IJG is 7 months old!

2.6.10

This month IJG's mobility has greatly increased. He started creeping or slithering across the floor. It started with being able to pull himself along smooth, hard surfaces, but he can now move across carpet too. He's not crawling up on his hands and knees yet, but if we put him down, he stays on his hands and knees for a while and rocks forward and back before falling onto his tummy. He is sitting well, but we still don't trust him to sit without something behind him in case he topples over. He has also increased his babbling with lots of dadadas and ahduhs. We started trying him in restaurant highchairs. He has been doing well and usually lets us both get get our meals eaten while he plays with toys or chews on his mesh feeder.

He has been eating 2 meals a day. It took a couple of weeks for him to get into it, but he suddenly started opening his mouth for the spoon and swallowing. For a while about half of every bite squirted back out, but he's now keeping most of the food in. The process became far less messy once he started actually eating. We stopped using cloth bibs and have been using a plastic one that rinses clean, making clean up easier too. IJG typically eats about an ounce of fruit or veg and a tablespoon of dry whole grain cereal mixed with breast milk at each meal. So far he has had green beans, peas, sweet potato, butternut squash, pumpkin, carrots, parsnips, avocado, banana, apples, and pears. I steam and then puree everything (except the banana and avocado). His least favorite seems to be banana and he hasn't ever eaten much of it.

IJG has been sleeping approximately from 8:30 pm to 6:30 am, but frequently wakes around 5:30 am and needs to be patted back to sleep. Sometimes he just stays awake talking to himself until I get him out of his crib at 6:30. He wakes at other times during the night but usually goes back to sleep quickly. He wakes frequently at night when sick. He takes 2 naps a day which average about 3 hours total.

He now attends school 4 days a week while I work my 20 hours from the office.

IJG loves to have his belly tickled. He likes to be tipped backwards and lightly tossed into the air. He loves water and bath time. He likes to watch the dogs and get kisses from all of them. His new favorite activity seems to be throwing his toys down from his highchair, then leaning over to see them on the floor. I invented a kissing game, which entails me kissing him on each cheek and then asking him to kiss my cheek. He likes this game and "kisses" me by holding his mouth open and talking on my cheek. He seems to enjoy school and his teachers, and finally consistently gives me smiles when I pick him up. He loves going on walks either on my chest in the carrier or in the stroller. We've tried him a few times in the carrier on daddy's back and he doesn't seem to like it as much as being on our chests, but tolerates it.

He was sick twice this month. They both seemed to be pretty mild colds, but the last time ended with an earache. It seemed to only last 24 hours, and during this time he was fine playing and doing other things, but when we tried to lay him down to sleep he would scream. He would only sleep upright on me. We also elevated one end of his mattress for the night.

Today, we left him at home with a babysitter for the first time. Uncle MNP took care of him while we went out to lunch. He sent me this message: "You'd kvell over what a mensch your meshugana was being...but he started kvetching so I put his tuches to bed". Which means he must have been reading the "Five Little Gefiltes" book my parents gave us for Hanukkah.