Forget the Caterpilar

I'm a very hungry boy!

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7 Months

We spent the majority of your 6th month in Florida and you loved every second of it. We had so much fun meeting all your friends at lots of playdates. And your grandparents and great grandmother were just over the moon to spend time with you.

It made me feel even luckier to get to spend all my days with you.

Everyday I am astonished at how fast you are growing. It blows my mind seeing you develop and learn how to do new things everyday!

At 7 months you are 29.5 inches tall which puts you in the 98th percentile for height and weigh in at 19.5 pounds 66th percentile for weight. You wear a size three diaper and 6-9 month clothing.
We had you on the go while we were in Florida. You took your naps in the car, your pack n play and slept in a few beds with us. Guess where the only place you want to sleep now is? Right between mommy and daddy! While we didn't bring our video monitor, we went to get a radio monitor our second night there. Even with your white noise machine, we quickly learned you needed to be far away from noise and light to sleep though the night.

I think all the changes of scenery upset your routine a little bit and you have started to cry for comfort during the night instead of soothing yourself back to sleep. We haven't made it through a night yet that you haven't beckoned us to your crib in the wee hours for a little back rub and pacifier replacement. We also think you sometimes get startled because you've gone from a side sleeper to a tummy sleeper.

When you wake up you must think, hey, how did I get here, someone help roll me over! Your daddy and I are happy to ablidge, and hope you feel more comfortable and safe now that you are back in your own crib.

You are becoming more and more aware - aware of sounds that go on outside your room, and want to be part of the action - aware of molly, aware of the ceiling fan. The world around you is soo interesting, much more interesting than nursing! I try to make sure we have a dark and calm place, sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn't (like anytime we stopped along the road). You still enjoy your bottle before bed and nursing 4-5 times a day.


In addition to nursing we give you a sippy cup of water at meal times (and on the beach). You think it's ok, but much prefer to drink out of a real cup (with our help of course). We added a few new foods into the rotation. In addition to rice and oatmeal cereals, pears, avocados, squash, green beans, sweet potatoes, bananas, apples and carrots. You've had peaches, nectarines, apricots, prunes, mango, peas, yellow squash, Cheerios and lots of puffs. You love banana and sweet potato puffs. While you chow down on the green (spinach, kale, etc) puffs they tend to come right back up, so we will hold off a little longer on those. Butternut squash is still your favorite, followed by sweet potatoes.

I still sing apples and bananas to you while we eat. We talk about the different foods you like, too. We had been using your bumbo seat with a tray as your high chair, which you were outgrowing quickly. You have a high chair now and LOVE IT!

Molly is still your partner in crime, but you are not her's. She likes to stick close to us, but the second you reach out to touch her-she gets up and walks away. I'm sure she will keep warming up the more food you drop for her.


I thought you were a great sitter before, but you can sit even better now. You are still scooting, standing and holding onto things. You still stay pretty close to where I set you down, and I don't mind that one bit! You love being held and cuddling, which I love, too. Seeing all the "big boys" in Florida, I know those days are limited.


You talk and screech more and more each day. The highlight of this month (other than seeing you loved on by your greatgrand and grandparents) has definitely been the addition of mamamama and dadadada to your vocabulary.


Nesting cups, rolling balls, Sophie and your exerciser top your list of favorite toys. I guess we missed the boat on getting you acclimated to another pacifier, so the infant wubba nubs are going to be in it for the long haul.


You LOVE us to read to you. This month you learned to turn the pages in your board books. Favorites still include Snuggle Puppy, Llama Llama Wakey Wake, Barnyard Dance and Go Dog Go!

No teeth yet for you - I am not looking forward to the days leading up to that because I can't imagine you drooling much more!

You love love love to swim!

Gotta get your hands on your bugs and bees mobile!

Firsts this months included:

Swimming in the ocean


First trip to Florida

First Gator Game

Second Gator Game
First Road Trip with Molly

First time sitting in a high hair at a restaurant

Starting music class


Going to day care at the gym

Our love for you grows each day. I'm so glad to be your mommy and help you to learn, grow, laugh and play.

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Changed Perspective

Being in Florida for three weeks changed a lot of things for me.  Being able to share the joy of my child and being a mother with family and life-long friends changed my perspective on how I was living my life.  It's just so wonderful to see people you love, love your baby.  We have great friends in Virginia, DC and Maryland - I actually feel very lucky about that, but I also feel isolated and lonely a lot more than I'd like to.

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Before we left for our trip, I was coping...making it through each day, but everything just seemed soo difficult and overwhelming.  I wasn't depressed, just throwing myself my own personal pity party everyday.  I feel like I let the flight of stairs leading out of our home kept me captive.

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It just wasn't worth the time or energy to go outside and do things.  Taking the dog to day care, having to do things on my own when my husband travels, hot temperatures and the limited awake times between naps meant lots of days, weeks and hours spent at home.

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Well, being back in Florida and the simplicity of everything there helped to change my perspective.  There was far less to do there than here and heck we were on vacation, but I did so much more everyday while we were there.  Granted I had lots and lots of helping hands, no traffic to slow us down, and we were able to leave Molly to bark her little heart out at our parents house.  I had help facing all those little challenges that seemed piled too high to conquer on my own and because of that help we were out and about for adventure after adventure, and IT WAS FUN!

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When we got back, I decided those stairs weren't going to keep me trapped anymore.  I wasn't going to let these lame obstacles keep me from living a fun and full life.

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James and I are doing all sorts of fun things from storytime to playdates, music class to long afternoon strolls.  We are not spending everyday at home anymore.

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One of my best friends came to visit when James was four months old, and we were talking about me loosing weight and being more active.  She gave great advice, like always, taking him upstairs every time he had a dirty diaper to change him, cutting those pesky carbs out (no more milk cookies?!), and just finding lots of tweeks to live a more healthy life.  I remember at the time, every suggestion she made seemed impossible.  But now, I'm over making excuses and am just getting things done.  It feels so good.

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Our home is not perfect...it probably never will be and the daily list of to-do's is never fully checked off...but  there is an action plan in place.  And more and more awesome things keep happening in my life everyday.

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Tomorrow's forecast calls for rain and lots of it-so I'm getting my rain boots out of the back of my closet.  I'm going to Trader Joe's and play group come hell or high water!

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Colorful Life

On Sunday I ran (well walked) in the DC Color Run! It was so much fun.

I'm actually doing it again in October. Although its not timed, I wanted to go faster than I did in the gym and did. I obviously want to do even better in October.

A few of us from sorority alumnae group did it since it benefitted our charity - CMNH- Children's National Medical Center.

The pink mafia is stealth before go time.


Yellow



Orange



Blue



Covered in color



James was sad he couldn't do the 5K, so he tries to make up for it at every meal.




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Always a Gentleman

James is just about the best lunch date a girl could ask for, he's charming, has a handsome smiles, Ohhh's and awwww's at everything I say and even offers to pick up the tab.



I love my little guy.

He's also the life of the party and LOVED jamming out with Miss Maddy today-we are taking music class with her this fall with a few of our friends.


Today was a little preview and we has SO MUCH FUN.



My little ukulele player.


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