7 Months Old - Laughing, Rolling Front to Back, and Almost Crawling

Hey Little Man,

You bring me so much joy on a daily basis.  Everyone who meets you (strangers at the grocery store, your grandparents, our music teacher) all say you are the "happiest baby".  And I must agree.  You smile a lot, you rarely cry.  You only cry when you are really, really tired just before I give you milk in bed, normally.  Sometimes you cry when your big sister harrasses you a bit more than you'd like.  But the vast majority of the time you smile and show us your squinty eyed grin whenever any of us come into the room.  Your sister can make you belly laugh by doing a screech or playing a crazy game of peek-a-boo with you and it's one of the greatest things for me to watch!

You've been rolling from your back to your tummy for quite a while now, my notes say since around October 15th.  And a couple of months after that, you started scooting backwards.  But still no crawling.  You are starting to do "planks".  Straight arms and pushing all the way up, but you haven't figured out how to get your knees underneath you and start moving forward.  Consequently, tummy time leads to frustration.  You do LOVE to stand and are so proud when you hold my fingers and take wobbly steps.

This month my goal is to try to get you more interested in solid foods.  The "new" thing in parenting is called Baby Led Weaning.  It's essentially giving you super steamed foods as opposed to purees.  So far, you aren't a lover of food.  A butternut squash pureed packet (Happy Baby Organics) was your favorite so far.  The pureed green beans, the carrots, the apples, not so much.  And the tiny banana chunks we have tried you sort of chew, but then give me a gag face when you get ready to swallow.  Last night I tried a little tortellini from my bowl and you actually seemed to enjoy that.  This week, it's steamed butternut squash and maybe carrots and whatever else is on our plates!).

I can't wait to see who you grow up to be.  I'm so excited about our future as a family and am so pleased we decided to add you to our family.  We thought long and hard about it and I wasn't initially sure I could love a second baby the way I loved Eleanor, but it's true what they say... my heart only grew.  I love you every bit as much as I love your sister!

Love you little man!
Mom