7 months

Gray had an awesome seventh month of life. Other than some occasional teething, he spent it a very happy boy. He continues to grow and change so fast, often seeming like each day is so different from the one before.

Warning-this is a very long post. Apparently there was a lot about this month that I felt like I was going to want to remember one day. I'll get straight to some pictures in case some of you don't care about all of these 7 month details, although I can't imagine why that would be the case ;)




At 7 months Gray Christopher...

Is sleeping great (at home, of course). He has been going to bed earlier-usually 7:00 or 7:30 at the latest unless we have a weird day and his second nap is later than usual. He sleeps at least 12 hours and sometimes will surprise us with 13. There have been just a couple of times that he has woken up around 6:30 but we have always gotten him back to sleep-thankful for that! Most of the time I have to wake up half way during the night to pump. After I catch up on my blog reading, I watch him sleeping on the monitor. The other night he woke up and played for almost half an hour. He never made a sound and when he was done he just rolled right back to his tummy and went back to sleep. There is no telling what that little booger is up to while we're asleep. Naps are going pretty good. He rarely puts up a fight when going to sleep anymore but he has only been napping about an hour and a half at the most. If we are out and he goes down a lot later than usual, he will sometimes sleep two or two and a half hours but that's even a rare surprise. He takes his first nap around 10:30 or 11:00 and his second one around 3:00 or 4:00. I know it will be a while still, but I will be so glad when he is down to one nap a day so we can stay out and about longer.

Said his first word!!! He is talking all the time and it's starting to sound more like real words instead of just baby babble. Last week he started using his B and D sounds so we tried to get him to mock us saying "Dada" and sure enough he did! Of course we know he didn't have a clue what he what saying or associate the word with Paul, but it was still very exciting and just the sweetest sound. He says it a lot now but it's usually when he is holding his paci or a toy and talking to it. I have started doing a little bit of sign language with him. I know it will be a while before he picks up on it and I may not even always remember to be consistent with it but I thought it was time to start. We are just going to do four signs-please, thank you, more and all gone.

Is very close to crawling, I think anyway. I guess it could be another week or another month or so but he is sure wanting to bad! He can push up on his arms but hasn't gotten up on all four by himself yet. He is sitting up without any assistance but when he sees something he wants, he topples himself over to try to get it and gets frustrated pretty quick when he can't get to it.



Is eating three meals of solid food a day in addition to nursing every 3-ish hours (or when he wakes up and before he goes down for a nap). He loves to eat and gets so excited when he gets in his high chair. I try to put him in his high chair a couple of times a day when I am in the kitchen doing things so he doesn't only associate it with eating. He eats oatmeal and fruit in the morning and then a fruit and vegetable for lunch and dinner. So far the only thing he hasn't liked was jarred baby food meat and this is what he thought about that...


We still give him a bottle at night and he is drinking 8 ounces now! I started giving him puffs about a month ago and he loves those too. One of my biggest fears as a mama is choking so when I first started giving them to him I broke them into about 4 pieces. Now he Mama can handle an entire puff at a time. He loves to pick them up but can't quite get them into his mouth yet because they are so small and get stuck in his little fingers. It's so cute to watch the look on his face wondering where it got off to after he picked it up ;)

Still loves Sophie and his feet! Other favorite toys include an alphabet and animal sit and spin (a hand me down favorite from the Sowers), a crawl ball and anything else that lights up, plays music or fits in his mouth.



He is still loving books and being read to. He has a new favorite truck and tractor book that his Mugger got him for Christmas. He is slowly but surely getting over his exersaucer and I know when he starts crawling that big guy will be sent to storage. Which reminds me to mention that we are taking his swing to be stored at my mom's this weekend too. That was a sad one for me to let go since he spent so much time in it as a baby but he hasn't been interested in it for a long time now. I noticed before Christmas that he was getting tired of his toys quickly and was getting very fussy during play time. I wasn't even paying attention to the fact that when he'd fuss or get bored, I would just keep giving him new toys until eventually there were 15 toys around him and he was still unhappy. Nana and Grandpa let us bring home Paul's old toy chest so we have stashed all of his toys in there and I have started rotating just a few toys out each week. We do not want a spoiled child who does not know how to entertain himself unless he has something new in front of his face every few minutes, or even every day. Dang this parenting business is no joke!

Is going to be a lefty! He uses his left hand almost all of the time and I will be very surprised if he turns out to be right handed. My brother is left handed but neither Paul or I are. It will make him even more of a stand out athlete :)

Started taking big boy baths with Daddy and LOVES it! He splashes so hard that we have to put towels down everywhere in the bathroom. Although he is sitting up without assistance, we haven't let him take a bath without his baby tub or Daddy because he tries to dive face forward in the water and bathing him while trying to avoid that is quite the task.

Is still wearing 9 month clothes and size 2 diapers.

I really can't wrap by head around the fact that our boy is more than a half a year old now. I joked with Paul the other day that I might as well start planning his first birthday party because that time would be here in the blink of an eye. If it weren't for the last 7 months, we might be a little more rested but we sure would have missed out on a whole lot of joy. I can't even imagine life without our sweet Gray.

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