The Simple Life: 7 months

Last Saturday was Ellie's 7 month-aversary. In the past month she has grown tremendously strong and has made lots of progress towards independent movement. She is very sturdy when she sits up now and can lunge forward into the crawling position. She still hasn't quite mastered moving herself forward, but she can hold herself up and push herself backwards. If I put her down and leave the room she will try to move about until I come back. Once she sees me she'll complain until I help her. She has started flipping over on the changing pad and attempts to crawl to the edges of the table to reach all the forbidden diapering objects or the lamp. Today I witnessed her moving a few steps forward before collapsing, so it won't be long! I like taking her to the playgroups hosted by my mom's group because she is very interested in what other babies are doing. It's good for her to learn by example and I feel like she tolerates being on her tummy longer when she is watching other babies.

Standing is still her favorite and she can hold herself up on the coffee table or couch for long periods of time. She takes steps when you are holding her hands and knows that she needs to hold on to something in order to get somewhere. We haven't had too many face plants yet, thank goodness! Her favorite sounds are now screeching at the top of her lungs (which she does with great pleasure) and fart noises. When Tom and I are talking loud, she will chime in and screech as loud as she can as if to contribute to the conversation. He he. She can say "Mama" and attempts "Papa" but it comes out weak and it just sounds like her lips smacking together. I'm not sure if she is identifying us with those words yet, but it seems like she knows.

She is enjoying eating solid food and I am enjoying making them for her. She really likes yams, applesauce, strawberries, peas, carrots and pears. I just made her zucchini/apple/carrot and spinach/pear and she seems to like them. I was surprised she liked the spinach as much as she did because it looks and tastes horrible to me. Sometimes I can get her to eat avocado if I mix it with applesauce. We have started giving her small pieces of bread which she really loves and little bits of meat. I just inherited a food mill, so we'll start grinding up food that we are eating for her to try. Usually I give her Baby MumMums as a treat after dinner. It's great at occupying her while we clean up and she loves eating them by herself. I am trying to get her interested in drinking from a sippy cup but I haven't had much luck. She still has a deadlock on the bottle. She has completely weaned herself from breastfeeding which at this point is a relief to me. Over the past few months its been harder and harder to get her to breastfeed and I think my supply was dwindling even further because of it. Imagine trying to feed an ADHD squirrel and that's a pretty accurate description of Ellie breastfeeding! She started pulling off frequently and gnawing on me and I think she was getting frustrated with the lack of milk so it was a pretty easy decision to stop. It's nice not having to breastfeed AND bottle feed anymore. Makes life so much simpler.

Her sleep and nap schedule has gotten pretty regulated as well which has been great for us. She goes to sleep by 7:30pm and wakes up once or twice a night. We're going to try to wean her off the first feeding but I feel like she still really needs and wants the 5:00am feeding. I am okay getting up once a night with her, especially when she eats and goes back to sleep quickly. I think she has gotten attached to her blanket that we put in her crib and it may become her "lovey". Technically we're not supposed to put anything in her crib yet but she loves it so much and will pull it up under her chin when we tuck her in. Too cute! I'm pretty sure she'd kung-fu that thing if it covered her face. One of our favorite games is to play peek-a-boo by throwing a blanket over her and then pulling it off. She loves it and will pull the blanket down herself, so she's totally got it down "in case of emergency".

She is still long and lean and she has gained over a pound since her last weigh in. Her stats for this month are:

Head circumference: 42.6cm Height: 27'' Weight: 16lbs 3oz

As you can see, she didn't grow in height since she was last measured. I think that she was probably measured incorrectly at her last doctor's visit because otherwise she would have gained two inches between 5 & 6 months and that seems a bit much. Or perhaps she just grew out instead of up. I've heard of that happening in alternating spurts.

She is still the funniest little person I know. She wakes up laughing and talking to herself and pretty much laughs all day long. Unless she's eating or unhappy with me - and even that's negotiable. I can't believe she is only 4 months away from being a 1 year old. You always hear parents saying that the time will fly by, but you don't believe it until it is happening to you. I keep thinking that I enjoy her the most at "x" time, but then she enters a new phase and I love it just as much. I'm pretty sure I have many more moments like this ahead!