We went to the doctor’s office today to get Alethea’s flu shots.  I asked them to weigh her since we were there anyway, and it turns out she now weighs (with clothes on) 19 lbs 15 oz.  That means she’s gained more than a pound in the last month!

No wonder it seems like her 9 month clothes are getting tight and short all of the sudden.  When we got home I pulled out all of her 12 month stuff from the closet, tore the tags off and threw it in the laundry.  I had forgotten how cute some of her size 1 year outfits look.  We’re going to have a snazzily dressed kid for the next few months.  Look out world!

Yesterday was Alethea’s seven month birthday.  Happy Birthday, Baby!

During this month she has made huge strides in her mobility.  Using a combination of turning, rolling and belly flopping forward she can pretty much get where she wants to go, although it can take her a while to cover any sort of distance.  While she isn’t yet doing an actual hands and knees type of crawling, it doesn’t seem like it will be long before she is moving with more speed, thus expanding her striking distance.

We also discovered this month that if you stand Alethea up next to a chair or something else to hang on to, she can stand for several minutes using only her hands to keep her up.  The cutest part is when she gets this determined look on her face and picks up her hands for a second to do a free stand.  Her whole body shakes from head to toe as she fights for balance.  It’s like she’s pushing herself to see what she can actually do.  We may have a dare devil on our hands.

As far as eating and sleeping goes, we are sort of at a stand still.  Alethea continues to try new foods and seems to like them pretty well at first, but then her interest seems to wan and she won’t eat more than a few bites of anything before she refuses to eat any more.  She just seems very bored with the whole pureed foods category, but I’m not sure that’s she’s ready for anything too much thicker, so I haven’t figured out what we’re going to do.

Sleeping was getting better in the middle of the month.  Alethea was doing a 4-5 hour stretch there every night for about a week.  But then things fell apart again and now she is back to her “3 hour max” routine, which is a bit disappointing, but at least it shows that she’s capable of repeatedly doing more than 3 hours under the right conditions.

The other good news is that I have eaten dairy a few times this month and Alethea seems to be handling it much better than she ever has.  She was still pretty gassy and uncomfortable, but it wasn’t the total disaster that it has been in the past.  Given that it still makes her cranky, I plan to continue eating dairy free for the time being, but I’m hopeful that my long sojourn through the desert of no milk is at last coming to an end.

Oh, and I should report that Alethea now has her two front bottom teeth, a little more hair than she used to and yes, her eyes are still blue!

I think that about covers it for this month.  I’m now looking forward to December and snow and Baby’s First Christmas.  I think month eight is going to be a good one.

We now trust Alethea’s sitting up skills enough to let her try them in the bathtub under close supervision.  She enjoys this new bath time perspective as well as the addition of her rubber ducky.

She does not, however, enjoy getting out of the bathtub:

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This is Alethea’s post.  She wrote it herself.  Don’t ask me how to get Greek characters to show up on the computer.  I don’t know, but she does apparently.  Peter thinks maybe she was trying to write her name.  We have an advanced child.

Why was I letting Alethea practice her typing skills?  Well, see, Alethea and I were laying on the floor.  She was playing, I was typing a different post when suddenly Alethea realized that if she gets up on her hands and knees and then flops forward enough times in succession she can make forward progress and thus make her way across the living room to reach a computer.  I’ve never seen her do that move that many times in a row, and it’s not terribly efficient, but it gets the job done.  I felt I ought to reward such a noble effort, thus the typing lesson.  Hope you enjoyed reading her first essay!

She makes me smile…

Found Alethea attempting to chew her stuffed horse’s tail off this morning.  Tooth #1 is on it’s way.  Bottom row, just left of center.    Mood has been decent, but sleep sub-par.

And so it begins…

I’m trying to introduce Alethea to a new food every 4-7 days or so.  This morning it was carrots.  Here’s the run down:

Baby Food Thickness Rating: STAGE 1

Taste, Texture & Color: GOOD

Alethea’s Enjoyment Level: MODERATE

The Gas Causing Factor: TBD

Messiness Meter: Well, you be the judge –