Corinne

Last week was Corinne’s six month check up at the pediatricians office. Corinne is now right at the 50th percentile for weight and just over the 50th percentile for height which the doctor was happy about. She did have a touch of diaper rash so she had to get her first prescription but otherwise everything checked out fine. The end of the appointment is always the dreaded vaccines but she seems to be an old pro at this point. She let out one loud scream for each of the 3 shots but when it was all over she calmed down after a minute or two. It takes a little longer than that for me to calm down though.

Last Friday Corinne turned 6 months old. She isn’t quite ready for cake so we celebrated her half birthday with some yummy pears. It seems like there is something new every few days with Corinne but one of the more notable happenings was that she is starting to sit up on her own. She is a little wobbly and after a minute or so she usually decides to lean all the way forward and suck on her feet. With her bulky cloth diapers on it is difficult for her to bend her leg back far enough to get her foot in her mouth but as soon as you take off her diaper to change her she goes right for the toes. Besides sitting up on her own she is also standing with support for a lot longer than she used to. We are just hoping that she learns to crawl before she starts walking. Corinne has been smiling and laughing for months but recently Cynde has discovered a few especially tickly spots on her so we can really get her giggling. From time to time she also has these unprovoked laughing fits when she is really tired, which actually happens to Cynde sometimes too. Recently Corinne seems to be watching very closely when we talk and she seems to be trying much harder to make certain sounds herself. There have been several occasions where I swore I heard her say “Ma” and “hi” but it is hard to tell if it was on purpose. In case you didn’t believe me about Corinne sitting up and standing I included pictures below.

Last Sunday Corinne went to her first Phillies game. We took the subway down to the game which was another first for Corinne. She stayed calm for the whole ride but she winced and covered her ears every time they announced the name of the next stop. I think she might have brought the Phils some luck since they came back from an early deficit to win. Of course I was changing a dirty diaper when the go ahead home run was hit… but I got to see the replay.

At first I thought that when she made the hand gesture in the picture below Corinne was trying to indicate that the Phils are number one but just to be on the safe side I plan to check and see if this is some sort of gang sign.

I enjoy every moment together with Corinne but I especially like the night time routine. We start off by feeding Corinne some baby food. We have moved on from rice cereal to green peas then carrots, sweet potatoes, and recently we tried apples for the first time. I didn’t have the camera ready but judging by the faces she was making I think the apples were a little tart for her little taste buds. Depending on the night the next order of business is to give Corinne a bath. While I get the bath ready Cynde usually gives Corinne a massage. By the time I get back Corinne is giggling away. Except for her very first bath Corinne has always seemed to enjoy bath time. She usually just chills out and lets us do the washing but lately she has started doing a lot of kicking and splashing around which has made bath time lots of fun. After we dry her off and get some cute jammies on her I feed her a bottle while Cynde reads a book. After some hugs and kisses we put her down for the night.

We didn’t see any fireworks since they don’t go off until way after Corinne’s bedtime but we still had a lot of fun this weekend. On Friday we checked out Franklin Square, a park at the base of the Ben Franklin Bridge that was recently renovated. There  was a playground with swings and slides and the sort of things you might expect to see at a park but they also have a carousel and a miniature golf course with miniature versions of some of Philly’s landmarks. This is Corinne and I next to the replica liberty bell which is only 3 blocks from the actual liberty bell.

And this is Cynde and Corinne in front of a fountain that as far as I know is not a replica of another fountain.

On Saturday we went to the ice cream festival that occurs every Independence Day at Penn’s Landing. There were thousands of people there and I think all but a few of them stopped us to tell us how cute Corinne is. One woman said “Oh my god I thought she was a doll. She’s so beautiful.” At first I thought this was a nice compliment for Corinne but then I wondered what kind of weirdo do I look like that someone would think that I was walking around the city with a doll strapped to me?

After over a month of rice cereal and weeks of peas we decided to give Corinne carrots. I don’t know if she was just excited that it was something other than rice, peas, and milk but she really seemed to like the carrots. In the last couple weeks she has started doing this thing where after every spoonful of food she sucks her thumb until the next spoonful arrives. It can be a little messy but it seems to help her swallow all the food in her mouth better. I guess its fine for now but I think it might be a little odd if this behavior continues into adulthood.

Last week we got a wii. It might be a little while before Corinne can play along but we couldn’t stop ourselves from making her a mii of her own. I think the coolest part is that she shows up as a character in the games. Cynde is playing wii fit soccer right now and Corinne’s mii just scored a goal against her. Corinne is way cuter in real life but this was the best we could do.

On Friday we met up with some friends to try out a new restaurant in Fishtown. Corinne has been making some funny new faces and sticking her tongue out a lot. Our friend Dinko who is a photo enthusiast took some pictures of Corinne and captured some of these new expressions. These are a few of my favorites.

Last week was a busy week for Corinne. On Tuesday she had a play date with her buddy Cameron at the Camden Aquarium. Cynde said that Corinne really enjoyed herself and that she particularly liked the big tanks with the colorful fish. I was a little worried about the Moms and the babes going to Camden on their own. I had this vision of Corinne’s stroller getting stolen and then we would find the burned out shell of it up on blocks somewhere. Fortunately, they didn’t run into any such problems.