The Michaels Family: 7 Months

Sara Kate, you are 7 months old today! What have you been up to?

- School is still going well for you. Although, it appears that recently you don't want to nap as much. You are taking an hour to an hour and a half nap in the morning and sometimes you still take the long two hour nap in the afternoons, but sometimes it's just an hour to an hour an a half. You make this funny little screeching noise (we think it's a laugh), and the other day one of your teachers told us that you were playing on the floor with your 'friends' and your little screech noise kept scaring a little boy. It kept freaking him out so much they had to move him because he would cry. So you're already making the boys cry!! Ha!

- You still drink only breast milk, but to date, the solids you've had include rice cereal with a little apple and sweet potatoes. Your schedule is a little something like this: nurse at 6, you take your morning bottle around 10:30, afternoon bottle between 2:30-3, you 'eat' with us around 6:30 (this is when you get rice cereal or sweet potatoes), you nurse between 7-7:30, and you get a top off at bed (between 8:45-9).
- Solids - I mentioned them above but thought they deserved their own bullet! You don't care for rice cereal alone and your Gran (my mom) gave me the idea to shave a little apple into it to give it more flavor. Well, you are a fan of that!! You also like to gnaw on a piece of apple and you get mad when we take it away because you've bitten a piece off (I told you that we can't have you choking on apple but you were still mad that we took it away). I made sweet potatoes this weekend and I let you lick my finger as I was scraping out the bowl. You appeared to like them! Saturday night Meme gave you a bite and she said you ate them but weren't sure about the texture. Last night was the first night we actually made you a little dish of them and I couldn't really tell if you liked them or not. You ate some bites but then you would spit some bites out. We'll keep trying! Not sure what the next veggie will be...I was thinking peas but then I read that peas are a gassy food and I don't want to upset your tummy. I'll figure it out!

Letting you gnaw on an apple core

Oh yeah, Gran let you try a lemon! You liked it, but I sure think it upset your tummy later that day!

- You're sleeping habits are pretty much the same as they have been...you go to bed between 9 and 9:30 and I wake you up at 6. On Saturday's and Sunday's you can sleep to almost 7. Sometimes you go to sleep with the pacifier in your mouth (although we always have it clipped to your pajamas), and if you wake up in the night and need it you can get it back in your mouth and put yourself back to sleep. Every now and then when you can't find the paci I'll come give it to you and you'll fall back asleep. As I've said before, I'm very grateful that you are a pretty good sleeper.

- You are definitely teething. It kind of started up again this weekend with you just being plain cranky!! Meme kept you Saturday night so we could run out for dinner and she felt (and then I felt) the little pocket where you're tooth will come in. It's been smooth in the past and now there's a little indention. It's your bottom right. She said that maybe by Thanksgiving you'll have your first tooth. The last couple nights I've giving you Tylenol before bed to ease the pain and help you sleep, and so far so good. I'll have to keep everybody updated on what's going on with that! You are loving your 'Sophie the Giraffe' teether and the rings we put in the fridge/freezer. I also have some frozen apple slices to put in a teething feeder but we haven't tried that. I'm sure you'll like it though because like I already mentioned, you LOVE apple!!
- There are times when you really like to play and other times you don't want to have anything to do with that! You really like your activity center and can spend a good chunk of time in it entertaining yourself. Saturday you sat in the bottom of your pack and play with toys scattered out and you did great with independent play time! You also spent a good bit of time yesterday playing in an empty diaper box. Nice! Who needs toys when you have an empty box?! Ha!

- You can be a major chatter box!! A new thing you're saying 'baba' or 'bla bla' and yesterday you said something that sounded like buh-bye. You will just chatter and chirp and screech. It continues to crack us up! And of course, I love to hear your sweet little voice!
- You are doing great at sitting up by yourself and playing while sitting up unassisted. We still use the Bumbo, but I'm trying to get you on the floor more. You still love to 'stand,' too!

- Just last week you figured out how to wave!! It's so cute! You have your hand turned the right way and everything. I'm not 100% that you know what it means yet. Although, last night you did wave to Meme before she left the house.
(you were waving at us while we were trying to take your picture)

- You are in 6 month clothes or 6-9 month stuff, depending on how things are labeled. Carter's fits you great, Baby Gap fits great, and I recently discovered the Jumping Bean line and Kohl's. They have tons of mix and match super cute and super cheap things. They are a little big (6-9 month) but they work out just fine.
- You are in size 3 diapers (we inadvertently skipped the 2 and 1/2). I recently read something interesting about diaper sizing and poo explosions...if the baby blows out the back, then the diapers are too small. If the baby blows out the legs, then the diapers are too big.
- Most of the time, you're such a happy baby! I LOVE to see you smile and grin!