7 months old!

In just a few short hours, Evan will be 7 months old!  The weeks go by so fast I'm glad we don't count his age by weeks anymore, but now it even feels like the months go by so fast too!  This past month he has been working on his sitting and crawling skills, however he has still not managed to scoot or move himself much yet.  He rolls all over the place though, so he easily can be one place when you leave the room and somewhere else when you return (even just a few minutes later!).  Thus, we're working on getting the house childproofed now, and I will probably even need to start putting him in his playpen if I cannot be watching him closely.  As it is, we've already had to "upgrade", which really just means upsize, his quilt for floor time.  The one that matches his nursery (from Aunt Linda) is just not big enough for the space he covers rolling over so much!

Evan's push-up pose...ready to reach for his stacking cups!

Play time

He still loves his jumperoo, which is another great place we can let him play independently without too much supervision.  Yesterday he even played by himself in his jumperoo for nearly an hour!  It gave me time to do laundry, dishes, and other chores, and I didn't hear him cry once.  Every time I checked on him, he was busy and happily playing with one of the jumperoo toys.

We got him some new toys this past month that have been big hits: balls and stacking cups.  The balls are great for encouraging him to crawl because he constantly knocks them out of his reach, and then has to try to reach for them.  The cups are a hit so far, although we just introduced them today.  He especially enjoyed it when I banged them together (see video for proof!):  Evan and his new stacking cups

Meal time

Evan's been a great solid food eater so far.  He always has a funny reaction to the first taste of a new food, but then it must grow on him and he loves it!  So far he has had rice and oatmeal cereal, avocado, peas, carrots, sweet potato, butternut squash, and applesauce.  I cannot say which is his favorite because he seems to eat them all very well.  Carrots and sweet potatoes are definitely some of the best though!  He's still not sure about the liquid that comes out of the sippy cup, but he loves to play with the cup and put the spout in his mouth.  He just spits out most of the drink.

He takes at least 5 ounces of milk in each bottle, which I guess is a little low for his age (at least from what I've heard other babies his age drink), but at least I've still been able to manage getting enough for him despite constantly worrying my supply is getting low.  He nurses or has a bottle about 5-6 times per day, so I'm guessing he's easily getting the minimum 24 ounces the doctor suggests.  He now also eats some cereal and a veggie (or fruit) at lunch and dinner time.  Usually about 1 ounce of the veggie and 1/2 to 1 ounce of formula mixed into the cereal.  We use formula now for the cereal since my supply was just barely keeping up with his drinking habits.

We started using sign language with him this past month, mostly during meal times ("eat/food", "more" and "all done").  We also are trying to teach him "mommy" and "daddy".  I think this past weekend he's started his first attempts at "more" during his meal time, but it's so hard to know just yet.  Is he bringing his hands together in front of him just for fun, or does he associate that with the sign I'm doing that means "more"?  That is the word we use the most with him, so it probably will be the first he learns or uses.

And....I think he's about to get his first tooth.  I know I've been saying for months now that I think he's teething, but in the past couple days he's been moaning a bit, biting on his fingers, and I *think* I see a little white bump on his bottom gums.  Could it be the real thing?

Hanging out on the couch with daddy, and with his chilled gel keys in hand (hopefully that helps his sore gums).

Sleep time

He will not nap in a crib or play pen (as recently reported in last week's blog post: Nap time blues and a swimming lesson.  Thus, we went ahead and got a note from our doctor's office this past week that gives our daycare the ability to let him nap in a rocker chair with vibration.  That's what is working for us, and since it's so important that he naps, it will be our nap set up for the time being.  And we usually have all of his loving stuffed animals watching over him.  He had an extra furry animal watching over him this past week during one of his naps too...Roxie!  She was sitting just behind his stuffed animals so perfectly, but unfortunately started to move before we snapped the photo.

Evan's nap time set up (yes he's in the chair during this photo!).  Roxie wanted to check on him too, so she sat behind koala. :)

He still sleeps overnight very well, with bedtime around 8pm and wake ups anywhere between 4-6am. On days he wakes up around 4am, we change and feed him and then he always goes back to sleep until 7-8am.  While I worry it's a crutch, he still usually falls asleep at night during his bedtime nursing session.  In the few times he doesn't, he does go to sleep on his own in his crib, so I keep hoping that's a good sign that he's not relying on me nursing him to sleep.

Other news

One of my new favorite things is that he kind of hugs me now.  When I pick him up he grabs onto me very tightly and puts his head into my neck.  It's the best cuddle ever!  And we have so much fun playing on the floor together.  He loves it when I pretend to be a doggie and make barking and panting sounds. 

His blocked tear duct issue also seems to have disappeared this past month.  One day a few weeks ago his eye just wasn't very gunky in the morning, and then it just stayed clean since! Yay!

Given that he's becoming more mobile, he now twists and squirms on the changing table a lot, which makes it hard to change/dress him.  You definitely have to keep a hand on him!  He also grabs at anything, especially things out of reach (which is partly why he squirms on the changing table, grabbing at something, be it the nose bulb, a near by burp cloth, whatever).  He loves to grab at books during story time and actually got his first papercut from that!  It was terrifying for me, as I was reading him his favorite book (Fuzzy Wuzzy Wombat--thanks Nana Louise!) before a nap, and I suddenly saw blood on my hand!  I searched him everywhere, worried he had a bloody nose or something worse and then traced it to a papercut on the inside of one of his fingers.  It was really bleeding, so I ran it under some water and put a bandaid on it.  He didn't cry or wince a bit, so I had no idea when he cut it, but up until I noticed the blood on me he'd already wiped it around on his outfit.  Now I only read board books up close to him, and keep other books out of his reach!

He still has not started to babble with consonant sounds, but he does a lot of vowels, and a lot of screeching!  In the past few weeks, he's started to show us just how loud he can be! He also likes to shake his head side-to-side, as if he's saying "no", but I don't think there is any meaning to it.  It's just a new movement that he thinks is fun to do here and there.  That said, I'll leave you with one last video, of him really jumping hard in his jumperoo, and it also gives you a taste of his new sounds and movements: Jump jump jumperoo!