You are now 7 months old, and your 12 months clothes fit perfectly! Long toes and legs, just like your Dad.
It’s been a very exciting month! The biggest new development is that
you can now sit up all by yourself, which you prefer to do while laying
on your back. Your stomach is very strong. This has made bedtime a
little more challenging because you are like a little spring, we lay you
down and you spring back up. When you are really tired you throw
yourself back on your pillow with your hands behind your head, and
usually a few seconds later are sitting up again.
Also new for this month is eating lots of rice cereal, especially the
banana flavored kind. You are already showing preferences for certain
tastes. You will eat a whole bowl of the rice cereal, but I can’t
interest you in peas, green beans, or sweet potatoes. You take a few
bites and then become very interested in the walls and the ceiling.
We got you a walker for Christmas, which you are almost too tall for. I
think you enjoy it and are learning how to move forward. It helps you
to stand up and I am already imagining you running around the house.
Soon I think you will be too heavy for your bouncer, when you are in it
you jump so forcefully I think you are going to go through the floor!
You are grabbing and reaching for everything now and your hands are
in constant motion. You have figured out that you can turn pages in
books and now are more interested in helping me turn pages than hearing
the story. I have a few small board books just your size that you
nibble on and play with in your crib.
This
month we have learned a few more things that make you laugh. I
discover them by accident. When you see something new you usually
giggle really hard the first time, and then the next time I try it you
don’t laugh. The sock monkey makes you giggle and we play kissing games
with it. Also, I stack your stuffed baby einstein blocks and you knock
them over and seem to get a big kick out of this. Your dad makes
monkey sounds which you like very much and pretends that his finger is a
bee making buzzing noises and tickles your stomach. This cracks you
up. Since I have discovered how good baby laughter is for the soul we
are on a mission to find ways to make you laugh. I have discovered
also, that you have a very ticklish butt. When I am changing your
diaper and pinch your naked cheeks I can usually get a few giggles out
of you.
This month your Grandma Marty died, and we are very sad. We will make
sure to tell you lots of stories about her so you will know her. She
loved you very much. You look almost exactly like her as a baby, so
we’ll wait and see how much you resemble her when you are older. She was
a gorgeous lady. A picture of her holding you was in her obituary and
we will save this for your memories book. I am sad that she didn’t get
to spend your first Christmas with you, but she painted you a beautiful
portrait of you as a newborn baby sleeping. You will have this forever,
it’s breathtaking!
Love,
Mom
Today I used Dreft to wash clothes because we ran out of our other
laundry detergent. It’s the first time I’ve used it since before you
were born. I washed all your clothes and blankets in Dreft to keep
myself busy in the last month or two of my pregnancy. Every day I would
smell the freshly washed and folded tiny clothes and sort out my
favorite blankets, and imagine you in them. Today that smell made a
little tug at my heart, remembering thinking and dreaming about what you
would be like, look like, feel like, smell like. Remembering how
different life was then, before the Ella Mae. It seems like a lifetime
ago. While you were in my womb, I was in my own “womb” preparing for
motherhood. Eating right, drinking lots of water, sleeping a lot,
feeling anxious, reading tons about babies, feeling you kick and poke
with your toes right under my left ribs. Now, I can’t even imagine what
life would be like without my Ella Pella Girl. My heart is full.
