Seven Months Old

In the busyness that preceded Christmas, I never got around to updating you all on Chloë's six month birthday. And now here she is, seven months old!

She's quite the adorable baby, and her hair is even growing back! It's not quite as dark as when she was born, but at least the poor thing isn't bald anymore. She weighs in at 17 pounds, fully clothed. She isn't quite keeping up with her percentiles of her earlier, chubbier months, but I guess that's what happens when she has to be moving at all times. And she's 27 1/2 inches long, keeping up with her 70th and 80th percentiles for height.

She is a very active child. I know every mother must think this, but I have a non-stop baby on my hands. Even when she's sleeping. Her daddy has taken to calling her hands "demon hands," which sounds awfully mean, but her hands are her own worst enemy when she is trying to fall asleep. When she does finally fall asleep, a hand will creep up, fingers slowly wiggling, and grab her pacifier away from her peaceful face. And then she wakes up, crying. The only way to keep her hands from moving is if they can hold my hand. She will be crying and fighting sleep, but as soon as I let her grab my hand, she'll pass out. Then I'll try to slowly pull my hand away, and she'll wake up crying, and her hands will begin to move. It's very strange. Apparently I had a bit of a hand fetish when I was a baby. Huh. Needless to say, nap time has become a bit of a struggle. She doesn't sleep nearly as much as she did a month ago. Those silly hands of hers just won't let her. And then she sleeps 8 to 10 hours at night, but still wakes up twice to eat. I know I could work on weaning her from her midnight snacks, but I'm in no hurry.

She still loves her bouncy chair, and can kick and bounce herself for an hour or so while I'm making dinner. And she absolutely loves her Jonny Jump Up. She'll jump for an hour and a half in that thing. I think she would jump longer if she didn't get hungry. That kid must burn a lot of calories, because she still eats every two hours. She still nurses most of time, but I try to give her something "solid" every day to help eliminate the diaper blow-out issue. Usually I give her rice cereal with a little of the apple sauce I made last Fall. I introduced bananas a couple of weeks ago, and she seemed to like them mashed with her rice cereal, and tolerated them in her fancy mesh feeder. But she started having episodes of inconsolable crying in the middle of the night (as well as some strange looking diapers, which I will refrain from posting pictures of), so we quit giving her bananas. And no more middle of the night screaming. (I read an interesting article recently about complex carbs being difficult to digest, and probably not the best thing to introduce right away. Maybe I'll try pureed meats next.) She watches us very intently when we eat, watching the spoon or fork pass from the plate... to the mouth... back to the plate. And somehow, she figured out how to reach for our beverages and grip with her curved palms and pull the glass to her mouth. It is ridiculously adorable. As long as we're drinking water, we'll let her lap at it for a while. We recently got her a sippy cup, which she enjoys chewing on a bit.

She can sit up without assistance, but still topples over occasionally. She would probably do better if she had more practice, but since the floors on the main level of our house are hard wood, I only let her practice on our bed, or at friends' houses on carpet. She's a master at rolling over both directions, but often prefers to lie on her stomach and play with whatever toys I've set in front of her. She loves chewing on everything, including her feet... or other people's feet, if she can get close enough. I'm sure this is related to the fact that she is now had two sharp teeth! They broke through just after New Year's within a couple of days of each other. We had some fussy and drooly days there for a while, but that is to be expected. I have to remember not to absent-mindedly let her chew on my fingers.

All of her exercise routines must be paying off, because the munchkin thinks she can stand up now. Her legs have been able to support her weight since she was a few weeks old, but balance has always been the tricky part. She can manage to stay vertical for 20 or 30 seconds, as long as she has something to lean her diaper bum against. But her squirminess gets the best of her, and she has a ways to go before she's really standing up by herself. We've seen hints of crawling or army crawling, but the wood floors make for a slippery surface with very poor resistance. I'll enjoy my mostly-immobile baby as long as I can.

She is also a very vocal child. She has been exploring the limits of her vocal cords recently, and sometimes squawks, shrieks, or just yells at the top of her lungs. It is quite humorous. And she still likes to babble, lots of "bahbahbah"s and sometimes "Mamama"s, which I like to think she says intentionally. It's so amazing to see recognition in her face of the simple commands we're trying to use consistently: "Don't fuss," "don't bite," and "hold still" while we're changing her diaper and "pay attention" when we're feeding her. We're trying to incorporate a few simple sign language gestures-really just "please" and "more" for now.

She is usually a very happy, smiley and sometimes giggly child. She is a bit ticklish on her ribs, neck, and bottoms of her feet. And she enjoys games of babbling back and forth at each other. Some of our friends were visiting a few nights ago, and 5-year-old Bella had Chloë giggling for quite some time while Chloë was in her Johnny Jump Up. It was so adorable. Chloë is usually friendly, but has recently become a little shy, especially towards guys, despite our best efforts to make sure she gets passed around a lot. She sure does love her daddy though, and gets very excited when he comes home from work.

We love our little bundle of energy.