Tuesday, April 24, 2012

To My Sweet 7 Month Old Baby Girl

Munchkin,

This month you have been busy!!

For a few days you were super cranky, cried at the littlest things, and had the snottiest nose ever, and then last week you had two teeth pop through.  First the bottom left, then the bottom right.  You are always feeling them with your tongue, lips, fingers, and gums.  You love to say the sound "Bah!" because I think you can feel your teeth when you do.  You have been extra drooley since the teeth came through, but now you are as happy as can be again.  It's exciting, strange, and a little sad to see little teeth in your mouth when you smile at me.  It's so fun to see you growing up, but everything is going by so quickly that I find myself clinging on to everything I can, trying to hold onto my little baby, because before I know it, you will be a toddler.

You figured out crawling this month, and my goodness you keep me running after you.  You have a mischievous streak that is coming through now that you can move yourself around.  When I take showers in the morning, if you are awake I will pull you out of your crib and surround you with toys to play with while I'm gone.  Last week while I was in the shower I could hear you babbling to yourself, but then you got really quiet.  I was almost done with my shower when I heard you again, but you sounded a lot closer.  You had crawled out of your room, down the hall, and then sat in the doorway of the bathroom.  You babbled into the room as if to ask "Hey, Mom!  Are you in this room?"  I peeked out of the shower and said hi to you, and you just crawled across the room to the tub like it was no big deal.  That day you really did just wake up and decide "I'm sick of just sitting here, I will crawl today."

Now that you are crawling, nothing is safe.  You are moving faster and faster every time you try to crawl, and you want to explore and put everything in your mouth.  You love to crawl around my feet as I am cooking dinner in the kitchen, and you remind me of a little puppy. You also are starting to pull yourself up onto things, which means I'm sure you'll be bonking your head a lot more this month (you gotta learn somehow, I suppose, but I wish I could protect you from everything).

You are learning that things exist even if you can't see them.  You love playing peek a boo with me, it always makes you laugh.  You also love to drop things off of the edge of the couch or bed and then lean over to try and find it again, when you do see it, you get so excited and kick your legs and do this "excited face" where you scrunch up your nose, pucker your lips out, and breath really fast (it's adorable).  You don't understand that you could fall off and hurt yourself, though, so we have to watch you closely.

We are finally diligently starting you on solids now.  You hated them at first, but after a week of "practice" you are now opening your mouth to take a few bites before you start clenching your little gums together.  You really liked peas, you LOVED bananas, you hated the chicken puree we gave you last night (but honestly, it seems funky to me anyway), carrots, squash, and sweet potatoes are okay in your opinion, maybe you will like them more as you eat them more.  You would much rather have smaller chunks of food we are eating, so I will often give you tiny pieces of bread, or squish up some veggies we are having for dinner that night, and you love that.

You are such a happy baby, and I love being your mommy.  I am so blessed to be able to hang out with you all day every day.  Daddy just finished school this week, so he will have a lot more time this summer to play with you, and he is so excited!  This summer will be our funnest summer yet!

Until next month,
Love,
Mommy