Candle by candle: Seven months!

I know! Seven months already? But it's true. The tiny tiny baby has gotten so big, and this past month has seen a lot of changes, so here's the update.

First and foremost, she's sleeping all through the night! She goes down about 7:30 and wakes up about 6:30, with ZERO middle of the night feedings. This is awesome. She still wakes up and cries or moans a little about once a night, but I don't even have to get out of bed for that. I just lay there with the monitor and hope and pray that she goes back to sleep, and she does. *grin* (Or I fall back asleep and just don't hear her moaning any longer.) She also naps 2-3 times a day on a fairly regular schedule. It's amazing how freeing it feels to me, to have her on a schedule. Of course it's flexible and it changes a little every day depending on circumstances, but it's so nice to be able to schedule outings and plan out my day and feel like I have a little bit of control over life again.

She's getting much better at eating solid foods. She eats about 4-5 ounces of solids a day, spread out over 3 or 4 feedings. We're still nursing, and while I'd like her to consolidate nursing sessions a little better (she's nursing 6-7 times a day when I think she really could be more efficient and get down to 4-5), we're both still enjoying it and I see no reason to rock the boat. I'm slowly but steadily going through our freezer stash though, so we might try to introduce a formula bottle sometime in the next month. We'll see - as she takes in more solids, I might be able to meet her nutritional needs with my current supply.

As far as personality changes, she's been all over the map this past month. At first she was Ms Crankypants, but that ended after her two bottom teeth broke through and we got through the sleep training. She's been downright delightful lately, laughing and smiling and wiggling and giving us the occasional high-five. She has separation and stranger anxiety, which is a little frustrating but totally normal for this age so I'm rolling with it. She babbles a little, mostly "ma ma," "ba ba," and "fa fa," and mostly when she feels like complaining. She loves investigating everything she can get her hands on, and although she can manipulate small objects pretty well, she's still clumsy with larger things, and I can tell it frustrates her. She's definitely trying to walk; if I hold her steady, she'll take steps across the carpet, but she doesn't have any idea how to pull herself up to sitting or standing. And just in the last few days have I seen her make any progress towards crawling: she is just starting to push up on her hands and knees. But either way, I think the babyproofing needs to happen this next month!

Once in awhile, when she's tired and I'm carrying her around, she'll lay her head on my shoulder for a few seconds and it's the second sweetest thing ever. Because, she always nurses right before she goes down for her morning nap, and she curls up in my lap and shuts her eyes and I stroke her hair and she gets so mellow and relaxed, and it's so lovely that it makes my heart hurt - that's the sweetest thing ever.

She loves:

horsey rides on Daddy's shoulders
peek-a-boo
when Mommy or Daddy crawls around on the floor
Home Depot
riding in grocery carts
dancing with Mommy
cell phones
yogurt
banana flavor
the music buttons on her exersaucer
new toys
Scrappy
wiggling
the contractor who's doing our bathroom
playing with the baby in the mirror
having her tummy kissed
remote controls

She dislikes:

putting her arms through sleeves
having her diaper put on
being cold
sitting when she can stand
laying down when she can sit
that third nap of the day
any toy that she's played with for five minutes already
strangers
cuddling

A few days ago, my awesome friend Sara met Julia and I in a park to take some photos. Although Julia was surly and I'm not sure we got a single smile out of her the entire time, Sara did a fabulous job of capturing the babe - way better than I do with my camera! I love how she caught Julia's bright blue/green starburst eyes in so many of the pictures. Here are a few of my favorites:

So I just noticed I'm wearing the same shirt here as I was in the penguin exhibit, even though these photos were taken exactly one day later. Here's the story: I bought a tank top at J. Crew and it was so exciting because I never get to go to grown-up stores at the mall any more, and I never buy anything for myself at any grown-up stores anymore, so I was pumped about it (plus it was $9.99!). I wore the tank top to the zoo the day after I bought it, and then I washed it that night and figured, "Oh what the heck - who's going to know?" and wore it again the next day. And probably no one would have noticed except I've gone and drawn attention to it and so now the entire internet knows. Don't judge me.
Anyways.