Madison: 7 months old

Time is flying.  Somehow, she doesn't seem like a baby anymore.  Maybe it's because she has really started forming an opinion and personality of her own.

Sleep
She goes to bed around 8pm and wakes up around 6am.  She takes 2 naps a day usually between 1-2 hours long (yay!!).  I don't ever count on naps being consistent or long.  I've learned that expectations can really hurt you in this parenting journey.  When I expect a long nap, it's usually extra short, then randomly, it will be 2 hours long.  I just try to make sure she gets enough sleep.  If she wakes up after we go to sleep, I don't go in and get her.  But last night, for example, she started crying for a little while just 30 minutes after we put her down, so I went in.  She's pretty good about night time sleep.  Although I heard her talking to herself at 3am, too.  No crying, just talking.  I guess she went back to sleep eventually.

When I take monthly pictures now, I try to keep her in place with my feet and tickle her to make her smile.  But the moment I move my feet, she takes off!

Eat
Whenever I am eating something, no matter how many fun toys I put in front of her to give me a second to snack, she comes crawling over, pulling on my jeans, reaching for whatever I am eating.  She sits and stares at the bowl and intently watches the spoon until it comes her way.  If it doesn't, she adamantly pulls, tugs, and makes every effort to climb into my lap and reach for what I am eating.  We are pretty laid back about letting her taste just about anything unless we are really questioning it.  On Bryce's birthday, we gave her a taste of icing and chocolate cake, she chews on cucumbers when we eat salads, she gnaws on bread often, she sucks on pineapple and other fruits, she drinks water from our cups, she's pretty curious.  We haven't given her juice, meats, eggs or really any dairy except tastes of yogurt.  Fortunately, eating has been an easy ride with her.  She loves almost anything and can eat quite a bit.  I breastfeed 2-3 times a day (usually morning, noon, and evening) and then before naps and before bed (3 times/day) I give her a bottle of formula.  We have a good system going that has been working well for us.

Month 7= climbing, pulling up, crawling at fast speeds.

Isn't it weird that babies live with absolutely no knowledge of consequence?  She climbs up the stairs fearlessly, crawls fast to the edge of the bed until I grab her, pulls up on anything even when she has a loose grip and falls all the time.  We are getting used to falls, then crying, then consoling, then back at it again.

Climbing and pulling up. All.the.time.  She'd rather be climbing than playing with toys.


She likes reading, especially the touch and feel books and pop up books.  She rubs her hand over each page.  She loves bath time, but more than the water, she loves pulling up on the side of the baby bath tub so she can stand and rock back and forth.  She had one special little "first" this month-she went on the swing at the park for the first time!  She absolutely loved it.  She was laughing and full of joy the entire time.  It was so cute.

When she gets excited, she does one or all of the following things: moves her fingers/hands/wrists, squeals, scrunches her nose and fake coughs, scrunches her nose and pants like a dog.