You know how people always say that children grow up so fast? Well, I finally understand. It took a while, but times seems to be passing much more quickly now that Charlotte is getting older. I think because our days are much more structured and she and I can interact a lot more, the hours don't tick by as slowly as they once did. I can't believe she's already on the other side of six months! We'll be celebrating her first birthday in no time...
So what is seven-month-old Charlotte like? Hilarious, that's what.
Her little personality comes out more and more every day. She's such a silly little goose. She's been doing this thing lately where she wants to get a better view of something so she lunges forward and tilts her body. She's such a nosy little thing - loves to see what's going on all the time. She's showing preferences for certain toys. Her favourites right now are Vincent her Lamaze horse (she loves to chew on his nose)...
...anything with a tag that she can pull on/chew on, anything that lights up, and anything that she can spin (like the beads on her abacus). She's using her fingers a lot more and she's showing beginning signs of developing her pincer grasp. When she is playing with tags or ribbons on her horse, she pulls on them between her thumb and forefinger. I bought her some Cheerios for practice during breakfast. She almost got one in her mouth this morning! She also loves when I sing with her and I've been bringing back some old daycare favourites that I had almost forgotten about. I'm going to be making her some discovery/sensory bottles this week and I'm going to start stocking up on art supplies so we can start doing art together. She's such a fun age now!
She continues to do well with her eating. She eats (or at least tastes) pretty much everything we put in front of her. Some recent favourites are lasagna, pierogies, and yogurt. I pre-load the spoon for her and she's been really good at guiding it into her mouth. Sometimes she likes to shake her hands around and the yogurt ends up in her hair ... naturally. We've also introduced a sippy cup. She knows how to get the water out but she doesn't quite get that the cup needs to tip in order to do so. She'll figure it out eventually!
My little Oompa Loompa after a particularly delicious lasagna supper!
Our days and nights have finally become predictable. Charlotte is sleeping straight through the night, every night. She has her bath at 7pm, gets all dried/lotioned/jammied up, has her last bottle of the day, and is usually out for the count by 7:30/7:45. She wakes up anywhere between 6:30 and 7:30 the next morning. When I sleep in the same room as her (when I'm at my mom's), I do notice that she sort of wakes and stirs a bit around 4am, but she always goes back to sleep. I keep the sound on the monitor down at home so I only hear her when she starts talking and yelling out in the morning. Her stirring and little sleep-sighs don't wake me anymore.
She's taking four bottles a day (7-8oz each) and is eating two, sometimes three, meals a day. We always have breakfast and supper together and I'm just trying to come up with some good lunch ideas so we can have lunch together too. She goes down for her first nap of the day between 9-9:30 and usually sleeps for a good 1.5-2 hours. Her second nap has been tricky lately - it sometimes takes her just as long to fall asleep as she stays sleeping. I'm trying to figure out if I'm putting her down too early and she's just not tired yet or too late and she's too tired. Hmm. Lately she's only been sleeping about 30-45 minutes in the afternoon, if she winds up sleeping at all. I usually put her down between 1:30-2pm. Trial and error, I suppose!
Sleeping love and her new BFF, Polly.
It's an all natural "bonding" doll, stuffed with 100% sheep's wool so it absorbs the scents around it. I think I might love it just as much as Charlotte does.
Can you believe this kid STILL has no teeth? She's been teething forever! Her two bottom teeth have been right under the gum line for a while now. Yesterday I thought I saw a bit more white, so I ran my finger along her gum and I felt a small bump. She clamped her gums tight together when I did that, though, so they must be feeling pretty tender. I'm assuming that tooth will pop through by the end of the week. Really, I'm anxious for her to cut a tooth mainly because I want to see if her amber teething necklace works! So far she hasn't seemed to be in much pain and she hardly drools for a teething baby. But, I want to see how she reacts when the tooth actually pushes through. I do realize, though, that it's not a magic necklace. Nothing will necessarily take ALL the pain away, but so far it does seem to be taking the edge off the discomforts of teething.
As far as skills go, she's doing everything on the 4-7 month developmental checklist:
- pushes up on extended arms
- pulls to sitting with no head lag
- sits with support of hands
- sits unsupported for short periods (*she sits unsupported for LONG periods - I can sit her down and go off and do something else now without worrying too much about her falling over)
- supports whole weight on legs
- grasps feet
- transfers objects from hand to hand
- uses raking grasp
- looks for toy beyond tracking range
- tracks moving objects with ease
- grasps objects dangling in front of her
- looks for fallen toys
- distinguishes emotions by tone of voice
- responds to sounds by making sounds (*this one is adorable, I love it!)
- uses voice to express joy and displeasure (*ugh, this is where the whining has now come into play)
- syllable repetition begins
- finds partially hidden objects
- explores with hands and mouth
- struggles to get objects that are out of reach
- enjoys social play (*LOVES to have someone down with her, playing)
- interested in mirror images (*watching her try to catch her hands in the mirror is precious)
- responds to other people's expression of emotions
and is doing a few things on the 8-12 month checklist:
- assumes hand and knee position (* but will only do it on carpet - she still loathes being on her belly on the hard floors)
- pokes with index finger
- explores objects in many different ways
- shows preference for certain people and toys (*and foods!)
- finger feeds herself
She hasn't really started babbling yet but she does make sounds, giggles, and squeals a lot. Whenever I ask her if she can say "mama" or "mum", she just grins at me. I think she's got something up her sleeve, haha.
She's still trying SO hard to crawl but she seems to get uncomfortable and frustrated on our hard floors. I've noticed that she will get up on her hands and knees when she's on carpet, so I think we'll be spending some time playing in the hall downstairs (the only carpeted area of our house). She's really good at moving backwards and can move her body around in a circle - she just hasn't figured out how to pull herself forward.
She LOVES to stand and will stand up while supporting herself on things like our hands, the back of the couch, the coffee table, etc. She takes steps while we hold her hands. I wonder if she might skip crawling altogether.
Phew, that was a long update! I think I've covered it all. I guess it's been a pretty busy month when it comes to growing!
Charlotte, my mom, and I are heading down to the States this weekend to visit family for a week. I'm so excited! It'll be Charlotte's first airplane trip (shockingly enough) and her first time really away from home for an extended period of time. I'm hoping she does well. We're going to be visiting family in NH and taking a day trip into Boston, weather-permitting, to go see the sights and visit the aquarium. I'll be sure to post when we get back!
Happy seven months, lovey! <3
