Seven Months!

Dear X-man,

You are seven months old today. Effectively on the downhill slide to one year! You are getting such a personality and I'm thoroughly enjoying watching it develop.

My can you talk! You're really babbling now, and I love it! Could it have something to do with the fact that your conversations are full of "mmmmmaaaaaamamamamama"? You say ma ma and you've been saying it for a few weeks, but I think that you might be starting to recognize that ma ma is my name! You are just adorable when you're babbling and saying "aaahhma ma mmma ma ma" and then you're mouth keeps going but the sound has stopped. You also have added coughing to your conversation repertoire. I have to remember to tell people that I leave you with that you cough as part of your talking. Otherwise, they get all worried that something's wrong!

You certainly do know how to be cute when you're excited! You can get your legs and arms going all at the same time. And you like to "hammer" your hands together, too. Usually the all-limb wiggle is accompanied by an adorable breathy laugh. And I can always get you to do this when I turn the phone on handsfree and you hear the dial tone! I guess you're just excited to listen to the other voices!



You're getting really good at sitting up. You can't get in that position yourself, but once there, you can keep yourself balanced for quite a while...until you see something way out of your reach that you want RIGHT NOW!

You're not crawling yet, but I can tell you will be before too long. You can get up on your knees and you can get up on your hands, but not at the same time. Right now, you'll get on your knees and scoot forward with your face still on the ground.



One of my favorite things about being with you now is seeing how much you love me. I cherish each hug and slimy kiss! When I pick you up, you wrap one of your arms around my neck and just squeeze! That's usually followed with a giant kiss on my jaw. When I come back into the room where you are, your face just lights up when you see me. Interestingly enough, seeing you causes the same reaction on my face!

Your little balance technique is super cute, too. When I pick you up, the arm that's not around my neck (and usually holding on to the short hairs on my neck) is usually cocked behind you like you're ready for an underhanded pitch. What's up with that?

I also love snuggling with you...anytime! When you're nursing, you play with my fingers with such delicate movements. Those moments you save just for me! And after you're through eating and I'm rocking you for bedtime, or when I'm rocking you for a nap, I love to lean down and kiss whatever part of your face I can kiss. And I'll just breathe in your breath. Your breath is so sweet and brings my mind back to you and you alone...I can forget about the grocery list and the laundry for a bit and focus on your peacefulness. Sometimes when I'm not even holding you, I can smell your sweet breath and I have a strong desire to go hug you and kiss you all over!

You started solid foods this month! You really liked the sweet potatoes, took a little longer to warm up to the peas and green beans, love the carrots (but it seems they don't love you) and you're really enjoying the squash. You eat at least one serving of these every evening before your bath and you're even getting to where more of it really does end up in your mouth instead of on your face or up your nose!

You've also now gone one week without the 3:00 am nursing. You actually dropped that much better than I thought you were. Now that's not to say that you don't wake up then, but you're getting really good at going back to sleep on your own...after about 4 minutes of crying. The last three nights have not been the best sleep, but I chalk that up to having so many people here for your baptism. I'm hoping you'll get a better night's sleep tonight. As for naps, you take those much better on the floor in the living room. In fact, you've been asleep on the floor now for a little over an hour. But no fear, it's almost time for you to eat again, and you rarely sleep much past a meal! And as long as I can get an hour or 30 minute nap out of you while you're here in the living room, I'll take it. Maybe you like knowing that I'm close, maybe you think your crib is just for night sleeping, who knows. An hour nap is an hour nap.



You were baptized yesterday. Is was also the 38th birthday of our Church. Our church does baptisims differently than my church when I was growing up. This church has a private ceremony just for the baptism. It's not a quick thing at the end of the service. The preacher did a fabulous job and the ceremony was beautiful. One of the most touching things the preacher said was that one of the best and most important gifts your daddy and I could give you was to love each other. He also then told us that while there was no denying you were our baby, you really were "on loan" from God and that God had decided to bless us with you. What a neat thought.

For your baptism, you wore the gown that Aunt Chickie and I wore and several years before that, your G-Joy and her brother wore it. G-Joy hadn't even noticed her and her brother's initials on the gown and that there were places for other initials. My grandmother was so smart when she made it! I'll be looking for someone here in town to embroider the three additional sets of initials on this wonderful heirloom piece. And did you look handsome in it! You behaved perfectly and the preacher even commented on how attentive you were during the whole thing...almost like you knew what was going on and what a special time this was in your life.



Thank you for being you. I can't wait to really watch your personality develop and see who you are to become.



Remember that mamma and daddy love you very much!

Love,
mamma