A New Adventure Everyday

6 months is such a fun age!  It feels like every day Rylan is doing something new.  The past few days have been really fun and I can't believe how fast she learns to do things.  Our big accomplishment today was that she took her first nap in her crib without falling asleep to a bottle.  She does such a good job putting herself to sleep during the night, but never could seem to give in during naps.  She always would just scream and scream if I tried to get her to nap in the crib without being asleep when she was put in.  But today it only took about 10 minutes of screaming before she actually went to sleep!  I am so excited and hope that this is the start of an actual napping schedule.  It's been 20 minutes and she is still sleeping!

Aside from napping, her next big adventure has been her new vocalization skills.  For awhile she hasn't been saying much, but recently she has become really talkative.  Her new way to communicate is to let out a high-pitched shrieking sound.  If you didn't know her, you'd think she was angry but she is really just having fun.

She is still pulling herself all over the floor and can easily get to whatever catches her eye, including the remote, magazines, and the animals.  Yesterday she got up on her hands and knees and rocked back and forth.  According to her aunt, this is the last step before crawling!

On the Move

 

Won't be long until she learns to get up on her knees and really crawl!  Time to baby-proof the house!

Easter Beauty

Rylan enjoyed her first Easter in a beautiful fancy dress.  She had it on for about two hours, at which point I decided it just wasn't practical for her to roll around and play on the floor.  We made sure to get some pictures before I took it off her though.

She also received a great little basket of candy (which Daddy ate) and some new outfits from Grandmom and Grandpop.  One of the best gifts was a Phillies hat, which is still a bit big on her.  But at least she already knows how to wear it with attitude!

On Easter Monday, we heard back from the surgeon's office.  Looks like she won't be getting her lip repair until June 27th.  It is a little bit later than I was hoping, but at least we will now get to have a pleasant family vacation down the shore before her schedules and routines get all thrown off again.  I did call the surgeon's office and asked them to keep us in mind in case of cancellations between now and then, but I'm not going to anticipate that happening.  Should be an interesting way for Mason and I to spend our two year wedding anniversary!

Surgeon Appointment

We went to see Dr. Morrissey yesterday and it looks like Rylan's lip is healed enough to go ahead with the final repair. Although the lip adhesion was unsuccessful, he felt that it did help her nose which I can see too.  Surgery will be sometime in the middle to end of May.  They just need to check with the hospital to get an open operating room and they will let me know the date.  This surgery will take at least 3 hours, but she will still be able to go home with us the same day as long as everything goes well.  I certainly wasn't happy about the lip adhesion, but at least I feel calm for this surgery because I know what to expect.  Only a month left of this adorable face the way it is so I better get the camera out and start taking as many pictures as possible.  Here's one of my favorite recent ones:

Big Day (Especially for Mommy!)

The first swimming experience is always exciting, but even more so when Mommy was a swimmer.  I couldn't wait to get Rylan in the water and see how she liked it.  It went even better than I expected.  We spent about 30 minutes in the water and she didn't cry at all.   She really liked playing in the little fountain and didn't seem to mind all of the water that was spraying into her face.  I can't wait to take her back to the pool!

Little Miss Personality

Life with Rylan has been so much fun lately.  She is starting to become her own little person and it makes the days go much faster than when she was a newborn.  She still seems to love squash the most, but also eats bananas and pears.  Yesterday we tried peas and those did not go over too well.  When I put them in her mouth, she gave me a look that said, "Mom, you must be kidding me."

We were supposed to go see Dr. Morrissey tomorrow, but our appointment got pushed back to next week.  I'm pretty sure that her lip is fully healed so I am expecting he will schedule her surgery for  sometime in May.  Her cleft has made eating a bit of a challenge at times because she accidentally pushes the food up into her nose.  After each meal I have to use a q-tip to clean the puree out of her nostril and she does not like that at all. 

Rylan has finally achieved rolling both ways, which makes both of us happier. She is still practicing her free falling for when she goes sky diving in the future though.  Here is a video of her newly learned skill.  Note the t-shirt for all of you Phillies fans!

She has also decided it is extremely funny to blow raspberries all the time.  I finally was able to catch it on tape and it was her best one ever!

No Manners

I guess we need to teach Rylan that you aren't supposed to talk with your mouth full!  At least she is enjoying eating the squash (although everything, including her pants, ended up orange!)

 

A big squashy smile