7 Months Old

Little Bubbers is 7 months old now!  And he's totally excited about it...

It's getting harder for him to "cooperate" for our mini photo shoot.  I so remember the sign grabbing with Ellison for several months after she got around this age, too. (sniff, sniff).

I am lovin' hinney's (I say "hinney" instead of "him" or "his" - one of many weird baby language things I say) rolls!

"Oh my goodness, this one reminds me of a younger version of George Clooney."

"Oh man.  Where's the delete button?"

He loves standing up to things.  Until sister sent the ottoman gliding back and forth, from which a fall and cries came.

Goodness, it's taken me so long to post this, I can't remember what his new 7-month-ness was like.  This child is no longer immobile.  He is all over the place in his crib, and on the floor.  He somehow gets to where he wants to be - very driven.  He gets up on all fours and will rock back and forth, and now regularly does the "plank" pose, or we often find him in the shape of a triangle (with his hiney stuck up in the air).  He is on the brink of crawling - will even crawl about 2 waddles before plopping down on his tummy.

He babbles a little more, and says, "Dadada" and "Mamama", and "Bababa", etc.  He's not into looking at the TV at all (not that I'm trying, I just thought he might happen upon an interesting picture here or there while it's on).  He has some great ticklish spots that have us all erupting into giggles.  Marek is very easy in that he is completely self-entertaining.  So far, he doesn't seem to be clingy and cry as soon as I leave the room.  When I'm trying to do housework, I just plop him on the floor, and he loves to sit up and dig through toy baskets, and just plays for the longest time by himself.  Now, he usually ends up at the other end of the room after a while; hence, our gate has found its way back onto our staircase upstairs.

Marek is a decent sleeper - not fabulous, but certainly not a horrible one.  He occasionally surprises me and sleeps the entire 12-13 hour night.  But most often, he still wakes between 4-5am for a snack, then goes right back to bed until 7:15-7:30ish.  He is still taking 3 naps a day, they just aren't super long ones like the ones we had with Sissy.

He's doing great with baby food.  Every time he eats fruit he "mmmm's" his way through it.  The only thing he seems to be completely repulsed by is baby food meat.  Can't say that I blame him.  The smell makes Ellison gag.  We've been trying little Rice Krispies and those little puff snacks, to which he isn't used to yet.  Lots of gagging going on, but today we had a breakthrough.  I was showing him animatedly how to chew one of those arrowroot cookies, and he stared at me and would do it back.  Though everything else goes in his mouth, he doesn't seem interested in taking these new textured foods to his mouth, but he willingly takes them from me.  He loves drinking water, and now likes to drink out of a regular cup, too.

His fave toys/activities are jumping like a mad man in his Jumperoo, sitting with a basket of toys to dig through, the Little Tykes Noah's Ark, and chewing on the infant Tylenol bottletop squeezy thing (do not even bother lecturing me about this.  It's the only thing that will keep his worm body from contorting every which way while I'm changing his diaper.  He gets excited when he sees it, and then becomes very possessive of it). So, yes, he is all over the place when we change him now.  If only I could get good at changing a diaper from the side or back...  He becomes very aggressive for the TV remote, and voices his anger with me when I won't let him have it.  I've also noticed he has a thing for tiny screws and bolts.  He spots them on various toys and objects, and is completely fascinated with them, and digs his thick little finger right into them.  He also has taken a liking to balls, and has fun actually playing ball.  Sissy is so excited that Marek is able to start "playing" with her more now.  The 3 of us will just sit down and toss or roll the ball back and forth.

Marek is not too fond of sitting in his high chair.  He whines and suddenly becomes stiff-legged when you try to bend his legs to sit him down in it.  He's even getting good at blocking - you know, spreading his stiff legs out against the arms to avoid being put in it.  Not sure why.  He does fine enough once in it, but quickly gets ansy and whiney.  And we are at the age where EVERYTHING is dropped from the high chair repeatedly.

We are still at two teeth and counting.

He continues to just be a chill baby, but with some growing curiosity and playfulness.

One thing I love that Ellison did exactly the same: he loves the Wiggles' "Rock-A-Bye Bear" song.  As soon as he starts whining or fussing, you start singing it, and he's instantly quiet and will even crack a smile.  Ellison did the SAME THING with that song.  Always worked like a charm in the car.  He gets very excited when he sees you cheering and clapping, too.

That's all I can think of for now.  Ha!

[August 18, 2011]