Seven!

Didn't I just write the six month post? And here already, Weston is seven months old!

This past month has seen great advances in mobility. He crawls everywhere now and can get across the house pretty quickly. Thus ends the blissful period when I could put him down and trust that he'd stay in relatively the same spot. He goes after computer cords, cats, carpet fuzz, and his brother's toys. Especially his brother's toys. This, of course, is leading to some friction, but Luke is starting to learn that if he wants to be left alone, he either needs to move his toys up where Weston can't reach them or distract Weston with something else. Yesterday, we were outside and I put him down so he could explore the grass and the driveway and when I picked him back up, I realized that he had his first ever rough spots on his feet from being on the driveway--the first, bittersweet sign of all the growing up he's going to be doing soon.

He has pulled up and gotten himself on his feet a couple of times, too, but he gets too ambitious, lets go, and topples over. In fact, toppling over has been a repeated theme around here. His forehead seems to always have a red spot because he bumps into EVERYTHING! Door frame? Check. Bed post? Check. Washing machine? Check. And I cringe to admit this, but earlier this week, he crawled off the bed. Ack! He cried for a minute, tops, and then was fine, but it scared me to death and as a result, a new, cockamamie sleeping plan has been hatched. In addition to our lovely, comfy, king-sized bed AND Weston's crib, there is now a futon mattress on the floor of our room so as to maximize the sleeping options available to us--as you can imagine, our room is getting pretty crowded! But in the end, the fact remains that I have no desire to fight sleep battles. Nope. He'll figure it out eventually and until then, we'll snuggle up on a futon on the floor.

And speaking of sleep, we've reached some major sleep milestones: (1) being able to fall asleep without being nursed or rocked; and (2) being able to STAY asleep without being held. Ok, so I know that many babies reach these milestones earlier than almost-seven-months, but since I had no interest in fighting the aforementioned sleep battles, I decided to go with the flow instead. (It helps that most of the time, there are few things I'd rather do than hold a sleeping baby. Very, very few.) And the flow has led us to a place where I can lie down with him and sing to him and he'll fall asleep. And to a place where I can then pick him up and put him in his crib and leave the room and DO OTHER THINGS. And while I'm off doing these other things, my arms get just the slightest bit twingy for the feel of a sweet-smelling, sleeping baby.

The other fun thing this month has been watching this baby eat. He has yet to meet a food that he doesn't like. (That being said, earlier this afternoon, he was exploring the front yard and tried tasting a sweet gum ball...apparently, that didn't go as well as he had hoped and the sweet gum ball was quickly tossed away in disgust.) Broccoli continues to be his favorite, but really, he's not particular: if it's even remotely food-like, he'll be happy to eat it. He seems to have a rather odd affinity for asparagus. And beets. There's a mango sitting in our fruit bowl, waiting to be discovered by baby hands.

He is a funny and determined little guy. He has a mind of his own and is quite happy to let you know about it if you don't get with his plan. He shows his love by grabbing onto your face with both hands and biting/sucking on your chin and ckeeks. He has started to recognize my feet, so every time I come into the room, he crawls right to me and headbutts my legs until I pick him up. He frequently likes to hang his head upside down to look at things--apparently, the world looks much more interesting from that angle! All I know is that our lives are certainly more interesting, now that this little one is a part of them.