Seven

Baby Girl,

You're seven months old now. I have not been a very faithful blogger.  The time is going by so fast and I don't know how to even begin to describe how much you bring to our lives every day.

You haven't started crawling yet, but you are quite adept and getting from one side of the room to the other via a series of moves: roll/sit up/lie down/roll, etc.  I have a feeling that you are going to be one fast mover when you actually get your feet underneath you.  We are in for quite the chase.

You are still a happy little thing-- you truly cry pretty rarely, and when you do these big tears well up and that bottom lip sticks out pretty far.  I don't know how you learned to do that, but it works. 

You want the remote. You want the phone. You want the comb I'm using. You want it all and you want to put it in your mouth, thank you very much.

You love to play piano with your Daddy, and you like swinging, and you like things that make music.  You want to see EVERYTHING.  I have to carry you on my side or facing forward because you don't want to miss anything. 

When you get excited you breathe in and out of your nose really quickly and it's so loud, and you kick your little legs back and forth like windshield wipers.  And when you're lying on your back, you kick your legs, together, up and down with so much force it lifts your whole body to your shoulders up in the air-- I keep waiting for you to leap in the air and land on your feet ("like Johnny in Karate Kid" says Daddy). 

You still like to go for walks in the stroller, but it's not as reliable at helping you sleep as it used to be. The car, though, is always a good nap inducer-- and I have spent a couple afternoons driving around for an hour or two while you sleep in the backseat, because you have decided that you don't love naps so much.  Nighttimes aren't too difficult, but we're getting ready to start a little bit of sleep training, so you don't have to be nursed to sleep.  Daddy needs to be able to put you to sleep at night, too... We knew this, but it was really brought home to us when Mimi and I went to the theatre one night and left you with Daddy.  You went to sleep pretty easily, but woke up an hour and a half later and you were REALLY!! MAD!!  You went right back to sleep about 5 minutes before I got home, of course.  But we don't want you to be sad, and I want to be able to go to the theatre again with Mimi in a couple months, so we have to get this worked out.

You started having some food about a month ago-- just a few things, sometimes from our plates and sometimes I get you something special. You love oranges, and crackers are popular.  But if it's something you can get hold of, you'll try it.  Max enjoys getting what drops to the floor.  You are still getting a vast majority of your actual intake from breastfeeding, and we're both still enjoying that. 

Speaking of Max, we found out a couple weeks ago that he has cancer.  I really hoped he would live long enough that you would grow up with some memories of him, because he is the best dog that I've ever known.  Unfortunately, it doesn't look like that will happen. But I will take lots of pictures and tell you all about him. You will have known him, even if you don't remember. 

You are the best thing ever. And I love you.

Momma.