Sister Snuggle Time

This morning, Morgan decided she really wanted to hold Gwen while Gwen drank her bottle. But, as soon as we put Gwen in Morgan's lap, Morgan decided she'd rather to chill out with a little thumb time.

The end result was hardly the best bottle-feeding experience. But it leant itself to some really flippin' cute photos.

By the way, the girls are modeling their new t-shirts that Nanna and Grandpa sent from their trip to the Monterey Bay Aquarium. "Otters are Awesome!"

Instructions for Gwen

This week, instead of going to her usual classroom ("Infant A"), Gwen spent a couple days with the older, crawling babies in "Infant B."

We found these instructions with Gwen's stuff the other night:

The bottom section cracked us up:

Gwendolyn will usually fall asleep while drinking her bottles. She sleeps in her crib as long as she has her blanket. *Please do not put it over her face* Gwen likes to chew on the blanket to sooth herself. : )

Yep, that's pretty much Gwen in a nutshell.

Gwen's First Tooth

Gwen cut her first tooth this weekend. The little bugger is starting to break through on the front bottom. Being the humble 6-month old that she is, Gwen wasn't very interested in showing off her new tooth today. So you'll have to wait for pictures of the tooth.

In the meantime, here are some photos of Gwen NOT showing off her new tooth.

School Pictures (Fall 2010)

Here are the girls' school photos from Fall 2010. The photographer was brave enough to have the kids and their siblings pose together. We were surprised to see that Morgan and Gwen both smiled for the camera at the same time.

You can tell the photos are a couple months old already (sorry, I just got around to scanning them this week). When the photos were taken at the end of November, Gwen couldn't quite sit up yet. If they were shooting them today, Gwen would be sitting straight up -- and probably have at least one of her hands in Morgan's hair.

Here are their individual shots and class photos.

Winter Watermelon?

You know what they say: Nothing tastes better on bitter cold winter day than a juicy watermelon. (What? Nobody says that? Really?)

Well, with Gwen still not grasping the concept of solid food, we decided to give Gwen a try at grasping some watermelon inside her nifty little baby food baggies. Morgan was more than happy to show Gwen how it's done.

We're not sure Gwen realized there was food inside. Then again, Gwen doesn't really understand what "food" is yet either. Nevertheless, she had fun chewing on the mesh bag. Well, until she dropped it. And then dropped it again. And again.

"HeY, WAit. WhERe dId iT gO?"

Gwen at 6 Months

Wow -- or, as Morgan would say, "Holy ta-MOLEY!" -- Gwen's first six months flew by faster than we could have ever expected.

This month, Gwen perfected sitting up by herself. She has gotten very good at leaning over to grab her toys. And lately, she's been lunging from a sitting position to her belly, which is a big step toward learning how to crawl.

Gwen tried a bunch of new foods this month. She hasn't taken to solid foods quite as fast as we thought she would. But she has learned quickly how to grimace, smirk, shiver and sneer when she gets new food in her mouth.

Unfortunately, Gwen's ear infection issues continued this month. She came down with ear infections numbers 5 and 6 a few days after Christmas. And then, by the second week of January, she notched numbers 7 and 8. We're crossing our fingers that she won't reach double digits.

Over the holidays, both sets of grandparents claimed they saw more and more of Andy in Gwen than they had before. But as the pictures below show, it all depends on her expression. (That's "Andy" Gwen on the left and "Ariella" Gwen on the right.)

Here are some more photos from Gwen's sixth month:

Now that Gwen can sit up, she's able to really enjoy bath time and snuggle time with Morgan.

Eating is an adventure. Gwen is very interested in everyone else's food -- but not so interested in her own food yet.

Gwen has gotten really good at stretching to reach toys -- a new skill she put to use when we visited the Please Touch museum recently.

Of course, goofing around with her big sister is still Gwen's favorite thing to do.

Gwen Sits Up

Let's make it official: Gwen can sit up by herself.

Since right before Christmas, she has been sitting up with the "boppy" or while she's leaning against something. But in the last few days, she has figured out how to lean toward a toy, balance herself, and pull herself back to an upright position. (If there were a "Sitting Up" rulebook, I'm guessing those would be the three requirements the judges would look for.)

At school on Friday, Gwen's teacher needed to shuffle one of the babies to the "Infant B" (a.k.a. "crawler") room. Since Gwen is the only one of the 5-6 month-olds who is sitting up, she got to go play with the big kids. Way to go, Gwen!

On a somewhat related happy note, since Gwen has started sitting up, she's also been spitting up a lot less. Way to go (again) Gwen!