We are officially in the second half of your first year! The 7-month milestone seems like a bit of a tipping point. Maybe it's all in my head, but it feels like things just really take off from here. You're definitely not my little baby anymore. Although, let's be honest, you've never really been that little.
You were back to being your fat and happy self this month. Thank heaven. Besides a growing desire to be entertained, you've been an easy babe lately and we've had a fun month with Dada being back in town and a visit from Shi Shi. You are wearing size 4 diapers, which somehow already seem a little snug, and you are mostly in 12 month or 12-18 month clothes.
But let's be honest, everything starts with sleep. A sleeping baby is a happy baby and a sleeping baby makes for a happy mama too. We worked HARD to get here, but you've become an A+ sleeper. You sleep 8-8 and take two naps from 10:30-11:30 and 2:00-4:00. It's almost like clockwork every single day, and there are seldom any tears when I put you down. Hallelujah. We always read Goodnight Moon and sing Jesus Loves Me right before night night time. You smile and giggle your way through the book and you often lay your head down on my shoulder while I sing to you. They are some of the sweetest few minutes of my day (with a naked Charlie yelling "Hey Mama!" from the shower being a close second).
Perhaps even more exciting, you rarely wake up to eat in the middle of the night now. I wasn't intentionally night weaning, but one night you just slept all the way through...and then you did it the next night and the night after that. Before I knew it, you had slept all night for several nights in a row. Since that stretch, you have woken up 2-3 nights, but I can almost always pinpoint the reason why (one morning you woke up with a new tooth!). The fact that sleeping through the night is the norm now is pretty been life-changing!
I think a huge part of your sudden night sleep has been your solids intake. Mostly out of convenience, I started putting you in the high chair for three meals/day because it felt rude to leave you out when we're all sitting down to eat. And you've made it very clear that if you're in your high chair, you want food. It feels like we went from 0-60 with solids. I remember with your big brother, it was much more gradual, and he wasn't eating 3 meals until maybe 9-10 months. But one thing I love about having a second kiddo is that we already have so many routines and norms established, and you just naturally fit right into them. It feels so much less overwhelming since we aren't starting with a blank slate on everything.
You eat whatever we eat. If anything, I have to make sure you don't each too much table food so you'll still nurse enough. You even have a pincer grasp rapidly developing. You pick up small pieces using the tips of 3-4 fingers. From the start, you never really raked food into your palm and smashed it into your face (like someone else I know...). That would have been expected, but you're an advanced eater. :) You really had no trouble picking up food, chewing and swallowing from the start. It's been pretty impressive actually. I thought there would be a little more of a learning curve, but I really shouldn't be surprised. We don't call you fatty fatty for nothing. So far, I think you've liked everything that has been offered. Cheese seems to be a favorite, and watermelon was a big hit too. I'm always shocked at how little food ends up on the floor or in your bib because you've managed to actually eat most of it!!
Helping you out with solids, are your very first teeth, which finally popped through on the bottom. I guess you really were teething after all. In addition to growing two teeth, you've also grown a ton of hair. I should have mentioned this last month, but between 5-6 months, it seems like you went from bald to a full head of hair. Jury is still out on the color, but it's definitely not red - more of sandy blonde. What is certain is that you have big, beautiful blue eyes. They light up when you smile. Some people say you favor me, but most often, people think you look like your brother.
You already have so much personality. You give the biggest smiles, and you're an incredibly easy audience. I swear a fly buzzing by could get a rise out of you. You're extremely ticklish - especially poking your belly and tickling your neck, which I believe is there buried under all of your chins. And yes, Charlie still makes you laugh most of all. I think you two already have a secret language, and I swear you've already plotted against us a few times.
Speaking of Charlie, he's obsessed with helping you these days. He loves putting the baby puffs on your tray and giving you your sippy cup of water. As soon as I get him out of his booster seat, he makes a beeline to your side of the table to hold the water cup for you to drink from. We had to put you on opposite sides of the table because he kept sharing with you and insisting on offering you more food and water. Sometimes, he's been known to pull himself around the edge of the table to get close enough to you to refill your try with food. I think he gave your babysitter quite a scare when she came out of the bathroom to suddenly see Charlie sitting next to you helping you drink your milk from the honey bear bottle.
Charlie loves to bring you toys and he pauses all the time to come over and gives you hugs, kisses and tickles. Now that you are older and doing more things, Charlie likes to be helpful with your routines. He knows what bib you wear, which cup is yours etc. and he never misses an opportunity to tell me if I've missed a step. He's pretty judge-y about my parenting and already very protective of you. Nothing gets by him. The other day you were sitting on the floor and I stepped away to grab something. Dada was trying to get Charlie to go downstairs to play, but he refused to leave you unattended (even though I was coming right back and you were perfectly safe where you were). Nevertheless, Charlie was concerned and it was about the cutest thing ever that he refused to leave you behind.
If you are crying and I don't get to you right away, Charlie will often try to comfort you by sitting down next to you and holding a chew toy up to your mouth. He's becoming more attached to you by the day. And yes, he still insists on pushing the stroller. And yes, I still have to subtetly help steer. He also likes to come over and help you play with the toys on your jumperoo. When you both get up from your naps, I often take you into Charlie's crib and you both roll around laughing, reading (& chewing) on books, and giving hugs and kisses (and some hair tugging by you - luckily Charlie doesn't mind). Watching your brotherly relationship grow is one of my favorite things in the whole world.
You are sturdily sitting up now, and you've learned how to transition back to your tummy without just flopping over. We still have the occasional tumble, but it's mostly when you lunge into something hard. You've been spending more time up on your knees when you rock forward from a sitting position, but you haven't learned how to move anywhere quite yet. I can tell you are frustrated by this, and I know it probably won't be long before you figure out some form of crawling. Almost as soon as I put you down in a sitting position you lunge forward onto your knees before falling to your stomach. I don't think it's because you don't want to sit as it is that you want to figure out how to navigate on your hands/knees.
You really love my necklace and pull on it whenever I'm holding you. You like being outside and riding in the stroller. We tried out the bucket swing and you were delighted. You love music and anything that plays music. Favorite songs include If You're Happy & You Know It and Smooth Road - both of which your brother enjoys too.
You are currently obsessed with an elephant stuffed animal that plays You Are My Sunshine. It was a toy I had when I was a baby, and you always find a way to roll over to it. You like hanging out in your jumperoo and anything that you can chew on. Poor Sophie the Giraffe gets eaten alive most days. Bath time is still big fun, but you are starting to try to climb out of your baby tub. It's probably time to ditch the little tub soon. You like post-bath time when you're wrapped up in a towel. We always get the best laughs out of you while were drying you off and putting on lotion. Then, of course, you fuss while we wrangle you into your diaper and PJs.
You still nap great on the go, which allows us to get out and about in the morning. If we go to a park or to MOPS or to church on Sundays, you sleep for 20-30 minutes in your stroller or carrier, which is enough to get you by until your longer afternoon nap. It's nice that you are flexible so we aren't stuck at home all the time!
You grew two teeth, lots of hair and started sleeping through the night this month, but perhaps most exciting of all - I left you with a babysitter! We did a few trial runs with Dada and Shi Shi, and everything went A-Ok. You drank your milk like a champ from the honey bear and went down without any fanfare even though Mama wasn't involved in the process. This gave us confidence to leave you with a paid babysitter for several hours while we went to a Packers/Redskins game. I'm happy to report that you were a dream. You took 3 "bottles", ate a good lunch, and went down for your nap like a champ. When we got home, both you and Charlie were happily playing with the sitter, Nargis. It's such a relief to reach this milestone and know that I can leave you in capable hands without any angst.
And since I feel like I have to point out flaws too...the big one right now is how easily you get bored and demand attention. You've always liked being held (and you still do!), and your ability to sit up, roll and scoot backwards has helped keep you occupied, but you still get bored of each room/toy/activity pretty quickly. I don't blame you - babies aren't exactly known for having great attention spans. You can also have fussy periods in the evening. It's not every day, and I can't really figure out what brings it on, but some evenings you're just kind of a crank. You can also get fussy when nap/bedtime draws near.
We took 6-month/family photos earlier this month, but that's another story for another day. Let's just say that scheduling photos when it's still so hot outside and the day after your vaccinations was probably not the wisest move on my part.
The weather is finally starting to cool down, and we're looking forward to all kinds of fun adventures this fall. You'll fit right in with all the round pumpkins (but you definitely did not fit in the lion costume I ordered for you so back to the drawing board for halloween costumes. :) We love, little buddy. We hope you're always as smiley as you are right now.
