Six Months

Length: 26" - 50%
Weight: 18 lbs 4 oz - 75%
Head Circumference: 44.2 cm - 90%

-Thinks it is hilarious when our two year old neighbor runs around the recliner barking like a dog. I think it is even funnier when Daddy Sam takes over after the two year old goes back home.
-Getting stranger anxiety to the extreme. And so it begins...
-Finally rolled over from back to tummy and tummy to back. She was quite proud of herself. The fact that I can count on one hand the number of times she has done this to date is irrelevant.
-Is becoming quite the champ at sitting up. She will cry and cry if she topples over until you sit her back up, and then the ginormous smile instantly returns.
-After all the tylenol/benadryl/antibiotics/pedialyte she has been on the past week and a half it is blatantly obvious she received my sweet tooth. We better get some vegetables in her diet soon before it is too late.
-Still loves her bath.
-Loves any "toy" she can get her chubby little fingers on. My cell phone, any plastic kitchen utensil, halloween candy (especially if the wrapper crinkles). Will only take her toys/stuffed animals as a last resort.
-Turned into a terrible sleeper that will not stay on a schedule. I am still bitter. It was wrong of her to sleep for ten or eleven hour stretches and then resort back to three or four.
-The best little block tower crusher ever.
-Loves to stretch her arms out and flap her wrists. Daddy Sam thinks this is very funny. Boopers also thinks it is quite hilarious when Dad tries to mimic her actions.
-Makes lots of noises. Some of them low grumbles. Others high pitched squeaks that almost sound like an asthma attack. All of them are quite interesting and will get a smile if repeated.
-Loves to give Daddy Sam a big huge smile when he finally gets home from work.
-Hates being cooped up in the house all the time. She loves to see the world.
(She kept her hands in her pocket for the whole walk. It was so cute.)
-Is still the jumpiest baby ever. Everything startles her. Usually she will smile or just stare after. Every once in awhile it will make her frown and whimper. Too bad her frown is the cutest thing and we usually want her to do it again. Yes, we are mean parents.
-Loves neck tickles/massages. She will stop crying and lay in a trance as soon as you start.
-Still no teeth, and no complaints about this from me.

Flu, Flu, Go Away...

The last time I got sick with the flu and threw up? I can't remember, but I was definitely young enough to be still living at home with Mom and Dad, barfing in their toilet, and having them take care of me.

The last time I got a flu shot? Never, well until last Tuesday.

We had a fun, fake Halloween here in Utah. Saturday was spent at the store purchasing candy for our little trick or treaters, dressing Bails up as a chicken, going to the mall to collect candy (super crowded=not fun), attending parties, playing games, and hanging out with friends.
Sunday, early morning, I woke up and spent the remainder of the day in bed or by the toilet, expelling every ounce of food/liquid from my body. I attributed this to food poisoning because I never got a temperature or had any other symptoms.

Monday night came. Bails went to bed like normal. Three hours later she awoke with a bed full of vomit (sour milk? Possibly one of the worst smells ever). She spent the remainder of the night puking up stomach bile, acting super lethargic, refusing to nurse, and breathing weird. Naturally we freaked and rushed her to the ER at 1:00 am. After a zofran, tylenol, a nasty shot of antibiotic, a urine analysis, and finally convincing her to nurse we were discharged without having to hook her up to an IV.

We returned home with a nice welcoming vomit all over the front entry way, including the bowl of leftover Halloween candy (which Sam ate anyway. Apparently he has a policy: No Twix or Kit Kat left behind). And thus proceeded our night and following two days.
We definitely got a tough trooper. She barely cried after she threw up, and as soon as we put her in the bath to clean her up she was all smiles. She slept pretty much all day and handled feeling icky better than I did. She definitely takes after my Mom and not Sam or I. We are the biggest whiners when we don't feel good.
She is now eating a little better which will hopefully help her gain back the pound she lost and her saliva has returned.

Hears to hoping the diarrhea goes away, her ability to pee comes back soon, and that we never get a flu shot again.

Chic-or-tweet

For Halloween we decided that it was important to dress Bailey up in a costume that neither of us would ever wear and then to parade her around to as many places as possible. One of our favorites was the Vineyard Nursery pumpkin patch. To avoid the long line we decided to enter through "the back way" and soon found ourselves passing by a row of crowded chicken pens.
Usually running into the real life version of what you're dressed up like makes for an awkward moment, but Bailey pulled it off like a champ! She even forgave the rooster when it jumped at her and tried to claw her threw the fence.(I went back later and snapped its neck, that's what it gets for messing with my Boopers)

After that detour we made our way over to the corn maize. I don't know if it was the frequent dead ends or the "laffy taffyesque" Halloween jokes posted at each one of them that ticked me off more, but finally I 'd had enough! You may be thinking to yourself, "Is he really sneaking under the rope to cut to the end of the corn maize? What kind of lesson does that teach his child?" The answer is yes, and the lesson is that corn maizes are dumb and the church chili cook off was starting in ten minutes.

At one point Terri thought if she said a prayer we could find our way out but it didn't work, probably because Bailey had her eyes open during it...busted!

We finally decided corn is meant to be popped and lightly salted-not aimlessy wandered through- and headed for the main attraction, lots and lots of pumpkins!

Luckily the vineyard pumpkin patch had pumpkins for trick-or-treaters of all sizes and Bailey was thrilled to be able to pick on one her own size.

It was a lot of excitement for one outing. I am pretty sure we both ran out of energy before Bailey, it turns out she's a little party animal.

Happy Halloween!

Toys, Toys, Toys...

Bailey's job while we rush to get ready for church in the morning?

1. Not get mauled by Winnie the Pooh...

2. Work on giving the perfect bear hug.
3. Avoid kicking so hard that Terri's mountain of pillows collapse on her.

4. Sing along with MoTab.

and finally 5. Carry on in other sorts of general merriment while she waits to be changed, lotioned, dressed, fed and taken to church for hours of being passed around, pinched, kissed and hugged.

Its a rough life, but someones got to live it.

Raspberry

Remember when my baby's cheeks were so big that she received a permanent raspberry on her face from her pacifier?

And no matter how much vaseline or moisturizer you put it on it still comes back...

I guess that's what happens when you mix constant spitting, drooling, a devout love for a binkie...

...and the chubbiest cheeks in the world.

The Bird...

It started off like any other day (except Sam woke up so late for work he didn't even have time to shower...sick). He came home for lunch like usual and we ate and played with Bailey. Then Connie came over right as Sam was heading back out. He went to the car to pull out the car seat base and stroller so Connie and I could go shopping, but it was taking an abnormally long time for him to complete the task.

I went outside, where Connie informed me a bird had just pooped on my car. Gross, but no big deal. Nothing a little soap, water, wash cloth and Sam couldn't fix. Wrong. The dang bird didn't poop on the car, it pooped in the car.
Sam had left the driver's side window rolled down. A bird had flown in and then found itself trapped. Apparently this scared the poop out of the bird (literally) and the poop landed all over the back seat and poor Bailey's car seat base (I guess be aware if you have to sit back there anytime soon because it got cleaned up with a single baby wipe by a man who was very late for work).
Why was Sam so late in getting back to work? Because getting the freaking bird out of the car turned out to be a huge ordeal. Is Sam scared of birds? Surprisingly, yes. After all, getting pecked with its little beak in the eye was more than his heart could bare. I manned the camera, Connie protected Bails, and Sam (more cautious than I have ever seen him) slowly and meticulously tried to free the scared little bird from the car (imagine Sam slowly walking to the car, shuffling things around an arms length away, running back, then repeating the process).
It took an eternity, but I am happy to report the bird is now out of my car and no animals were harmed in the process. As for Sam, he may or may not be scarred for life.

Candy, Candy, Cotton Candy...

It is a Galeria side of the family thing (and more particularly a Sugiyama family trait??) to love candy. My mom was always buying treats for us to kids to fight over and gobble down. Even when you thought there was no junk food in the house, all you had to do was look hard enough in some of the drawers in her room and you would find bags of candy bars and other delicious treats.

I too love candy. I will pass on the cookies, cakes, and pies if you will give me a big bag of skittles or licorice. Even just walking down the candy isle and staring at the shelves of pretty colors and delicious treats makes me happy.

Well it is already obvious my little baby picked up my candy gene. After her shots she had a fever and she was more than happy to down a dose of tylenol (Sam tried some and said it was so sugary all the granulates weren't even dissolved).

There was also an open house at the fire station a few blocks away. Bails and I walked over in the morning with all the neighborhood friends to check out the fire trucks. They were giving away cotton candy and popcorn to everyone. I couldn't fight my craving so I grabbed a cotton candy. I may or may not have let Boopers suck a little off my finger and she made sure to lick it clean.
Then we went back that evening with our little scout-a-roos. Once again I couldn't fight the temptation. And since Sam is a sucker for popcorn I was willing to trade my popcorn for his cotton candy, taking my count to three cotton candies for the day (and no I don't even feel bad about it). I also may or may not have let Sam see how much our little chunkster loves cotton candy (possibly taking her sugar count to half her body weight, which is not an easy task).
What can I say. Sugar makes us happy.