Holland: 6 Months Old

Sweet little Holland is six months old now.

TJ and I just look at each other and ask, "How in the world did this happen?"  Time seems to just slip through our fingers.

This little girl is just the sweetest baby.  She wakes up with the biggest smiles and is such a delight to greet.  The last five days or so she's remembered how to sleep through the night (hooray!) but before that she would wake once or twice in the night, sometimes just talking and talking from her crib - like for an hour at a time!  Ha!  What a funny girl.

Holland rolled from her back to her belly once before she was five months old and didn't repeat it until a week ago, when something clicked and she rolled over about eight times in one day.  She now seems to have mastered the back to belly roll, even when she's swaddled, but hasn't yet cracked how to get from belly to back.

"Mommy, Hanuh right here."  Reed was thrilled about this arrangement.

This girl loves food!  We have this little netted holder that we can put food in for her to suck on.  She adores it.  We put fruit in it (peaches, watermelon, pear, apples) and she sucks until there's virtually nothing left.  She also sobs when it falls down, in case we had any question about whether she loves it.  :)

Holland is such a champ with Reed, who loves and adores her but likes to see just how she works ("What happens if I squeeze her hand?  Or lay on her?  Or push her belly?").  Even still, she almost always grins (and blinks - ha!) when he comes near.  Whether for her safety or for her entertainment her eyes follow him around the room whenever he is near.

She hates her car seat.  For long drives we almost always have one of us sit by her to try to mitigate the screaming.  The best drives are the ones she sleeps through.  :)

The other thing about her car seat -  about 90% of her stinky diapers come while she's in her car seat.  It is completely bizarre.  Reed is incredibly good about telling me, "Hanuh stinky!" so I know to change her, but it almost always means that when we arrive at our first destination I have to change her diaper.  When I plan ahead I put her in her car seat at home 20 minutes before we're leaving, let her fill her diaper, then change her before we go.  Ha!

Holland clearly communicates she's tired by burrowing into your shoulder.  When I put her to sleep I stand holding her, rocking her from side to side, and she falls asleep with her head on my shoulder and my cheek on her head.

She's had about four haircuts so far.  I am not a big fan of the mullet look or raggedy hair, so we just keep evening it out as it fills in more.  I think we're about to the point we'll let it grow for a while - it seems to be much more even now.

Holland loves being outside!  Whether it's going for a ride in the stroller (where she now can sit in the actual stroller seat, not just her car seat), laying on a blanket in the grass, or sitting on my lap, she is calmer and pretty immediately happier outside.

Holland gets really fussy when she's tired: she also rubs her eyes, holds her hands right above them, and gets red eyebrows (well, the skin under her eyebrows goes red).  Two nights ago I asked TJ if Holland was ready to sleep and he responded, "Not yet.  Her eyebrows aren't red enough."  :)

She has fantastic legs.  Oh, I love them so much.  She found her toes a couple weeks ago.  I don't often see her play with them but she now knows she has them!

She continues doing "hollow holds," holding both her head and legs up.  She's ready to sit up and see the world!

Holland has realized that she has a built-in toy with her headband.  I often find it soaking wet as she pulls it down from her head and sticks it in her mouth to suck on.  She has snapped it right onto her face a few times, darn it, but most often just gets the pleasure out of playing with it.  I have found her with it across her eyes (whoops) and even as a mustache before.  Ha!

Holland really, really loves TJ.  I can't describe it but you can see in her eyes when she looks at him - she just oozes love for him.  She loves watching him, playing with him, talking with him, being held by him, having his attention.  This girl absolutely loves her daddy.

Nana brought to my attention that Holland has a thing for tags and now I notice it all the time!  Reed loved tags too (and still does - the tags on his three beloved blankets are very well worn).

She used to stop nursing to suck on a finger - now she stops nursing to just talk (which just sounds like long yells).  It cracks me up.

This little lady is just the best.  We love, love, love her and are so glad she's here.  She makes us smile and laugh and lets us kiss her cheeks hundreds of times.  Happy half birthday, cute girl.  We sure love you.

Holland: 5 Months Old

This grinning little girl is now five months old.  Five months!  We are so incredibly grateful to have her in our family. 

 Holland is SUCH A GOOD BABY.  She is patient and happy and rarely squawks or screams.  So much of our time goes to Reed – who is just at a busy toddler age! – and Holland is almost always content to sit by and watch, taking it all in.

She inherited gorgeous blue eyes from her dad.  They are deep blue – less gray than Reed’s – and so hard to capture.  I love looking into those gorgeous pools of blue.  Her hair is still blonde as can be, even after the three or four haircuts she's had.

Over the past month or so she’s started doing the funniest thing when she’s eating: she’ll be nursing and I’ll feel her lose her latch.  When I look down I find that she's slid one of her little fingers into her mouth.  Ha!  It happens almost every feeding, often several times, and it makes me laugh.  She just really needs to suck on her finger right then!

A few weeks ago she rolled over for the first time – we were even all there!  I had TJ keep the camera on for about an hour trying to catch it again.  Good thing we gave that up, as she hasn’t rolled over since.  

She really loves to be UP - she does "hollow holds" a dozen or more times a day, where she lifts both her head and her feet while lying on the ground and just holds that position.  She also loves to stand and is strong enough now that we can just hold her hands and she can stay up. 

Reed pointing to a worker wearing orange; Holland trying to figure out how to suck on the book.

When I put Holland to sleep I often swaddle her, then hold her up on my shoulder (she FAR prefers being up than being cradled), and sway back and forth while I stand in her room.  When she falls asleep on her own it is almost always with her hands right in front of her face, usually holding something (her binky clip if that’s all she has) until she falls asleep.

She loves having her eyes covered when she sleeps.  I would never have figured this out, but both TJ and his mom figured it out independently (how?).  She also pulls her arms out of her swaddle as quick as she can.

She is quite a good little kicker and I can’t help but laugh when I praise her for kicking (“Oh, Holland, that’s great kicking!”) and Reed lays next to her and says “Reed kicker.”

We’ve let her lick/suck on a few foods and she just plain loves them: grapes, strawberries, and peaches (pictured here) so far.

She’s not the world’s biggest spitter, for sure, but Holland does spit up enough that we go through all our burp cloths every few days.  I didn’t realize until I was just digging through pictures that I even caught her actually spitting in this one.  Because of spitting up she usually changes 3-4 times a day (and I usually change a couple times too, after she nails me). 

Reed noticing the spit up before I do...

Holland is so patient with Reed.  Over the weekend we went up the canyon for dinner with TJ’s family.  I thought it would be cute to get some pictures with Reed holding Holland.  You can see from the shot below that Reed had had enough after about 30 shots and he just threw her on the ground.  Oh my.  [Note: I would say we were being responsible and had TJ right there to catch her, but he didn’t even move as she went down so that disclaimer isn’t valid.]  Holland landed in the dirt but didn’t even cry.

This is how Reed asks to hold "Hanuh."

Holland loves to be outside.  When she is so fussy I can’t calm her (not often-she’s just such a great baby) it almost always works to take her outside and just enjoy the fresh air.

With TJ's mom, Holland's middle namesake (Eileen)

Holland is a fantastic sleeper.  I keep thinking maybe one day it’s going to end but at this point I HOPE NOT.  At about six weeks she was sleeping 7 hours at night (I have no idea how this happened).  At this point she usually gets up around 4 or 5 AM to eat and then goes back to sleep until about 8.  It’s pretty dreamy and magical and all the best adjectives.  We are so grateful for the sleep.

Right near her five month mark she moved into her own room, across the hallway.  After a couple pretty sleepless nights for me we seem to be in the groove now.

She isn’t really a fan of the green chair that we sit her in (her bouncer seat, though the bouncer doesn’t work) while we’re in the kitchen.  She also doesn’t love the swing.  She does like sitting in the corner of the couch (where there’s enough space for her to tip without falling off) and she really loves kicking in her crib (I think the mattress “echoing” is fun for her – Reed loved it too).

Reed unknowingly gave Holland her nickname - "Hanuh" (not sure how better to spell it) which sometimes gets shortened to "Hahn".  When we first brought her home and he learned her name that was how he pronounced it.  Well, just about two weeks ago he said to me, clear as day, "Holland sleep," which did make me sad because I loved how he said "Hanuh!"  That said, we still - including Reed - call her Hanuh most the time.

We love, love, love our Holland girl.  We can't believe how quickly she's growing.  We're so glad she's ours.

Newborn

One Month

Two Months

Three Months

Four Months

Five Months

Reed Napping

How sweet a sleeping baby is.

Treasured blankets surround him.
Books and trucks within reach.
His music is playing.
He's home.

All is right in his world.

Weekly Family Photo

This is just real life: Reed, Holland, and Rachel all sick.  Thankfully TJ is taking good care of us!

Weekly Family Photo