What makes moms happy? A happy baby of course

There's a commercial that's on TV now. It goes something like, "What makes moms happy?… A happy baby." I can't remember if it's a Pampers commercial, but it is so true! You are such a delight and to prove it I took a video of you laughing when I dangled your rolled-up socks in front of you.

Although you are sick with your first cold you couldn't tell in this video. Your nose is quite blocked-up in the morning and your hands/feet are ice cold. I hope you get better sweetie. It's been so cold this week so I've been putting a sweater on you throughout the day.

Month-by-month- Month 6

How can my baby girl already be 6 months???

Boy, time sure does fly… Pretty soon I'll be going back to work and you in daycare :'-(

I know I keep saying this over and over again, but you are a dream

baby. You sleep well, you eat well (you are now eating rice cereal, applesauce and banana), you laugh (a lot), you hardly cry, you play well, the list goes on and on. Thank you for making my life so great Kendall. Mommy loves you more than life itself…

Who knew dressing a little girl could be so much fun?
Auntie Jess gave me a whole bunch of hand-me-downs yesterday. I went through it today and
saw the pink and white polka dot overall dress that I got Emma when she was a baby. I remember
thinking to myself when I was buying that dress that mothers with little girls were so lucky because
girl clothes are so much cuter than boy clothes. I immediately dressed you in that dress for your
6-month photoshoot.

Haha. I couldn't resist. After your photoshoot I was stripping you down to put more comfortable
clothes on you and seeing you in your little pink tights with nothing up top was just too cute
to pass up. You look like a little tadpole. Keke.

Your brother Aidan was home today. While the photoshoot was taking place he was looking
at all the books in your bookshelf. Then he found this pencil in one of your drawers and he's
trying to scare me with it. What a guy…
I tried to get him to sit in on a photo session, but he said he wasn't interested.

Now you can flip over onto your back and back on your belly easily.

Your hair (er, side burns?) are getting pretty long now. I don't know if I should trim that so it
doesn't look like a combover.

You are pretty active too. You like flailing your arms up and down.
Daddy and I are also doing core exercises with you daily so that you develop upper body strength.
I think it's helping.

I end with a video of Aidan performing (again) Psy's Gangnam Style. He is determined to memorize the lyrics so he keeps singing it over and over to himself… 

You are my sunshine, my only sunshine…

I know not everyone can have kids, but unless you have one you will never ever experience the unconditional, deep love that you can feel for a human being. After having Aidan and now Kendall I can truly understand God's unconditional love. Yes we are faulty, but God loves us unconditionally. 

There's always that warm feeling in the morning when I wake up and go to your room after hearing you coo (you don't even cry!). As soon as you see my face your face lights up and you shake your head from side-to-side with excitement. How can someone be that happy to see you??? I can just glance at you from across the room and you'll light up and smile from cheek-to-cheek. There's something so special about you. I just want to kiss you all over and hold onto you for dear life. I have such a deep love for you that if anything bad were to happen to you I don't know how I could handle it… I know daddy feels the same way.

This melts my heart…

Before having Kendall I worried about how you would get along with a baby sister. I knew I wanted to have a baby girl for myself, but I thought a baby brother would be better for you. You guys would probably have much more in common. I never really heard stories of a brother and sister getting along… maybe if the older one was a girl, but never an older brother and a younger sister… Daddy and his younger sister get along now, but he said they never really hung out or got along when they were younger. I remember when I was growing up I loved having sisters, but I always dreamed of having an older brother because I thought they would protect me. 

Maybe it's premature to say, but I think you guys will get along just fine. Just today, we were over at your Toronto grandparent's house and you grabbed Kendall's shoulders and started hugging and kissing her. I didn't even tell you to do that!

Kendall as Peter Rabbit

You are wearing your new Peter Rabbit bunny bodysuit that Auntie Jessica and Uncle Wayne got you for Christmas. You look adorbs in it!

I've been needing one desperately because you've almost outgrown your Baby Gap bear bodysuit. It's my go-to outfit if I take you out because it covers your head and feet. And it's so easy to remove. I'm surprised not many retailers carry them. I've seen ones that don't have a hood and don't cover the feet completely, but I don't like those as you have to then bring a separate hat and booties. Plus, they are a dream when I have to carry you in the Bjorn because they aren't too bulky like a winter jacket and they don't ride up. I absolutely love this!

Dream baby

You are a dream baby.

I hear mothers complaining about getting no sleep and how their baby cries a lot, etc. etc. 

Yes, I did suffer from lack of sleep the first 3 months, but after that you've been sleeping more than 10 hours each night. Today you slept more than 12 hours! I put you down last night at 8:30pm and you woke up at 10:30pm. I think it's because you know how to soothe yourself because you are a thumb sucker. If it wasn't for that I would be a total zombie. On days where Aidan goes to daycare I have to wake up at 6:20am to get him ready and out the door. I'm so tired on those days so it's great that I can go back to bed and sleep in because you let me do that. Even at nighttime I can just put you in your crib around 8pm and you'll maybe cry for 5-10 minutes and then you'll fall asleep sucking on your thumb. I know people say thumb sucking is a bad habit, but there is nothing I can do about that. You don't really take a pacifier and even if I try to take your thumb away you're right back at it. Aidan never sucked his thumb so it's something totally new for me. Don't get me wrong, Aidan was a dream baby too, but I think you are even better!

Here's a video of you that I took when you woke up this morning. You are always in such a good mood in the morning, especially when I take you to my floor-length mirror in my bedroom. I think you like seeing your reflection. Oh, and I think Rosco likes you. You'll see him in the video beside you. I know for a fact that Rosco doesn't like Aidan (but don't tell Aidan that!). I don't know why Rosco doesn't like Aidan. I think it's because Aidan is always running around and sometimes a little rough. He scares Rosco, I think, because Rosco doesn't know where Aidan's going to go next. However, Rosco is always trying to kiss you.  

On another note, I hardly got any sleep last night because Aidan was sick. He had a fever so I slept with him just to make sure his fever wasn't getting worse. He was rolling around most of the night. Then he woke up crying because his nose was all stuffy and he couldn't breathe. He's a lot better now. He didn't have any fever today, just a bit of a runny nose. Phew!

Oppa, Gangnam Style!

I don't know what it is with kids' fascination with Psy's Gangnam Style song, but every mom that I talk to tell me their kids are OBSESSED (with a capital O) with that song. I know you love that song. You almost memorized all the lyrics even though you don't even know what it means. You've recently started taking an interest to one scene in the music video- the elevator scene. A couple of days ago I pretended to be the guy standing up and got you to lie on the ground like Psy and you've been making me do it over and over. Today, I had Kendall on your bed and while I was putting your diaper on (to get you ready for a nap) she flipped over onto her belly. As soon as you saw her like that you jumped on the bed, hovered over her and before I knew it you started blurting, "Oppa, Gagnam Style!" and started gyrating. Then you got off the bed and grabbed your sunglasses and tried to put it on Kendall (picture 1 above). I didn't know what you were doing at first, but then I realized that in the music video Psy had his sunglasses on when he was lying on the ground on the elevator. The sunglasses were too big on Kendall so it kept falling off her face so I told you to put it on. That's when you started dancing and singing like crazy (photos 2-4 above). I just HAD to take a photo/video of you guys like that. It was so cute and funny!

Let's just say Kendall wasn't too impressed ;-)

Stage 1- rice cereal

My friend Jen, who had her son on the same day as you were born, was telling me back in December that she was giving her son solids. I read that you can start solids on a baby as early as 4 months, but you have to watch for clues to see if they are truly ready- i.e., if the baby is constantly hungry, if the baby has head control and if the baby loses the "extrusion reflex." I guess I could have started you on solids earlier, but I didn't think you were ready. Plus, Aidan didn't start on solids until mid January. I decided that I would start giving you your first solids after the new year. I don't know why, but every time you (and even Aidan) reaches a milestone I feel sad. It's like I'm losing my baby and you are growing up… Is that weird?

Anyways, I took a video of you eating your first solids- rice cereal and you can see your reaction here. Enjoy!