Good news and bad news

Lu's 6 month well visit was today and we got good news and bad news!

Good news first: she's growing like a weed, and has finally made it out of the "Low" (meaning, off the bottom of the charts) percentile for length! She's now longer than 17% of her baby peers. Boo-ya! While we'd love her more than anything in the world no matter how big or small she is, it's good to know that her milk-monster-ness is paying off.

...and that brings us to the bad news. You may have noticed that Lu's seemed a bit pale in recent photos. Apparently her rapid growth (combined with her tiny start) depleted her iron stores early and she's a bit anemic. Well, more than a little bit. We're now on a mission to pump her [iron] up through continuing to breastfeed, supplements, fortified cereals, and high-iron foods like sweet potatoes and butternut squash (and meat in a month or so). We head back in 6 weeks for a retest, and hopefully she'll be back up to code by then.

Lu and Ilan

I think we've posted photos of all of Lu's friends (at least, those in Knoxville) on the blog, except Ilan. Here are Lu and Ilan during brunch on Sunday with their proud papas.

Happy 6-Month Birthday, Lu!

I can't believe that it's been 6 months already! On Saturday Luella and I took advantage of a sunny day and went to one of Allen's soccer games.

Sunday was a fun day as well - we had brunch/baby play date with some friends and then took a long walk at the park.

Lu's been significantly more fussy and wakeful (at night) the last few days... I think she may be getting a half-birthday tooth very soon!

Te Amo

Happy Valentine's Day!! Lu loves you!

Yum yum!

After a couple of weeks of Luella deploying her best sad puppy dog eyes every time Allen and I ate anything, we decided that it was time to try solid food... though I'm not quite sure it's accurate to call it solid. We started just over a week ago with brown rice cereal, and have since added in bananas. She seems to enjoy the bites of yumminess, but definitely prefers to help us with the spoon.

Next up: sweet potatoes!! Mom's favorite!

Brunch + Babies

Though we love love love going to Sunday brunch at the Tomato Head, Luella wanted to invite all of her pals over to our house last Sunday so that they had more time to hang out and roll around. She invited Elise, Ilan, and Noah (and their parents, so Allen and I didn't get too bored).







We munched on breakfast tacos and let the little ones check each other out. Ilan was recovering from a nasty cold and was unable to make it, but Lu, Elise, and Noah had a blast. Elise is just 5 days younger than Lu, and it was super cool to watch them discover each other.

Exciting Events

We've had lots of excitement over the past week...


First, Honey Gayle (Allen's mom) arrived on Wednesday, and Lu had a wonderful time playing and snuggling with her until she left on Friday. It's really nice to have an extra set of hands around - especially hands that love Lu and Lu loves. We can't wait to get back to Texas so that we can see family more often.





Luella unveiled a new trick just for Honey Gayle - sitting up! She can't do it for a tremendously long time, but she's able to sit for a little less than a minute before she topples over. She's pretty excited about it too, and gets more stable every time we practice.







And finally, Honey Gayle made it out just in time to miss a big(ish) snow - we got about 4-5 inches this weekend! Lu wasn't really interested in playing, so we made a quick snow angel and did a snow photo shoot. Will have to do until her little hands are big enough to make snowballs!