Just when I’d gotten used to having a six-month-old, here she is, turning seven months old! Our little darling is constantly developing new skills (although I guess we’d need to worry if she wasn’t!) and is getting more and more personality by the day. I’m sure sometime in the next year or two I will have a moment in which I suddenly want to send her back from whence she came, but so far, being a mother to Maddi has been seven months of good times. (Yes, even those first few sleepless, gassy months!)
What’s new with the wee one, you ask? It’s hard to know where to begin.
In addition to all the funny noises I’ve chronicled in this blog, she also sings to herself in the car, and also when she’s falling asleep now. She also jabbers away in the cutest little voice to her bath ducky as she’s chasing him on her neverending crusades around the tub — I’m assuming this is partly because of the bathroom’s excellent acoustics.
She understands her name and a few words such as “Daddy,” “cat,” “food” and “milk” and gets very excited not only when someone is preparing a bowl or a Gerber jar, but also when she sees her bib.
She can sit all day long if she feels like it, but when she’s tired, she will dive headfirst at the nearest parent and bury her face in his or her chest. When she’s not tired, she (finally!) uses this lunging skill to go after toys or to get on the floor and practice rolling, pivoting and wiggling her fat little legs behind her.
At long last, she has finally taken to tummy time. Although this past few days, it’s tummy time ALL the time. She takes very little interest in her toys, being held, or even sleeping. It’s all about trying to crawl. She’s been making a little bit of progress every day and so far has begun to occasionally push herself a few inches, but seems to have no idea how she did it when it happens.
Speaking of sleeping, Maddi’s now sleeping in a much-lower crib, thanks to her new mobility. Seems she figured out how to scoot directly underneath her mobile and frolic among the animals. It took three people and several hours to get the crib lowered, so Chris made the executive decision to lower it ALL the way and be done with it forever. (Well, until the next baby, anyway. Either the mattress goes back up then, or someone else with really long arms lifts the floppy newborn out for me!)
Those of you who met Maddi when she was a little newborn with bright peepers that took in everything and who witnessed the scary direct-eye-contact smile she developed at two weeks know that she has always been a very sociable baby. This now extends to playing with other babies (or at least manhandling their hands and faces) and loving on her favorite adults. She does have a bit of separation anxiety when I leave the room, especially when she’s overtired, but so far she still enjoys smiling gummily at strangers everywhere we go. In fact, we’ve been at restaurants and Maddi will wiggle and strain until she has a perch sufficient to allow her to beam warmly at the nearest table full of new faces. She is fairly indiscriminate, smiling at hoboes and salespeople along with grandmothers and small children. Thus, we have mixed feelings about her friendliness.
While she is a very jolly and friendly baby, our daughter does have her serious moments. Smiles are bestowed generously while she’s eating and while we’re out and about, and during personal interaction, but when Maddi is playing with her toys, it’s all business! Her little brow furrows in concentration while she bangs her stacking rings against each other, and scowls, cross-eyed, when gnawing on the soft blocks from her shape sorter. Our wee one looks very serious indeed when she shakes the living daylights out of her little velcro banana toy.
In addition to chewy, delicious toys, Maddi’s diet has expanded to include apples, sweet potatoes, avocadoes and wheat. (Rice gave her eczema, but strangely enough, wheat has been perfectly fine thus far.) The baby who used to spend 19 hours out of 24 nursing has pared her feedings down to fewer than 150 minutes a day. We are still waiting on teeth, despite months of drool and biting.
Here’s another interesting tidbit — Maddi’s finally getting more hair. After six months of the same old bald head, about a month ago, we noticed that her head was starting to “fill in” a little. Over the past several weeks, the short down has turned into a thatch of dark blonde fuzz and is really becoming obvious.
As she enters her next month, Maddi has hit another milestone — she’s outgrown her cute little infant carseat and will be moving up to a rear-facing convertible seat. It’s a good thing she is sitting so well, because, without her carrier, she will have to use that skill in shopping carts and restaurants.
There are some days when I wake up and have to remind myself that I have a baby, and here she is becoming such a very big baby already. (Sob!) If only I could freeze time, and keep my little seven-month-old forever!
And here is a photo of our little princess at seven months, competing with the kitties for treats!