7 Months

I can't believe you are 7 months Alec. You're first year is almost half over now. I am so grateful I have gotten to stay home with you and spend this precious time with you. Even then the time has gone too fast. You change and grow before my very eyes and I can't comprehend it. I don't remember when you were a tiny baby anymore. It's hard, I mean I do remember, but it's flown by so very quickly. You are little and helpless for such a few short weeks. Now you are big and strong, sitting, crawling, pulling up, and even cruising! You are this fiercely independent soul who is out to conquer the world.

You help me dress you now. Well, sometimes. Most times you hat getting dressed and will arch your back and squirm away. We dress on the floor now rather than your changing table. But when you want to cooperate you help push your arms through the sleeves and your head through your shirt. You really get the concept! I am impressed.

Your Mimi and Granddad came up to visit and we went to a pumpkin farm. We had a great time! You weren't too happy with me trying endlessly to take your picture in a sea of pumpkins. You were much more interested in the pumpkins themselves and really would rather look at them than at your crazy old mom with the camera. I left the card for the digital camera at home, such chaos, but luckily I had the regular camera with us as well. You humored me for a few good pictures :) There were animals and a corn maze there as well. You liked going through the corn maze up so high on your dad's shoulders. And of course I dressed you in your pumpkin hat and orange fleece. My little pumpkin!

I call you motor mouth. You are constantly making your "brrrr brrrr" noise. None of us can figure out quite how you do it, we try to mimic you and can't. You have this crazy ability to roll all of your consonants. If you keep this up you will be a master linguist. You also roll your G's - something like "geeee geeeee" So hard to try to write it out.

Best of all though you have this new laugh. You still do your funny tickle laugh but this is new. You usually do the new one when you are amusing yourself or you see the cat. It is almost like "aaaaaack aaack" Very throaty. It cracks me up whenever you make this noise!

Oh and do you love your cat! Just seeing her cheers you up and makes you gasp and sort of chortle. Lately you have started almost calling to her. You yell to her "ba BA" - this is your new sound as well. So cute Alec, so cute.

Your great grandparents gave me some money to buy you something so I got you the "Crawl and Cruise Playground" Was this money well spent! You love this crazy big contraption. There are balls you put down chutes and you love to watch them, and eat them! You pull yourself up and stand in this thing for a long time, checking it all out, standing big and tall.

You love music. When you are most upset you calm down when I sing to you. Your current favorite song is "Doe, a deer, a female deer....." Putting a CD on while changing your diaper is a life saver. You don;t know who is singing or where the music is coming from and you lie still with this amazed look on your face, just long enough for me to change your diaper. We go to Kindermusik class and you absolutely love it. You think it is so amazing when the teacher sings to you. And you smile and laugh as we dance around and around the room. You like watching all the other kids as well. Most of them are older and can walk, but you get right in there with them, crawling everywhere, even into other mother's laps! You prefer chewing on the rattles and balls to playing with them or making music though.

You eat cheerios. Sort of. For so long I was nervous to give them to you, afraid you would choke. But someone told me once you can pick them up yourself you can control your throat, so I figured I would try it. Plus you have so much drool with those teeth coming in that I figured the cheerios would dissolve pretty quickly! It took a while for you to be able to master the fine art of picking up a cheerio. That pincer grasp is hard! Sometimes they would just stick to your hand and you'd try to eat it that way. But finally you got it - you got a cheerio in your mouth! And you sputtered and made noises and quite the face, as if to say all that work for this? But you must have decided you like them because you keep eating them. Most end up in your highchair or on the floor still, but you seem to enjoy it. Your favorite are the wagon wheels though. You love them. Not so big on the zwieback toast these days. Can't say I blame you.

We went over to your friend Carolina's house for playgroup and you just had the best time. You and Carolina play so well together. She is one year old but you are about the same size! Her mom Vivi just loves you and she was throwing you up into some balloons from Carolina;s birthday party and you were just laughing and laughing - it was so funny! Then we all went out to the pumpkin farm again and we stuck you and Carolina in the pumpkin patch. So cute!

We think you might be waving. Not sure. Either that or you have just discovered that your wrist moves. It's not so much a wave as you stick your arm straight out and move your wrist up and down. I'll take it though. We were at the Bon-Ton visiting Mimi and you waved to one of her friends. Then you would stand at the coffee table and wave at us. You don't do it often or consistently but I think you are waving....

You really move now. And you understand what moving is all about. And you are just such a friendly soul! At story hour you love to crawl up to the librarian and climb right into her lap. You'll climb over to other moms and climb on them or into their laps as well. When you are sad or hungry though you just want your mom. Sometimes when you are playing on the floor you decide you want to be hugged or fed and you will crawl over to me and grab my legs and try to climb up me, making your "hunh hunh" whine noise. It melts my heart.

At night sometimes when we are in the computer room or out in the living room you will just take off and crawl into the bathroom. It's as if you are saying, "OK, bath time now please." It cracks me up. You love your bath! Your dad bathes you most nights, whenever he is home. It's your special time together. He says you are plashing and now you kick your legs as well. The other night he called me in to see you because you were taking the blue bowl we use to pour water over you, and you were dipping it in the water and pouring it over yourself! You amaze us! The free blue bath bowl from the hospital is also your favorite bath toy. Go figure.

I pretty much change you on the floor now. You are so wiggly and archy backy that I think it's dangerous to change you on the changing table anymore. It used to be our special time, you loved to get changed and hang out on your changing table, looking in the mirror or at your "A" toy. Now you hate it. Absolutely hate it. Arching your back, crying, the works. Music helps, so do some distraction toys. But it's tough work! You do help put your hands through your shirts now but I think that's only to get it over with faster.

You have had some crazy drool lately and the other night your Dad discovered tooth #5! It's to the right of your middle bottom teeth and it is coming in fast. Seems like we just found your first tooth an now there are soon to be 5.

You have discovered doors. You are fascinated by them, how they open and close. Same goes for cabinet doors. You had a great time just standing against to office door banging it against the wall, making it move.

Your favorite toy lately is a big Halloween straw from the dollar store. Your dad taught you how to hum into it to make funny noises. It cracks me up when you hum into it, drool and all.

You also love to play with balls. I don't know if you are trying to say ball or if it is just a coincidence but you say babababa a lot too.

You can kneel now. That seems like such a big kid thing to do. At first I thought you just sort of fell into a kneeling position, but then I realized you were sort of doing it on purpose. You are really mastering your body Alec! You like to kneel in front of the refrigerator and play with your magnets. And then of course crawl all over the dirty floor!

You are really starting to cruise now, you really like to go the length of the coffee table/bench now. It's also your favorite place to stand because there is always a remote control there and you love to eat them! Your new mobility really allows you to go where you want now, and now you can crawl to me when you want me to pick you up, if you are hungry, or just need a hug. It is so sweet - melts my heart every time! You get all excited and make your "hunh hunh" noise and crawl quickly to me. It makes me feel special :)