 hours at night, usually up only once a night, and napping 2-3 hours each day.  And every time I put her down for bed, she goes to sleep on her own.  She is awake and happy when I put her down, I give her her lovey and turn on her mobile, and then I leave the room.  She babbles a little bit and then falls asleep.  This is an entirely new concept to me.  With Mira, I always actively parented her to sleep: we nursed, we rocked, we sung, we cuddled, we patted.  Not with Ellowyn.  She would rather be left alone, thank you very much.  It was kind of like reverse sleep training because SHE trained US.  I would try to rock her to sleep: no way, she was not having it.  But set her down alone in her quiet room... sleeping in 5 minutes.  In some ways it's nice because I know that I can just lay her down and she will sleep if she's tired.  In other ways it's a little sad for me because I *liked* cuddling Mira and having that quiet time with her to sit and gaze into each other's eyes and sing softly in the dark and just be together, relaxed and intimate.  I don't get much of that with Ellowyn, so I really relish those brief seconds when she will let me just hold her close.

Ellowyn has started babbling a lot!  Lots of B and D sounds.  Her favorite word is "blah", which she will say repeatedly and often.  This is also something that we didn't experience really with Mira.  Perhaps that's why Mira was a late talker, but she never babbled much at all.  Not so with Ellowyn.  All that time she used to spend "singing", now is spent babbling up a storm.  It's ridiculously adorable.  

She's still not quite sitting up yet on her own; she needs a little support on the back and sides.  But she is moving all over!  She rolls in both directions and even scoots along on her belly.  Already, she's getting into things on the floor the way a crawler does because she can scoot all over the room!

As for her reflux...  A couple weeks ago, I forgot to give her a couple doses of her reflux meds and she didn't seem bothered by it.  So I just... stopped.  She still spits up, but is unperturbed by it.  Her reflux discomfort symptoms are few and far between, so I feel like it's worth it to not be medicating her any more since there is some evidence that Ranitidine (her reflux medication) inhibits calcium absorption.

And that brings us to: Eating!  After Ellowyn had an allergic reaction to avocado (!!!), we have been very cautious in what she gets to eat and when.  (She seems to just be very sensitive to environmental allergens: she had a bad reaction to HYPO-ALLERGENIC laundry detergent, too.  It's a good thing she has an OCD mommy.)  She has had baby oatmeal, acorn squash, carrot, pears, plums, and sweet potato... all with no allergic reaction.  So that's good.  And she LOVES to eat.  She literally DIVES for the spoon.  She whines if you can't shovel it in fast enough.  She thinks eating is the best thing since nursing.