7 Months

Can you believe I'm doing this again already? I'm a couple of days late, but our baby girl is officially 7 months old. Isn't she the cutest thing? It's ok, you can admit it...

The mutual admiration between Caleb and his sister continues. Now that Piper is a little older, the do enjoy playing together as much as possible. Piper is trying to sit up unassisted and is mostly successful, however she does tend to fall to the side when bumped so we can't leave them alone too long. Caleb and Piper seem to have a language all their own. Sometimes they are just looking at each other and laughing and you know that there is more going on there and that they understand each other. It is exactly the type of relationship I hoped my kiddos would have.

On the feeding front, the pediatrician told us at her 6 month appointment that we could start introducing proteins into her diet. I wasted no time at all incorporating yogurt, which she looks forward to everyday. However, the idea of making some type of baby food with chicken (the suggested place to start) seemed a little daunting. I did get up the nerve to try it and eventually mixed it with squash, one of her favorites. Turns out, Piper loves chicken. She eats up everything that you mix it with, well except peas. The girl still doesn't like peas, but I try to mix them into various things so that she'll eat them. She seems to have some type of pea radar though because she ALWAYS makes a face when they are included. Silly girl.

I also decided to purchase and try some puffs to see if she liked them as they are a good snack. She loves the rice rusks and devours those, but the puffs seemed to be another story. The first and second time we tried, P turned up her nose and spit them out when we finally just stuck one in her mouth. The third time, I just place a couple on her highchair tray, turned around to wash some dishes and turned back around to see her clutching on in each fist, licking her hand. She seems to like them ok right now, but they are still not her favorite!

By this point in Caleb's growth, I had him completely on a sippy cup. Piper, on the other hand, just doesn't want one. Call it second child syndrome or whatever, but I just don't care if she doesn't want it right now. We try it every once in a while with water, but she just wants to chew on it and doesn't care to drink out of it. When she does happen to get some water in her mouth she likes it, but we're not forcing the issue quite yet.

Earlier this month I got the hairbrained idea that we would all watch the swearing in of the president together. Of course the kids could not have cared less, but I wanted to document it for future reference. Now they can say that they saw it on tv.

Piper is a very aware and observant child. We love to go places and do things and she is just as happy in her car seat looking at the people around and the surroundings as she is out and playing. In fact, most times she is perfectly content to people watch while we are browsing in a store or playing at the park.

Piper also has developed quite the personality lately. While she's always been quite smiley, she has discovered her voice and just loves to use it, constantly. Is Piper is awake, she talking, squealing, or making some type of happy noise. Piper is quite expressive as well. The video above is very short, but shows some of her personality and of course her ever present doll that she loves to attack. I was hoping that the doll could be a lifelong keepsake, but the way that she attacks and beats that poor doll around, it might not make it to her first birthday!

On the health front, Piper has been a very well baby, certainly far more so than her brother. She caught the dreaded stomach bug that we all had a couple of months ago, but this past month she officially had her first cold. I figure that if that is the first respiratory issue we've had with her thus far, then hopefully we are headed down a good path toward avoiding all the issues we've had with Caleb.

Piper also perfected her raspberry this month. She loves to do this at any time. She really gets her "motor" going when she's super excited and laughing. She is also sleeping much better these days than in the past. Towards the end of this past month, when we started giving her more protein at dinner, she will actually sleep from 8 or 9ish until at least 5am. After nearly 7 months of having to get up at least once, most times twice, a night it has been a VERY welcome change!

Piper is really the best little girl and more than we could have ever asked for in a baby girl! She is just so laid back and patient with us and is just such a loving little girl. We feel so blessed that we have the opportunity to share our lives with her!