Baby Owen- 7 months

We are the on the downhill slope of the infant days... and I'm thrilled.

I don't think it's a secret that I'm not a huge fan of the first 6 months.. they are tough. Babies (at least my babies) are not easy. Once they hit 6 months and then get older.. well, they are just more fun. More active, more interactive, more animated. I enjoy months 7-12 a lot.

So here is where we are!

Growing

Ok, technically this was his 6-month appt, but the pic never made it onto that post and I love it!

-Wears size 9month clothes, and 12 month footed jammies and is almost too long for those. 

-I'm not sure what he weighs, I keep forgetting to weigh him.. probably 17lbs and some change. 

-He fully sits up now, and rarely falls over anymore. He reaches up with his arms (when I'm near.. he knows this means I'll pick him up!) and sometimes just in playing. We like to play the "so big!!" game with him to get him to raise his arms up. 

-Crawls!!! Totally, absolutely crawls. He can army crawl, get in a bear-walk position (and moves his feet around but hasn't actually moved forward that way yet) and crawls... fast!

-He is so happy now that he can move! He wanted to move SO BAD and was cranky for weeks while he figured it out. 

-Spends a lot of time going from crawling to sitting, to his tummy, to sitting, to crawling, to downward dog.. he's always moving! 

-His first tooth finally broke through! Just the bottom left.. I can feel the sharp ridge of it. Yeah for teeth! Those months of drool and snot finally produced a tooth! 

-Can pick up toys and objects and can get his binky in and out of his mouth on his own. 

-He has started to pull up on things... the ottoman, our legs if we are sitting... he's only gotten up on his knees so far, but I'm sure it won't be long before he is standing. 

Eating

-We are done nursing. I last nursed him two weeks ago and he wasn't that interested. We slowly weaned, I had no pain and he didn't have any boob separation issues. He took to bottles only just fine. I do still have milk in the freezer though, so he is still getting some breast milk. 

-He has a 6oz bottle every 3 hours or so, and solids 3 times a day. 

-HE LOVES SOLIDS. Oh man, this might be my eater. Seriously. If he is near us and we are eating.. watch your plate! Hands grabbing at chili, soup, stir fry... anything. It's fun now that we are at an age where really anything goes for food. I let him chew a bit on some garlic bread one night, then pizza another night... he LOVES it all and tries to grab at it. 

-He's started some more "solid" solid food... chicken chopped up really small, chunky avocado, puffs, yogurt drops. He loves the yogurt drops and I can now occupy him with some of those in his high chair while I make dinner. 

He has lunch at school now!!

Yogurt is a big hit. 

Yes, he like yogurt. A lot!

"Dis is egg?? Hmmm"

Having breakfast of egg and banana!

Did I mention he liked yogurt?

Chicken dance while eating chicken??

-Loves to drink water. LOVES. He gets so excited to have a sippy of water!! He's tried coconut milk too and seemed confused by it. Water has been the winner for sure. 

Sleeping

-Not this kid's strong suit still. At home he naps pretty good. Morning nap is about 1 1/2 hours, then at least one afternoon nap of the same length with a cat nap in there too. At school... he still takes 10, 20, 30, min naps throughout the day. I think he just gets busy and doesn't want to wind down to sleep. 

-Kinda sorta sometimes sleeping through the night... he goes to bed at 7:30pm and it's not uncommon for him to wake up crying at least once. I put my foot down one night and told Neal "I've reached my limit. He's full, he's warm, he has 6 binkies in his crib to grab... he needs to just figure it out." So we let him cry it out a bit. Most nights if he wakes up he'll cry for a few minutes then settle down. Some nights he's more hysterical and he needs a bottle and soothing. 

-And some nights he sleeps straight through and we wake up and go "did that really happen?" 

Playing

-He babbles a lot now... and has more consonant sounds... "wa, ba, da" sounds. And he totally knows "mama" and that it means me. If he's sad (usually in the car) he'll cry and fuss and then "mama! mama! Mamamamama!" comes out. It's kinda adorable. :-)

-He can be very serious when he plays sometimes. Really looking at his toys, inspecting them.. eating them.. 

-He also loves soft toys, balls, rattles, crinkly toys.. he's just a toy baby! Austin never was. He just wanted to move and walk. Owen definitely loves and is entertained by toys. 

-He likes to be in his bouncer thing and watch Austin and Daddy play. We bring it outside on nice days and he watches baseball games, tennis games, big brother riding his bike.. and is delighted with it all. 

-He has discovered the delight of Peek-a-boo! He's quick to smile and easily entertained. I love that about him. 

-He is into anything Austin is in to. I've tried to explain (as much as one can explain to an irrational threenager) that Owen is going to be interested in his toys. And touch his toys. And slobber on his toys. And that's how things are. And maybe try giving him something to distract him? Divert his attention? We hear "no baby Owen!!! Don't touch dis!!! Mom, he's chewing on it!!!" a lot already. 

-He loves taking baths and is still a major splasher. 

-He's still pretty obsessed with me.. he fusses when he sees me walk in a room and I don't immediately go to him.. then when I pick him up, he immediately buries his face in my neck, or sucks on my chin, grabs my hair, and starts bouncing up and down in my arms while squealing. Adorable, much??

-He's very expressive and blows raspberries a lot, and has a ton of funny little faces he makes. 

-He is not quite as fearless as Austin was.. but he has a lot of curiosity and is adventurous.. he just is more aware of if I'm around, or Daddy... and needs that "safe" feeling. Austin was like "see ya!!!!" and could care less if we were around while he was exploring. 

Our little Bo...he's pretty awesome, and pretty sweet.. and has the loudest cry/scream I've ever heard (which is not awesome at 3am), and doesn't sleep all that well (sigh) but is full of sloppy kisses and affectionate hair pulls and is just a little love.