Holly reports that Hayley’s second tooth, just to the the left-front-bottom one, has broken through the gumline today.
Her first tooth is getting pretty sharp, so with this one, I don’t know how much longer she’ll be able to pacify herself with our fingers before we start to bleed.
We took Hayley to Durham for her six-month portraits this weekend. For whatever reason - hungry, overwhelmed, who knows - she didn’t want to smile. We tried for a half-hour, but the best we could get was a serious, non-crying look.
We got two good shots, though - one where she’s looking at a silk flower in her hand, the other where she’s sitting in a chair with her arm around a stuffed rabbit. So I’ll put those online when we get them in a few weeks.
We had a good visit with Kyle & Christine on Saturday - Hayley was her normal charming self during their visit. The Grandparents Minter came down on Sunday, but their visit was cut short by car trouble with my Dad’s truck, so they were only down for about an hour before they had to hit the garage. Hopefully they’ll make it down again soon, this time with all the hoses on their radiator!
Hayley managed go from a laying position into a sitting position all by herself tonight. We’d wondered how she’d be able to do that, and now we know the process.
She was on her tummy. She pulled one knee forward until it was under her, pushed back with her arms, and that was it. She was sitting up!
She did the trick a couple more times tonight, too. And she’s also pulling with her arms and pushing up on her toes (like she’s doing a pushup), so it probably won’t be too long before she’s crawling.
Guess I better start working on that babyproofing soon.
Busy weekend ahead, with a visit from Kyle & Christine tomorrow, and Sunday holds a visit from the Grandparents Minter as well as Hayley’s six-month pictures in Durham.
Hayley is six months old today! Halfway to her first year!
We took her to the doctor for her six-month checkup yesterday. The doctor said everything was fine, and we’re doing the solid foods properly, etc., etc. One thing of note is that her length didn’t change at all since her four-month checkup - she’s still at 25 3/4″ long (50th percentile, down from 90th at four months). The doctor didn’t seem concerned, though, and said that it was likely that they just measured her incorrectly last time. We’ll have to keep an eye on it - I knew she was a lil’ shorty, but just over two feet tall for an adult height isn’t good. 
She’s also up to 16 pounds, 0 ounces (50th percentile), and 44cm head diameter (90th percentile).
We think she may be cutting tooth #2 - she’s been very restless at night, and drooling a lot again, which signaled the arrival of the first tooth. No outward signs on her gums yet, though.
She’s making good progress on being able to put herself to sleep - it’ll normally take a couple of turns of “hold her, put her down, have her wake up hollering” before she goes to sleep, but it’s better than having to walk her around for an hour or two every night. She’s also usually down by 10-10:30 every night, which also works better than just starting to put her down at 11.
Hayley has a new friend - our persian cat Lucy. Whenever the cat walks by, Hayley gets the biggest grin on her face, and she just starts talking nonstop to the kitty. Her idea of “petting,” though, involves Hayley ending up with big fistfulls of white fur in her hand, so I’m not sure if Lucy is quite as enraptured by Hayley. I think that’ll be my next video attempt - “Baby Meets Kitty.”
She’s starting to “play” a lot more now. We can sit her in the floor in front of her toys, and she’ll grab and hit at them for a while, intent on what she’s doing.
Grandma Estes and Aunt Jenny are down for a daytime visit today.
My daughter, the light of my life, flesh of my flesh, just spit up directly into my left ear.
I’m going to be twitching for a week.
We now return you to your regularly scheduled blog.
Apparently Hayley has reconsidered her opinion of peas. Holly just called to tell me that Hayley ate a whole jar of the Gerber peas in one sitting.
She said she was prepared for Hayley to only eat a few bites again, like yesterday. Instead of feeding her out of the jar, Holly spooned a little bit into another container (since you can’t re-store baby food once the baby’s gotten her spit in it). After a few tenative bites, she opened wide and ate the entire jar!
Daddy still doesn’t like peas, though.
Hayley’s been testing out her voice lately. For the past few days, she’ll have periods of babbling, where she’ll carry on little infant conversations with lots of different sounds.
I just finished my daily lunchtime phone call back home, and I could hear Hayley just talking up a storm. It won’t be too much longer before she’s telling me about her day in English words, not just “baby”.
We went up to Petersburg this weekend for my Mom’s wedding. Hayley was a very good girl during the informal ceremony, and everyone talked about how cute and alert she was. Every parent loves to hear people brag about their baby.
We’ve had fun looking at and touching Hayley’s first little tooth. It’s good to be easily amused.
We introduced Hayley to the wonderful world of vegetables today, with predictably amusing results. While she’s enjoyed eating the rice cereal and oatmeal, grabbing at the spoon to get it into her mouth faster, she was decidedly unimpressed by the Gerber mashed peas we were spooning at her.
She was eager for the first bite, figuring that if it’s on the spoon, it’s got to be good. But then her face went through a cycle of curiosity, dawning comprehension, and horror, as she tried to push as much of the green paste out of her mouth as she could.
We ended up getting about a third of a jar on her face, and about two drops into her tummy.
I wonder how long it’s going to take to go through those six jars we bought…
This is also my 100th post to the BabyBlog, for those keeping score.
We’re about 90% sure that the weird little bump we’re feeling on Hayley’s lower gum is her first tooth cutting through.
That would explain the firehose-like streams of drool we’ve been seeing for the past few days, as well as her fussiness.
We took the infant sling out of Hayley’s baby bathtub a couple of days ago. So now instead of laying on her back above the water, she’s now sitting in it, free to play with her rubber duckie or splash around.
We now enter the phase where more water ends up on the floor than on her.