I'm still here

There have been many times over the last few weeks that I have thought about things I wanted to write about but I just haven't had the time. I don't want to be a bad blogger so here is what has been going on in a nutshell:

Mallory turned 6 months old. She is doing everything a 6 month old should be doing. We went to the doctor today for her well visit and everything looks great. She is 15 lbs, 11 oz (50%ile) and 26 inches long(70%ile). Dr. Lake seems to think its ok that she still wakes up once during the night and suggested doing a dream feed around 11 pm to "top her off" and that way she is more likely to make it until morning. Its my experience that this doesn't work and when I do that she is still up a few hours later. I'd rather just put her to bed at 7, go to bed myself at 10 and wake up at 3 to feed her and she'll go back to sleep. Feeding during the night is a personal thing that is kind of a taboo topic with moms. Sometimes I'll tell people my 6 month old is still waking up during the night and they look at me like I have 10 heads and that its the most awful thing they've ever heard. To me, it just is what it is. Shes my second and probably last baby and I just don't mind getting up during the night that much. Some people will do anything to get their baby to sleep through the night. I don't and I guess I deal with the consequences. She's happy and healthy and so am I so as long as we're both ok with it than it is ok. I've learned this time around that there is no right or wrong way to raise your children. Its whatever works for you. After 6 months of 2 children, I'm pretty impressed with myself that I still straighten my hair and that we're all fed and dressed and my house is somewhat still standing (I'll get to that later).

The only big difference with her this month is that I started feeding her solids pretty consistently. She gets cereal and a veggie or fruit (baby food) around 6 pm. She spits most of it out. This is a new experience for me because Max LOVED baby food and would inhale the whole thing and then cry for more. Mallory takes a bite, kind of shakes her head and gags in disgust and spits it out. Then after a few rounds of that, she just closes her mouth and won't take any more. She seems like like the fruit a little better than the veggies but not much. I'm not really worried at all about this. Max was an amazing eater as a baby and it didn't really mean anything for how he eats as a toddler because he is the pickiest eater ever so I don't think the baby food has anything to do with what kind of eater they will be in the future. The Dr. reassured me today that she is getting everything she needs from the milk anyway and the food doesn't really even do anything to make them more full despite what people think.

She got 5 vaccines today AND the H1N1 vaccine. Shhhhhh don't tell anyone you heard it from me but Maryland pediatrics has a very small amount of the vaccine. And its the mercury free one. Unfortunately they are reserving it for very young babies and at risk children. BUT I do know some mom's who found out about it and demanded that their child get it and they got it so I guess you can choose if that is worth it to you. For me, its not. I'm not as worried about Max because I think he probably had the swine flu the last time he was sick. And my doctor told me today that they have had thousands of cases of what they suspect was the swine flu in their practice and not one patient has ended up in the hospital or had any severe problems. So one of my children is vaccinated and one is not. We'll see what happens...

Max is doing much better. He was pretty sick last month and it just affected everything from his eating to his sleeping to his mood. He is finally back to eating normally and sleeping through the night (I'm sure I'm jinxing myself by saying that). He is also talking so much and is just hysterical.
My favorites are:
"Move Mommy...go eat pizza!" (this was after we were eating pizza and he was letting me know that he wanted Mark to give him a bath instead of me)
"No! Layla. No! Eat doggie food. Get down! (he says this just like my mom does) then after she follows the direction he says "good boy layla" (layla is a girl).
"No Jenna's mommy! Mommy hold baby" (in response to anyone besides me trying to hold or do anything with the baby)
"Yuck Daddy! Mommy clean up daddy's trash" (A few weeks ago Mark threw the trash down the basement steps and it was all over the floor so he remembers me talking about it)
"Bye everybody. See ya!" (he says this when we are leaving school and also whenever I say, what did you do in school today)
"No, I sit sofa" or "no, I stay house". He says these in response to basically anything he doesn't want to do. So when I say can I change your diaper, he'll say "No,I stay house". He somehow got the idea that "the house" is just the living room where the couches and the tv are. So when we say its time for bed, he'll say "no I stay house" and we're like Max you are in the house when you are in your room too. Pretty sad that we spend so much time on the couches in front of the tv that our child things that that means "the house"!
"Maarrrrkk...help me!" I almost died when I heard him say this for the first time. He obviously hears me say that all the time when I have my hands full. He calls us Mark and Kim when he is calling us from another room. Its always Maarrrk. Or Kiiiiim. And when we are in the same room its Mommy and Daddy.

As you can see, he really is bossy but its just so funny and cute at this age because hes like this little person and then he says an adult sentence and half the time he say's something exactly as he has heard us say it. All of these things probably won't be that cute in a year or so but for now they are. I love it.