Thursday, August 15, 2013

Seven Months July 15 - Aug 15 2013

















Dear Harper,
This has been my favorite month with you so far.  You're sitting up!  You're interacting with your sister!  You're laughing, you're playing and you're feisty!  Your little personality is developing and I am really enjoying getting to know you.  I look at you and from time to time over the last couple of weeks I look into your eyes and I see the little girl you will be in a year looking back at me.  That is the neatest feeling.  Whatever I said a few months ago about you being a laid back baby was WRONG!  You are going to be a force to be reckoned with!  You are ready to move and are curious!

I want you to know that I have been working with Maddie on sharing.  It isn't coming quick enough because now that you are a pro at sitting, you're surprisingly quick and able to get around by pivoting and reaching.  This means you grab her toys sometimes and we have little moments where I have to remind her to share and remind her that not EVERYTHING is hers in this world!  I'm afraid we have an up hill battle on our hands but it's normal and whether she shares or not she adores you.  You're the first thing she wants to see when she wakes up.  She loves you so much she kisses you with such passion and force that I can feel it.

Here are your updates this month!

Teeth: You got a new tooth August 8th.  Your top left tooth came in.  You were so moody and I couldn't figure out why.  I had looked at your gums a couple days earlier and saw nothing.  Another Mother asked me if you were teething and I said no.  I looked again that same afternoon and you had swollen gums and a diaper rash followed which is always a sure sign that my girls have teeth coming in.  You've gnawed on my arm and knee a couple of times and WOW those little chompers are sharp!




Sleep: You take shorter naps than your sister did.  Your morning nap is an hour to an hour and a half at most.  Your afternoon naps are sometimes as short as a half hour and sometimes as long as two hours.  There just is no rhyme or reason.  I make every effort to give you every opportunity for longer naps but they don't always happen.







Food: I was so excited to feed you solids for the first time and you were really indifferent to the whole solid food experience.  You had acorn squash and apples.  You had a few bites.  Lately, I have realized that you are the messiest baby when it comes to eating!  For some reason you grab the spoon every single bite!  Not so much the handle of the spoon but the actual spoon part with baby food on it which creates the biggest mess because your hands get covered in whatever you are eating then you rub your eyes, wipe your hands on your bib and your high chair...oh, what a mess!  The other day I was feeding you and you and you grabbed the spoon handle and would not let go!  It turned into a tug of war and I clearly lost after you bent the spoon back (it was a flexible rubber) and flung pureed peaches across the kitchen all the way to the wall next to your room!  Wilson found some of it, I wiped some of it but I know for sure that there is a huge glob of peaches somewhere that I didn't find.  In a way, I think that being a messier eater is good because you are more laid back.  Maddie didn't like to get messy and wouldn't eat any foods that felt mushy or slimy to her.   You have already had cous-cous, chili, peaches and many other foods. It took me a full year to get Maddie to eat Mac and Cheese because she wouldn't touch slimy looking foods!































Sitting Up: You, just like your sister, have your Daddy's sense of balance, that's for sure.  You are also incredibly brave and not afraid to take risks when it comes to sitting, reaching and crawling.  You are fearless,yet somehow you rarely ever fall over!  You have been sitting up, playing on your own for a month or so now.  You entertain yourself quite easily but I can tell you are board with your toys.  I had to give all of Maddie's toys for this stage of development back to our friend Lisa who let us borrow her kids toys because she had another baby.  I've been waiting to go to a "Mom's sale' which is on the 29th of this month to get you some new toys.  I think you'll be so excited to play with them.  Long gone are the days for rattles and and plush toys on hooks for you.  You are developing and growing so fast it blows my mind.  I'm really looking forward to the days when you and Maddie will play together.

  








Sign Language: You love it when I sign "milk" and ask if you want some milk.  You have started making the sign but I can't tell if you are really meaning "milk" when  you sign it.  I need to work on teaching you "more" and waving "hi"

Wilson- You love Wilson and he loves lick your messy hands when you sit in your highchair.  He has realized that the best place to sit in the house is right under your highchair to collect your new food morsels.  You love to sit on the floor and touch him.






























Car seats- You're still in your carseat and will be until I feel confident I can carry you from the garage to the condo on my hip.  I'm looking forward to you sitting in the grocery cart.  You haven't done this yet but you have sat in highchairs.

General Temperament:  You are content and smiley but you definitely let us know when you don't like something.  You have the cutest smile which is contagious and you love to giggle especially when I throw you in the air over my head.  I have a feeling that you will be gaining a stronger sense of independence very soon!

Night time Routine:  You cry for a few minutes usually,sometimes more. Maddie was easier here because she had a pacifier she looked forward to.

Playtime: You like anything you can put in your mouth.  You also love books and the ipad which you have only played with a couple of times.  You like to chew on the string attached to your doggie toy and you love climbing up on the little striped chair.







Weight:  No update here.

Length:
  No update here.

Diaper Size:  Size 3

Clothes Size:  9/12 month outfits!  

Hair Color:  Blonde.  Very light.

Eye color:  7 months - Blue

Firsts-  Playing with Wilson.

Playing with Maddie

Swinging-This was your first time.  You loved it and actually kept swinging for quite a while.  This was when the Andersons came to visit.