Happy 7 month birthday. That makes 213 days of kisses or 5,112 hours of hugs or 306,720 minutes of joy & happiness (for the most part) that you have brought your daddy and me. Thank you! You now weigh 20.5 lbs (74%) and measure 28.5 inches (85%).
This month you went to your first movie (Happy Feet) and celebrated both your first Halloween and your first Thanksgiving. You were dressed as a cuddly Dalmatian for Halloween, although I am sorry, but no, you did not go Trick-or-Treating this year. There is just something strange about adults begging for candy. But never fear, next year you will be all over it! You enjoyed your first Thanksgiving eating my sweet potato soufflé (minus the sugary, nutty topping), Aunt Jill’s healthy mash potatoes, and Aunt Kate’s butternut squash. You spent almost the entire day playing with Ella and Jack… and spitting up of course.
Yes, you continue to spit up often. I cannot tell you how ready I am for you to outgrow that phase. Aunt Renee’ promises that it will happen soon. Especially as you begin to eat real food. You have moved up to stage 2 foods and also enjoy trying to feed yourself. You struggle with getting the Gerber Stars into your mouth, but when they do finally make it in, you swish them around back and forth until they finally dissolve. You have also gotten better at eating the zwieback cookies, gnawing them into swallowable mush. You love drinking from a cup and now eyeball any glass you see hoping for the chance to wrap your sweet little lips around the rim of it. Bottles continue to be your main source of liquid nutrition, especially since this month you have mastered holding them all on your own. (Yippee!)
You have learned how to effectively use your walker and now cruise the house chasing after Ozzy and your father and me. You no longer tolerate being left in the room alone and cry the instant we leave. It isn’t a real cry, mind you. Your face brightens up with a smile the second we reappear. While you have figured out the walker, you have not figured out how to get your arms and knees to cooperate into a crawl. You continue to rock back and forth while on the floor and only move backwards. Forwards is a feat that you have yet to accomplish. In due time, by dear Grayson. In due time!
What you have discovered that is true, clean fun is how to splash in the bath tub. Your love of bath time has increased to the point of squirms on my lap and unsolicited giggles as you watch your tub fill with water and bubbles. I can honestly see the excitement build within you as you anticipate the moment when you can get inside. You now sit in your little tub completely on your own and use your chubby little hands attempting to capture one of you many bath toys. Once you grasp one, you flail it up and down, splattering water all over me and the rest of the bathroom. Of course, you laugh and squeal in delight the entire time.
At the beginning of this month you had some trouble adjusting to the time change. It took us almost two weeks to convince you not to get up too early and to eat dinner a little bit later. But by now you have adjusted and are accustomed to your old schedule with an hour time delay.
You still only have your two bottom teeth. I insist that you are working on a few more considering the unexplained, fussy night we had a week and a half ago. After almost two hours of crying, I called Aunt Renee in desperation, who diagnosed your spell as “sounds like he is cutting teeth.” She prescribed some Tylenol and as she predicted, you were then able to go back to sleep. This teeth cutting has also turned you into a drool machine. I am trying to figure out if we can somehow turn your excessive drool making into a way to make money; after all it is about time for you start paying rent, right? 7 months is just about the limit for putting a roof over your head with out some king of a payment! All right, all right…I’ve talked it over with your daddy and we have decided to take all of those laughs, kisses, and cuddles as payment instead. But honestly, if you can figure out how to get paid for drooling, I could probably quit my job and stay home with you. You really do produce that much spit!
You are still experimenting with sound production. Your favorite sounds still include the “b”. Usually: “ba, ba, ba” or a variation such as ‘aba, aba, aba”. On a few occasions you have muttered “da”, “ma”, and “awa”, but never in succession and never trying to indicate something. So still we continue to wait for your first meaningful word. By the way, you do know who incubated your little body for over 9 months right? And who has changed the most diapers and fed you the most food??? Huh? Well take that into consideration when choosing your first meaningful word please!
Well, I guess that wraps up the last month in a nut shell. There is much to look forward to this month. Aunt Jill and soon-to-be Uncle Chris will get married this weekend. Your first Christmas is just around the corner and Daddy and I can’t wait to spend it with you. Just remember to be a good little boy if you want gifts from Santa! I am sure that he is already looking on!
With Love-
Mommy
P.S. Nursing stopped this month too, but you didn’t seem to notice. Did ya? Yeah, I didn’t think so!
By the way you can see more photos from today’s photo shoot by clicking on the photo at the top of the screen. If you like, you can order prints from that site too!
