quick

It's late, but I'm here so I'll post. Charlotte is 6+ months old already. Holy cannoli! At her pedi appointment, she weighed in at 14 pounds 12 ounces and measured 26 inches tall. That's 25th percentile for weight and 70th for height, or something like that. I can't imagine a baby in a high percentile for weight... at 25%, she's got double rolls around her thighs and chubby chubby cheeks (which she is kind of growing into). She's definitely lean through the middle, though, so I guess "big" babies just have bigger bellies than she does. She still fits comfortably into anything with 6-months in the size, although some of the 3-6's are getting a bit snug lengthwise. After seeing her grow so quickly through the 0-3 month stuff, I jumped ahead and bought some 9-month clothes. I thought she'd be in them already, but they're a little big on her. Cute, so I dress her in them anyhow, but a little loose.

I bought her first pair of jeans. Under $3! And so cute. I'm looking forward to flannel shirts and hiking boots.

She's working on cold #2 now, which came immediately on the heels of #1. The very day I meant to call the pedi to schedule her 6-month shots, she woke up with the sniffles. By day's end, she was having trouble breathing through her nose. At this rate, she might get those shots when she's 14 months old... I just can't give them to her when she's already feeling under the weather, so we'll put them off until she's feeling well. The first cold led to one middle-of-the-night feeding. #2 has included two late-night crying jags that lasted just long enough to convince me she was *really* crying. I picked her up and she immediately zonked back out in my arms. I'm not entirely certain she actually woke up on either occasion. Cold #1 was shared by one of her daycare buddies. #2 was given to her by friends we went apple-picking with last weekend. I checked... they're sick now too. Looks like I won't be letting anyone under 20 hold her until cold season is over.

Aside from the brief interruptions due to colds, she still sleeps consistently from about 7pm to 6am. I pump before going to bed at 10:00, then again at 4:45am when I usually get 8-10 ounces. When she's in daycare or with a sitter, I pump every 3 hours and get 4-5 ounces at a time while she eats 8 ounces 5-times a day. There's no way I could keep up with her if I had to rely exclusively on pumping. I'm nearly out of vacation time (I can't believe I managed to stretch it out this long) and may have to consider LWOP or officially reducing my hours. I worry that the company would never let me return to FT if I reduced my hours, and health insurance will cost twice as much if I'm less than full time. We'll be counting on my job for benefits in 2011, so that's a big concern right now. But if, or rather WHEN we start project sibling, I'll still need to buy individual coverage in order to take advantage of our state's mandates for fertility coverage. My company is not based in this state AND they're self-insured... ergo, exempt from state mandates. (What good is a mandate if everyone's exempt?!)

Ultimately, by the time #2 is born (pleasegodletusbethatlucky!), we'd like our small business to have grown to the point where I won't need my "real" job. I'll keep the books and take care of the babies. Once, I thought I wouldn't be happy with that. But now that I've been a mom for 6 months, it's all I want.

So, more about Charlotte... no crawling yet, but she's a pro at pivoting and rolling to get where she wants to go. She is definitely a morning person, waking up with a huge grin EVERY day, even with a cold. See-

She can sit up, unassisted, for as long as she wants to. Or until she gets excited and leans back to laugh, loses her balance and falls over.
She's got about half an inch to go before she catches up with her caterpillar.

She can hold and tilt a sippy cup to get water into her mouth. When she's upright, she actually drinks the water. Lying down, though, she lets the water run out of her mouth so it puddles below her neck.

She claps (video to come soon if I remember and have time).

She's starting to wave, usually to strangers as they walk by us in the grocery store. Or moments after someone has left the room.

To maintain a routine, we get up at the same time every day and try to get out the door by 7am. On non-"school" days, we go shopping or for a walk. I'm not sure we'll be able to keep that up when DST ends and it's pitch-black outside at that hour.

She babbles and sings and dances and laughs and fills my life with more joy than I ever imagined.