Lark is now 6 months old and has grown a ton since my last entry!  At her last Dr.’s appointment, she was exactly 17 lbs, I think 26″ and her head circumference is still around 90%, so she’s on target to achieve her super genius potential.

• Lark has developed quite the personality.  She is very inquisitive and examines everything she looks at – you can tell she’s processing all that she experiences.  She loves to move around, she hates to be in one place for too long or if she is just hanging out, she needs to be playing with something (she’s a multi-tasker, much like Mama).
• She absolutely loves to play in her jumper and she can get some height on her jumps.  She could be a natural ballerina as when she jumps, it’s like she’s doing jumping plies. 
• Lark loves Charlie.  She thinks he’s extremely funny and laughs at him often.
• Charlie loves Lark.  He will often give her kisses on her hands and feet.  Once he gave her kisses on the face.
• She’s sitting up pretty well on her own, but not for long periods of time.  She still needs someone behind her in case she falls backwards, but she’s very close to being self supporting.
• She loves to sit up in her bouncer, then hang head down off to the side.  Problem is she hasn’t figured out how to pull herself up after being head down.  She’ll often hang head backwards and down from the boppy on my lap too.
• She’s a couple of weeks into a bedtime routine being established.  She still cries most nights when we put her down, but she usually only fusses for a few minutes now rather than an hour.
• Lark’s teething and I have the sore nipples to prove it (no teeth yet).  Probably too much information .
•  We’ve started her on solids.  She really likes rice cereal and sweet potatoes.  She’s not a fan of bananas.  I tried giving her peas yesterday and she threw them up and gave me the “EW!  Are you trying to kill me” face.  We’ll try those again later.  This weekend, I’ll be introducing the sippy cup.
• She’s a total Daddy’s girl and nothing or no one can make her laugh like Daddy does!  Whenever she hears his voice, she stops what she’s doing and looks for him.  
• She loves the sound of when you put your lips together and make a “pop” sound.  It’s the fastest way to get her attention.
• She likes it when I sing my “Poop Soup” song while changing her diaper.
• She enjoys dancing around the room with Mama.
• She can say “Dada” and “Nana”, but hasn’t put together who “Dada” and “Nana” are… even though while Nana was here last week, she did say “Nana” as if addressing her and Lark also gave her a big hug.  So maybe she has put two and two together… super genius!
• She still talks – a lot!  It’ll be fabulous once she can form sentences and we can understand what she’s saying.  She’s also experimenting with different sounds.  She likes to make the “raspberry” sound and click her tongue on the roof of her mouth.
• Recently, she’s learned that rather than be frustrated that she can’t crawl yet, she can roll to get where she wants to go.  Yes folks, she’s mobile – watch out!  It’s really cute to watch her try to crawl.  She can move backwards, but forwards not so much.  And she often uses her face to try to propel herself forwards.  That can’t feel good.
• She loves eating in her high chair like a big girl and loves to grab the spoon and put it in her mouth to feed herself (with my death grip on the spoon of course).
• She likes to whisper to herself and she’s also discovered screaming just for fun (thankfully, she doesn’t do that one often).
• She likes being read to.
• Much to my husband’s chagrin, she likes watching America’s Next Top Model and looks at the TV when she hears Tyra Banks’ voice.
• She’s a sucker for good looking males.  If there’s a good looking man in the room, she’ll just sit and stare at him.
• She’s just starting to have a little stranger anxiety, but it’s not too bad.
• She enjoys her friends at daycare.
• She loves her toes and loves to put them in her mouth.
• And lastly, she’s still adorable and has huge blue eyes.  She is our little lamb.

Lark is a Super Trooper.  She got a little fever after her first round of shots, and she was fussy because she didn’t feel well, but only a little bit.  Most of the time after she vomits, she just goes back to her day and doesn’t think anything of it unless it happens to go through her nose and then she screams, but who could blame her?  Anything coming up through the nose stings.  During her first week of daycare she caught a cold and today we took her to the doctor because she’s developed a cough that sounds terrible and her congestion is back.  But you wouldn’t know by how she acts or looks that she’s not feeling well.  The only hint is her coughing and sniffles, especially at night while she’s trying to sleep.  The doctor said she caught a secondary illness to the cold and she should sound better in a few days.  It’s probably just the start of a long bout of various diseases since it’s widely known that daycares are germ factories.  But on the bright side, her immune system’s going to be very well developed eventually.

I am in total awe of Lark.  Perhaps it’s a result of her rough first week in the world, but she’s turning out to be a tough little cookie.  She’s also extremely curious about everything.  Recently, she’s started to notice Charlie.  A few days ago while hanging out in her bouncer, Charlie was near her and she was watching him with a look of “what is this fuzzy thing?”.  This afternoon, we were all sitting on the couch watching a movie and I sat Lark up so she could see her Daddy and she spotted Charlie and wouldn’t take her eyes off of him.  She was fascinated watching him eat!  I have no doubt that someday they’ll be best of friends.  And she LOVES to talk.  We call her “Chatty Cathy”.  A couple of nights ago, Lark woke up hungry at 1:05am on the nose.  I fed her and she fell asleep on my lap as she often does after feeding.  I put her back in her bassinet thinking she’d stay asleep.  Nope.  A couple of seconds later, she woke up not upset, not wanting anything but to hear herself talk.  We were tired, but it was still extremely cute.  Both Martin and I took turns trying to get her back to sleep, but the first couple of times, she’d fall asleep on our shoulders and wake up talking when she was put back in the bassinet.  Martin persevered and got her back to sleep for a few more hours. 

So yes indeedy, we won the baby lottery!  Hooray!!!!

In case anyone’s wondering, we all survived her first day in daycare. I had a goal of not crying until getting to Bangerter, but I didn’t quite make it.  However, that was the only cry I needed and I was okay the rest of the day.  I did call and check in once though .  When it comes down to it, I feel good about the daycare we selected and after picking her up on Friday, I still felt pretty good about it.  Poor Lark hasn’t quite taken to bottle feeding however, but we’re working on it.  She took one from the sitter last Saturday and her first bottle at the daycare was a good one.  Today we picked up a new bottle where the nipples are more breast-like and Martin said she took to those better.  So we’re optimistic that this week she’ll start to love the bottle.  I mean, there’s a part of me that thinks it’s pretty cool that she doesn’t like eating from anything but Mama and if I had it my way, that’s all she would know until it was time to wean.  But under the circumstances that can’t happen so hopefully this week she will learn to love the bottle AND Mama’s breast.  They don’t need to be mutually exclusive.

Also new, we’re starting to relax a little bit.  Lark’s currently sleeping in a bassinet next to our bed and when she went to bed, we went to bed because we were too nervous to leave her alone.  Now we’ve hooked up our baby monitors and when Lark goes to bed, we don’t necessarily go to bed.  But I still check on her regularly.  Before we know it, she’ll be in her own bed in her room.  Hmmm… or not.  I really like having her next to our bed and it’s so easy when she wakes up just to grab her, feed her and then put her right back down to sleep, not to mention the ease in checking that she’s still breathing.  I often check to make sure everyone in the house is breathing while they sleep of which Martin likes to tease me.  I say you can never be too careful .  Anyway, unfortunately we all must progress, so I’ll let Lark sleep in her crib… eventually.

Lark also had her first round of immunizations this past week.  She’s almost 13 lbs (12 lbs 14 oz to be exact) and measures 23 inches.  Martin had to be the strong face while I hid myself during the shots because I couldn’t stop myself from crying knowing what her reaction to the shots was going to be.  There’s nothing worse than hearing your baby scream in pain.  But she was a super trooper.  She screamed for several minutes, and then after we got her dressed and held her for a bit, she calmed down and was happy again.  The next day she did come down with a mild fever which we were warned could happen.  She’s all better now and the day after her fever, she was happy as a… dare I say… Lark. Badda bum ching.

Perhaps the cutest development this past week was her gift of gab.  Granted, she’s not really talking yet… but she’s talking baby talk which consists of a lot of little chirps, squeaks, squeals, and ooos and aahs.  She’s already figured out that you take turns talking to the person you’re conversing with.  She’ll say something, then I’ll respond to her, and then she responds back… she never tries to talk over me or interrupt (I know, just wait until she’s a teenager).  And she’s very passionate in trying to get her point across.  She gets this look on her face that says “you’re not getting what I’m trying to tell you, so I’m going to keep talking until you get it.” And then when she thinks you understand, she gets really smiley.  It’s quite darling.

• She is quite chatty when she’s awake.  When I talk to her, often she talks back.  And sometimes when she’s in her bouncer just hanging out, she’ll experiment with making various sounds.  It’s quite cute.  She’ll be looking around the room and babble like she’s talking to herself.  Sometimes she’ll let out a loud SQUEAK and then a look of shock crawls across her face that seems to say “Dude!  Did that just come out of me?!?!”  She also looks at you like she understands you and knows what she wants to say to respond to you, but the words she wants to use just won’t come out of her mouth. 
• She’s in the very preliminary phases of developing a laugh.  I’ve heard bits and pieces of a laugh, but not yet quite a full laugh.  
• She loves to have her diaper changed.  You put her on her changing table and she’s all smiles.
• She loves music.  Being my daughter, it’d be a very strange thing if she didn’t.  But she so far she’s digging classical music.  Eventually she will be introduced to all things Duran Duran.  On their website you can buy your baby Duran Duran onesies.  I’m so there!  She’s a little too young for Rock Band though.   
• She loves it when I sing to her.  So far, she really likes “Dream A Little Dream of Me”, “California Dreaming”, and “Ordinary World”.  These usually either put her to sleep or calm her down when she’s fussy.  She’s not as keen on anything with a faster tempo quite yet.  I’m trying to get her to like “What’s New Pussycat” since you can point to her lips, nose, and eyes as you sing, but she’s not at an age where she can appreciate it yet.
• The poor dear has gas.  Bad gas.  And it’s not easy to burp her.  Most of the time you have to hold her upright after she eats for at least a half hour or so to help her burp and too keep her food down.  
• She doesn’t fuss much except when she’s really tired and when she has gas.  She normally sleeps well during the day until late afternoon where she’ll stay awake until she’s on the verge of being overtired.  I’m convinced she likes to stay awake for Daddy to come home because when he takes over she gets happy and not soon afterwards, she’ll fall asleep.  Mmm hm.  I’ve got her number.
• She’s inherited Mom’s grumpy face.  She normally has the face if wakened prematurely from a nap… just like Mommy does!
• She’s inherited Dad’s happy disposition in the mornings.  I woke up this morning and Lark was just hanging out in her bassinet, looking around with a very chipper look on her face.  She wasn’t upset at all even though she was definitely hungry.  She’s a happy little camper.
• She’s a stretcher.  She loves to stretch.  She stretches when she wakes up.  She stretches while she’s sleeping.  She’ll stretch after being fed.  I actually think it’s a sign she has reflux, but it’s still cute.
• She’s not sure what to make of our dog Charlie (and for Charlie, the feeling’s mutual).  I think she only really is aware of him when he barks, but other than that she’s not really interested in him – yet.
• A few weeks ago, she stopped using her binky.  She prefers sucking on her left hand.  I got her to use her binky briefly last week after a big crying episode, but since then she won’t take it.  Loves the hand.  She’s all about the hand.
• She hates having anything pulled over her head.  She doesn’t mind hats or bows.  But she hates having shirts or anything else pulled on over her head. They really need to make baby clothes that don’t go over the head.
• She loves the froggie mobile in her crib that plays “Lullaby”.
• When she first came home, she seemed to be more distressed during her dreams where she’d cry while sleeping and make unhappy noises.  I was convinced she was dreaming about being poked and prodded in the NICU.  Now she often smiles when she dreams.  She sometimes still cries while sleeping, so she probably still dreams of being poked and prodded in the NICU and who wouldn’t.
• She likes a little independence.  While she mostly loves being held and carried around, she has her moments where she just wants to sit in either her bouncer or swing and look around and not be bothered.
• She loves to look around at everything.  All babies probably do the same thing where they’re constantly surveying their surroundings.  We recently started carrying her facing outwards sometimes instead of facing towards us when she gets fussy because she’s bored.  She does the “tennis” move where she constantly moves her head from left to right looking at everything in the room.
• She is sleeping through the night and has been for a few weeks now.  She sleeps at least 6 hours every night waking up mainly at 2am to eat and get changed and then she’s awake for the day when Daddy gets up at 6am.
• She loves tummy time on Daddy’s chest, hates tummy time on Mommy’s chest. I’m guessing I’m too lumpy. Plus I imagine it’s weird laying face down on your food source.  It’d be like trying to lay comfortably belly down on your refrigerator.  Weird.
• She is fascinated by the pictures above her changing table which are two frogs, a chick, a turtle, and a dragonfly.
• She’s a natural in front of the camera.  Can we say America’s Next Top Model?  Just kidding Martin Honey!!!
• She is a super genius.  She’s just keeping all of her amazing abilities on the down low – for now.