You are seven months old, my little beauty! I can't comprehend how it is that both you and your brother can both, separately, have so much of my love. I told your daddy just the other day how much I sometimes wish that there could be one of me who could be solely devoted to you ... do everything with you, give you 100% of my attention; one of me who could do the same for your brother; and one of me who could enjoy both of you together. However, since there can only be one me, I definitely have the best of both worlds just as things are.
You continue to be our little sunshine girl ... I just can't believe you're getting so close to a year old! The past month was somewhat uneventful, which was good, after all of the colds and travel and events of December. You have kept yourself busy enough, though. Teeth 3 and 4 came through a couple of weeks ago, and 5 and 6 are right on the brink. I am certain they will have cut through before this week is over. You weigh a little over 18lbs, having gained over a pound since your check-up a month ago. You LOVE eating. These days you usually nurse 5 times a day: between 7:30-8:00, 11ish, between 2:00-3:00, 5:00, and 7:00. You sit in your highchair and eat 3 meals a day with us. Usually a little cereal and sweet potato in the morning, a combination of veggies at lunch, and cereal for dinner. Your favorite food so far is sweet potatoes, but you also like broccoli much more than I expected.
Sleep has been a thing of beauty this month, both day and night. I never could have imagined this a few months ago, but the moments before you go to sleep for naps are now some of my favorite times with you. What used to be so stressful and frustrating (for both of us) is now so dear. We snuggle in the glider in your room and read a couple of books - the first one rotates, the second is always Mommy Hugs, your favorite. You grin at the pages and giggle at the parts where I tickle or bounce you. Occasionally, instead of looking at the pages you gaze up at me and gently play with my face, earrings, scarf, or hair. After we finish reading, I turn off your lamp, sing your verse (Zephaniah 3:17) to the little tune I made up, snuggle you for just another minute, and then lay you down. You rub your little blankie all over your face, flop over to your side, and rarely make a peep. Every once in a while you'll be frustrated that cuddle time has ended and you'll cry for one or two seconds, but usually you've stopped before I even shut the door. What a turnaround!
You generally take a bottle and fall asleep between 7:00-7:30 each night, and then sleep until around 7:30 the next morning. I dropped your dreamfeed a couple of weeks ago, and you haven't seemed to miss it at all. You do generally awake once or twice between 5:00-7:00, but you just roll around for a little bit, find a paci, and go back to sleep. A couple of times a week we go in to help you locate a paci if you can't find one, but usually you do it yourself. You still sleep on you back, though occasionally you roll to your tummy during those early morning hours. You don't prefer to be that way, though, so you just wiggle all over the place. I love watching you on the monitor as you rub your little blankie all over your face and sometimes chew on the silky edges. Your naps have regulated themselves, as well. You take a morning nap sometime between 9-9:30, usually for about an hour. Then, you are ready for your afternoon nap either right before or right after I put your brother down for his. Your afternoon nap is anywhere from 1-2 hours, meaning sometimes you still take a later afternoon nap, depending on what we have going on that evening. It is so nice that both of you kiddos sleep at the same time for part of the day, but I'm glad you still wake before he does, usually, so we get our one-on-one time.
You still don't have any real mobility to speak of, although the other day you scooted about two and half feet sitting up on your bottom. You also can lunge ridiculously far forward to get something you want, and then somehow manage to get back on your bottom. I have a feeling you may not have a scooting stage, since you still protest your tummy so much. You seem like one day you are going to just lunge forward and start crawling.
You continue to be sweet and personable, although you DO NOT LIKE IT when people you don't know well approach you enthusiastically and get very close to you. Usually you burst into giant crocodile tears when this happens. You love the security of my arms, and would be happy for me to hold you all the time. You do enjoy sitting on the floor playing with toys, but if you're in a clingy mood you will at least want me within arm's reach. You really make me giggle at community group, because even though you love playing with your little buddy, Roo, you're usually sleepy enough and the crowd is big enough that you'll just reach your little hand behind you every once in a while to make sure I'm still sitting nearby. Then, when you get too tired, you just flop your little body backward onto my lap and contentedly lay there. I LOVE your cuddly self, and you can feel free to continue these behaviors until you find them too embarrassing.
I had way too much trouble narrowing your monthly pictures down to just one or two this time around. You are way too cute!
One of my sweet friends, Mrs. Steph, says that you have a jolly face, and I think that is a perfect descriptor for you. I mean, really ... look at you!
You got a little tired of the photo shoot, which ended up being nearly as cute as when you are happy!
Cutest teeth ever.
Your mood turned around, though, when your brother came running in the room yelling, "I want to do that with her!!!"
You would let him poke you in the eye all day long if he wanted to because it would mean that he was paying attention to you, which is really your favorite thing ever. He actually wasn't really trying to poke you in the eye ... he was touching your eyes, cheeks, neck, etc. and saying, "look at your little neck rolls, look at your little cheeky rolls, etc." It was pretty cute, but I promise I won't let him point out your little rolls when you get older!
And then ... this happened. The miraculous. A picture of both of you looking at the camera AND smiling sweetly. I will totally count this as my super-early Mother's Day gift. I can't stop looking at it.
As always, I love you so much. We can't get enough of your sunshine-y self and are just so excited to watch you grow!
Love,
Mommy
1 comment:
It's hard to pick which one of you is more beautiful, my niece or my great-niece...so I won't!! Love you both. Aunt Violet XOXOXO "LYMYKY"
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