A. is 7 Months Old!

Dear A.,

It seems like each month flies by faster than the last. All of a sudden you are 7 months old!

This last month your personality has really started to emerge and it has been so fun to see. You are very silly and we can often make you giggle just by smiling and talking to you. Your newest trick is tilting your head to the side. We don’t know why, but you love to do it and then laugh, or get other people to do it back and then laugh.

You continue to be extremely alert and curious, as you have been almost from birth. People continue to comment on your bright, alert eyes everywhere we go!

You are pretty fearless and love when we throw you in the air, bounce you on the bed, or turn you upside down. You’ll often throw yourself backwards when you are in the mood to go upside down. Luckily we have always caught you!

The one thing you really hate is having your face wiped. You cry almost every time we clean your face, even if we use a soft, warm washcloth and sing to you. You also don’t like us to touch your ears, mouth, or nose. This wouldn’t be so much of a problem except that you currently have an awful cold and your nose needs wiping constantly, including several time in the middle of meals to prevent you from eating snot. You were so mad about this today that you cried whenever I put you in the high chair and turned your face away from the spoon like I was trying to wipe you with it.

I was very excited at your 6 month doctor visit when the doctor said I could start reintroducing dairy to see how you tolerate it. You definitely did better than before, but it still did seem to bother you. So I am still mostly avoiding dairy, but not as strictly as before. It has made life a lot easier for me!

You have continued to enjoy eating food this month. You can now feed yourself crackers, toast, Cheerios, puffs, and soft cooked carrots. You’re still eating mostly baby food and cereal, but have started to transition to foods with more texture and flavor. I even made a big batch of salt-free pea soup that we could all eat for dinner. Unfortunately, you hated it! You have learned how to drink from a straw cup and from a water glass (with our help). Every time you see us drinking water, you reach for the cup and pull it to your mouth!

Your sleep has been thrown off a little this month because of being sick and traveling. You are back to waking up twice most nights and falling asleep at naptime is a struggle. You were doing great with your schedule last month, but I may need to revisit it since it’s stopped working very well for you.

This month you’ve started moving around and we’ve started baby proofing. You can creep forward a few feet at a time and turn around very well. You love to chase the vacuum (which you were once afraid of)! No crawling yet, although you are close – you can easily pop up on all fours and rock. You also finally learned how to roll over both ways.

It’s been very fun to see you start to grasp the beginnings of communication this month. It really started with the head tilt – you would tilt your head until we did it, watch us tilt our heads, and then smile and tilt yours back. You’ve started imitating a lot of other movements and sounds too. The other day I banged two blocks together and then you tried to do the same. I think you are starting to understand a few words – you pretty reliably look at Daddy when I say Daddy, and you get excited when I am feeding you and I sign “more”. Your favorite sound is “dada” and you will say it over and over, very delighted with yourself, although you don’t use it to refer to your dad yet.

Some more things from this age that I never want to forget: the way you smile at me in the morning when Daddy gets you up and brings you in to me, the way you happily wiggle your body side to side while sitting in the high chair, the way you look when you steal the spoon and wave it around, the way you reach out to touch all sorts of things when I carry you around, and your laugh when we play together.

I love you so much and there’s nothing better in the world than holding you tight for a snuggle and a hug. I hope you still love to cuddle me even as you continue to learn how to explore and investigate the world.