The Girl is Seven Months Old!!

elle louise, seven months

 

Sweet Little Elles Bells,

Welcome to being seven months old!  You are a bright shining girl with lots of love to give!  You still have blue eyes, dirty blonde hair, and a nice pigment to your skin.  Your gummy smile is full of drool and you always seem to have something in your mouth (causing you to chunk up quite nicely!).  Lately that something has been a bit more exciting, as we started teaching you how to eat with a spoon this past week!  You have been getting solids for about a month now, but I have just been putting your food in your bottle to avoid the mess.  Now that you seem a little more hungry, the spoon has made its way into our routine.

Thanks to daylight savings you typically wake up around 5:30/6am, drink a 4oz bottle, play for a bit, drink an 8oz bottle with veggies in it, then take a two hour nap 8-10am.  We play for a couple of hours then you take an 8oz bottle with fruit in it and go back down from 12-2ish.  When you wake up from your afternoon nap we practice eating with the spoon (which is fun but thus far, unsuccessful) and play until your 4pm bottle of 6oz and some baby oatmeal.  You are always starving at 4 but you often resist this bottle so I'm hoping that it will be replaced by baby food shortly.  At 7pm you have another 8oz bottle with baby oatmeal and head to sleep for the night.  You and Cannon are finally sharing a room consistently and I think you both love it!  You are people person and if you cry at night, hearing Cannon's voice seems to calm you right down.  When you both wake up in the morning Cannon is always thrilled to see you there in your crib.  It is the beginning to a wonderful friendship, I can tell already.  You two make each other laugh harder than anyone else can (except Daddy - he is a magnet of children's laughter).

Your friendship has also reached the corners of my heart as you have made it very clear lately that we are not to be apart.  You cry when I leave a room and will wait patiently, staring at the door, for me to return.  You are friendly to everyone but seem to settle right down when you are back in your rightful place in my arms.  As much as I should probably be teaching you to be fine on your own, I love knowing that I am your home base.  We, my dear, are from the same mold.  I understand you and you understand me.  When you are sad, empathy comes easily from me because it all seems to make sense.  You are not dramatic and are easily satisfied and I appreciate that.

You have come to a familiar level of frustration, now being seven months old.  You will wiggle and wriggle all over the floor, just aching to crawl, but you haven't figured it out yet.  You use your arms to push yourself backward but can't seem to grasp using your legs or how to move forward.  I hope that it clicks for you soon because I can see just how cramped you feel being stuck in one place.  Your alternative to crawling has been to revert back to your primate tendencies that we have previously seen in your climbing my arms when trying to steal food from my hands.  You are now pushing toward anything sturdy with your little backwards push/forward hop-scoot and doing your best to pull yourself up.  Just the other day I set you down about 4 feet away from me while I sat in a chair.  Next thing I knew you were literally climbing up my leg - it was bizarre!  When there's an Elle there's a way I guess (har har).

Baby Bells, I love you dearly.  You are a squishy little ball of joy.  Thank you for making our home such a happier place.

So Much Love,

Mama