7 Months

Emma Sue, you are now 7 months old! Hard to believe, but I think I say that every month   

• Emma will now eat any food we offer her, with the exception of mixed vegetables and green beans. She is still eating twice a day but has moved up to the stage 2 foods. She is not a picky eater by any means and she eats as long as you'll feed her and as often as you feed her. 
• Emma now weighs in at a little over 17 pounds and still stretches the charts with her height
• Emma is very active now and has learned to roll towards toys or people that she wants. She will roll across the floor to get to something and gets super frustrated when she can not reach something she wants. She continues to exhibit her frustration by making a mean face, squeezing her hands into fists, sticking her arms straight out to the sides and grunting. It is quite hilarious, but I have yet to get it on tape :)
• Still has not mastered the sippy cup. Sees it as more of a toy than something to drink out of.
• Her is continuing to grow wildly and out of control... sure is cute. Still blonde hair and blue eyes!
• Scrunches her nose up and laughs while blowing through her nose every once in a while. Very funny.
• Actively tries to play with toys and figure out how they work (ie. putting the ball in the giraffe's mouth). She is very smart and will try and try until she gets it right. This is a good quality that I hope she maintains throughout her life.
• Loves to stand and attempts to pull herself into a sitting or standing position but hasn't quite figured it out.
• Still not crawling and still no teeth. 
• Celebrated her first Christmas!
• Is down to 2 naps during the day. One from 9:30am or 10am until about 11:30 or 12:00, and then back down from 2:00pm until about 3:30 or 4:00. Eats dinner at 6 pm, bath at 7pm and in bed asleep at 7:30pm.
• Still not sleeping in a consistent pattern and still not sleeping through the night
• Received her first disciplinary action

Now that Emma is mobile, she has begun to get into things that she shouldn't. So, the other day as she was rolling around, she rolled over near the computer and decided to try to play with the power strip and the plugs. She would reach for it, I would grab her hand and pull it away and tell her "no, Emma"... we repeated this 4 or 5 times until she seemed to get it. She stopped reaching for it... for about 30 seconds. She then looked right at me and reached her hand towards the plug while looking at me. So, I took her little hand and lightly slapped it and said no. I have to be honest with you all about this... I did not like the feeling of slapping her hand. After all, she is only 7 months old. In my thought process, I was trying to show her that there are consequences for her actions... just like putting a ball in the giraffe's mouth.. you have good consequences as opposed to bad consequences. The problem is, that Emma laughed at me when I slapped her hand. She thought it was the funniest thing on earth. Which made me realize that she has no clue why I slapped her hand and then I felt guilty and resolved to not start slapping hands until she is much older. For now, we will just work on learning what the word No means. In the meantime, I need to start praying and really thinking about how I am going to handle teaching her right from wrong and what consequences there will be. For a 7 month old!! It just scares me and seems impossible that we have reached a point where we have to begin to train her to listen and obey. A baby that can't even say a word! Aye....  I think that the first 6 months of life are going to seem like a walk in the park compared to what is coming. 

Emma is a very social baby. She loves to interact with people, babies and animals. She gets bored with just me at home, I think ... this was confirmed when our friend Erin stopped over with her 2 kids twice this week. Emma was in such a great mood and loved just being around them! As soon as they left she was in a bad mood the rest of the day. She just loves to watch and observe and interact .... she really needs a sibling, honestly... but don't get too excited because it's not happening anytime soon, if ever ... according to our plans anyway but we all know how that usually turns out. Anyway, I think we have a pretty good schedule now with baby lap-time on Monday morning, grocery store on Wednesday's and Fitness class on Friday's. It gets us both out of the house and gives her the interaction she needs with other people. I, on the other hand, am socially awkward and very shy so it is becoming a huge test for me to constantly be meeting new people. In the grocery store, people love to stop and say hi to Emma, at baby lap-time all of the other Mom's want to talk and find out how you do things and why you do things and what else you do, etc.  In the fitness class, the other moms see your c-section scars and stretch marks because you're fat and none of your shirts can hide stuff anymore, then they all want to talk about their labor stories and know everything about you while you are in the middle of an exercise and can't breathe let alone talk.  Ugh... I'm just so the opposite of Emma. She is her daddy through and through. She is definitely forcing me out of my comfort zone but that is a good thing... I don't want her to grow up to be super shy and socially awkward like I am... so this is good for both of us. :)

Anyway, I digress. We have reached a new level of daily activity during the day. I can no longer lay Emma on the floor and know that she will stay in that spot in that position for as long as I need her too. I cannot take my eyes off of her for a second and I know this is only the beginning. I knew this day would come and I am just as unprepared for it as I expected. I'm not ready for her to be a little girl yet, but I will admit it is way more exciting to watch her grow into who she is if that makes any sense. I try all day to make her laugh and am only successful once or twice, but the dog can make her laugh just by walking by her. Go figure. Getting anything done during the day requires a long nap on her part, willingness to be in the Bjorn for a while, or a dedication to cleaning only one room in about 10 minutes which is how long it takes for Emma before she is ready to move on to something else. So, the house is a disaster zone except for one area every day. Most days it's only the kitchen that is clean. BUT, that's one room that was cleaned and so that's awesome. :) 

I just cannot believe that the year of her birth has come and gone. What a whirlwind. Very exciting to see what the next month will hold for Emma! Crawling? Some teeth? A word? We shall see!