Halloween

Miss Pumpkin

Tis Halloween and this little pumpkin partook in the fun. Well not trick or treating because that is past her bedtime but she dressed up for the occasion for my strollercize group. All the kiddies in our group got dressed up and we had fun taking pictures of them. She seemed to tolerate the costume well and had fun playing with the other kids. Now when I say play I mean that the kids grab each others toys, as toys are always much more fun when they don't belong to you. I can hear my mother in my head freaking out as they are putting each others toys in their mouths. I figure its more important that they learn to play with one another and not sweat the other stuff.

Circle of critters

Growth spurt

She only bites meat

Ceilidh has managed to put on half a pound in a week. Something she has not done in two months. Wow it is amazing how these growth spurt works. She now weighs in at 15 lbs. She is still experimenting with food and trying to figure out how to get the cat to sit still while she pets her. She really likes meat be it beef, pork, chicken, turkey you name it she likes it. It's the only thing she attacks with gusto. For a girl who has no teeth she somehow manages to gnaw of pieces and swallow them. The cat is also enjoying Miss C's love of meat as she has learned to pounce on the pieces that Ceilidh drops on the floor. Great we finally managed to get the cat to lose 3 pounds in a year only have her possibly gain it back again. At least Miss C hasn't put it together that the cat is eating her meat otherwise I could see her purposefully dropping said meat. The other food Ceilidh has various degrees of success and has different levels of enjoyment. It is really funny to watch her try to eat the rice cereal as she is still working out how the spoon works. I just load it (both sides since she doesn't comprehend that only one side is suppose to go in) and she tries to maneuver it into her mouth.

Eating cereal

"Screw the ball I want the cat"

6 months

Six months and still loves the exersaucer

Cupcakes at the birthday party

I know it's cliche to say how time fast grows but here we are at six months and I can't believe it. I just look at the ultrasound picture at the top of the blog and can't believe we have this amazing little girl in our lives. We are truly blessed. It was around this time last year that we went for our first ultrasound and where they saw the Omphalocele, we didn't find out until a few weeks afterwards. And here she is now at six months. It can teach you to hope. I know things don't always turn out well for these diagnosis but if you are going through this don't give up hoping because they can turn out well.

Ceilidh trying to pet Trouble

But enough reminiscing, yesterday we celebrated with a first birthday for cousin Cam. It's cool to have them six months apart to the day. It gives us a glimpse of all the things to come. Ceilidh is weighing about 14 and a half pounds and she is going for her next set of vaccinations this week. She has been keeping herself busy with swimming lessons with cousin Cam and of course all the other play dates I take her on. She has also been doing a lot of bonding with her kitty Trouble. They both have discovered one another and her face just lights up when she sees the cat. She also loves it when the neighbours dog licks her. She really likes animals I guess.

Ceilidh trying some banana

Her bed time is earlier these days but she wakes up more frequently through out the night, that tooth still hasn't come through all the way and we believe that is the culprit. She is also being adventurous in eating more things and she did manage to swallow some carrot the other day (as the saying goes the proof was in the pudding). Tonight we also gave her some water in a sippy cup not expecting much and were shocked to see how much she really liked it. She still needs help managing the cup but loved the water.  Here we were for a long time trying to get her to take a bottle again with varying degrees of success and the sippy cup went of without a glitch. I should have tried putting breast milk in the sippy cup. But she is at least now taking the occasional bottle and had a night bonding with her daddy while I enjoying a night out with the ladies. I look forward to the next six months.

Drinking water out of the sippy cup

Rough night

Smiling during tummy time

Ceilidh is pretty good about her night time sleeping. Last night though she kept waking up quite frequently 12 am, 2, 3 and 4. Needless to say I was very tired by morning and looking forward to a relatively quiet day. The culprit I believe is her first tooth. I can see a little nuby sticking out of her bottom jaw on her gum line. She must not be comfortable and kept waking up to be soothed. While I can tell she is fussier during the day at least she has teething toys which she can stick in her mouth. At night she doesn't have this distraction so she must wake up more frequently due to the pain. I am glad they don't remember this later on. Ouch.

My Ceilidh Bear with her daddy

On other notes Ceilidh is hovering around 14 lbs. We are still trying to introduce her to the world of food not expecting her to eat anything but wanting her to get the feel of trying to put food in her mouth. So far she has managed to gum watermelon, peaches, and carrots. We are trying the approach of letting her have whole foods and feed herself and not puree everything. She isn't six months yet so we don't really expect too much. If nothing else she sits in her high chair and plays (sometimes with food) while we have supper. Her favourtie game is throwing her rings on the floor (that's what we give her to play with). She gums each one, and then they end up on the floor. She has enough to last her through supper so we don't have to collect them till the end. Image when she gets food, to bad the cat only likes cat food it would be helpful in cleaning up the mess.

Trying watermelon

Trying carrots

5 months

Everything in her mouth except for food

Today Ceilidh is 5 months and I don't know where the time went. She now weighs 13 lbs 13 oz so she has doubled her birth weight of 6 lbs 11 oz. She has come so far from the little wee thing and is on her way to learning new skills each day. Currently, she is mastering the art of sitting by herself and I notice each day she gets better at it, which means not tipping over as often and correcting her balance.

This morning I tried so see what she would do with some cereal as I had some extra milk left over. She clearly had no interest in food. This is what we have been seeing since we do offer her some food every so often and while she puts almost everything in her mouth when it comes to food she is not interested. She is still young to be eating solids, most start at 6 months so we won't push it. For now we make sure she is there to see us eat and give her a baby spoon to play with.

Playing with spoon and bowl

Not impressed with the cereal

For the fall we have her signed up for swimming lessons with her cousin Cameron, library time with Library Sue and we hope to do some singing classes (rhyme time). I also hope to spend more time at the park as now she has experienced the swing and loves it. Yeah my child can play at the park.
Looking forward to the fall.

Sitting and rolling

Ceilidh has started to roll from her tummy to her back. First time she did it I put her right back on her tummy again to make sure it wasn't random and she did it another time. Then I called Matt over and she rolled back yet another time. Then we immediately went out and bought those mats that look like big puzzle pieces so that when she rolls she doesn't hit her head hard on the ground.  Imagine when she starts crawling we will have to baby proof the house.

Enjoying her new toy courtesy of Vivi and Isabelle

The other milestone this week was Ceilidh sitting on her own. Don't get me wrong she has to be put in the sitting position and she still wobbles but she can sit. It was during our weekly visit to the library where I noticed it. She was so enthralled with the librarian that she stopped leaning on me (I had her sitting in front of me) and was sitting on her own. I cannot say enough wonderful things about Library Sue she makes our weekly visits to the library extraordinary. It takes a special person to be a children's librarian.

Round two vaccinations

For my birthday Ceilidh gave me the gift of sleeping till 7:30 usually she wakes up closer to six am. And sadly all I had to offer her was a trip to the doctors to get her second vaccinations. She did really well though. Of course she cried when she got poked but settled down as soon as I gave her a hug.

For her dad's birthday she got him a big balloon of his favourite beverage. Ironically she was wearing her I love milk sleeper. 
Miss C is now over 13 lbs and her hair is getting long and curly. She enjoys her trips to the library but try as her dad may she has no interest in tractors yet.