Tuesday, December 6, 2011

7 months

i cannot believe how much babies change or develop from one month to the next! it's mind blowing and so cool!

selah is eating solids now! she is eating a handful of veggies and fruits. her currents faves right now are pears and squash. i gave up on making my own pureed food. she wasn't liking it at all, and i bought some organic baby food just to give a try and she could not get enough of it. so, that's what we are doing. she eats about two meals a day. a typical breakfast looks like some oatmeal and a fruit. dinner is usually oatmeal and a veggie. i have also been giving her some whole milk organic baby yogurt, but i am starting to wonder if it bothers her tummy. i am going to be testing that theory the rest of the week, but she tends to spit up more when she has it....she also eats some puffs and yogurt melts and loves them both!

she is army crawling all over the place. she loves to inch to the door stoppers and the fire place, which makes me super nervous. she has almost gotten up on all fours the last few days. it would not shock me if she was full on crawling by christmas. she also continues to roll. she moves with tons of determination. i think she gets frustrated because she wants to move faster. faster like everyone around her.

she continues to be the loudest baby in know. she sequels and yells at the top of her lungs at times. it can be ear piercing! don't know what to do about that one...

she sits up beautifully and for long periods of time.

she still wakes up pretty early. she is getting up some days as early as 4:30am, but will nurse and go back to bed until around 7:30am. we are trying to break her getting up so dang early, but i think she's just hungry....it just means our whole day looks weird and different each day-especially getting up at 4:30.

she is nursing about 5 times a day. she is super distracted and only seems to take about 3-5 mins on each side, depending on what time a day it is. longer in the morning and at night.

she has started to give intentional open mouth kisses!!!!!

she loves her little glow sea horse my sister gave to her. it lights up and plays music and she likes to fall asleep with it.

she does not like it when i leave the room. as each day passes we have more and more rough periods of our day when it comes to this.

she is not liking to be in one place much. she isn't liking her exsersaucer, jumper, or car seat these days. girl wants to move!

as i sit and write this i am amazed how fast seven months go by. i cannot believe it. as i sit and type this she's actually almost 8 months! =) and as i type this i am looking at the christmas tree with the ornament we were given last christmas that revealed she was a girl....she is fun, feisty, curious, determined, loving, and sweet.

brother/sister love

i wanted to write this post because it's thoughts were fresh in my mind. plus both kids are napping at the same time-something that is rare...very very rare. it may come with the price of neglecting a few chores before we have small group at our house tonight, but i think it's important to note.

owen was not the most gentle big brother when selah was born. there were times that i felt i could not even go to the bathroom without him hitting her, poking her eye, or even biting her (the biting has happened twice, but twice too many!) it was really hard emotionally i couldn't understand why he would do it. after many tears and conversations with joe and other friends i think it was all chalked up to getting attention and maybe some curiosity. he never did it out of anger or frustration, it always felt random and like i said if i happened to leave their sight for like two minutes....flash forward about 6 months months or so to the present. what a difference! he has become so much more gentle and loving toward her. he ALWAYS loved her and ALWAYS wanted to love on her, but just randomly "loved" her in a not so nice way at times. now, he almost protects her. now, he can be left in the room with her for more than two minutes and a rarely do i worry-hallelujah! now, he is bigger and maybe more confident that she isn't going to steal ALL of our attention. now, he knows if he pokes her in the eye she will cry and he doesn't do it (well, not EVER :) ) now, he is acting like the big brother i prayed and knew he would be. i never expected owen to be all sunshine and roses with his sister 100% of the time. i knew there would probably be some issues welcoming her into our family-it's normal. i think we just had to go through a period hard times with him adjusting. he is doing so much better and i am proud of my boy!

yesterday i was having a sweet spot moment as a mom while i was putting on some make up. the kids were playing, yes playing-they do that now! i would sneak peeks at them in between swiping some mascara on my lashes or putting some blush on my cheeks and they were playing peek-a-boo. like owen was hiding behind a laundry basket and selah was on the other side and he would pop out and yell "peek-a-boo" and she would laugh! selah does not laugh a lot, unless being tickled, but she was almost belly laughing! it was the sweetest most loving moment i have seen (i think-beside owen coming to the hospital and meeting her) do all moms have this much joy watching their children play? it made me get so excited and anticipate how they will be together in an other year or so....

on another note owen had his first experience of having to share with selah last week. she is scooting and rolling around everywhere. she is much more interested in the world around her. in fact i am worried. i do not know if i will be able to keep up with her when she is full on moving! anyway, she went straight to and with much determination for Lightning McQueen. if you know owen, than you know, that's a big deal. I saw it happening before it even happened. she got closer and closer and he noticed. the thing was, was he wasn't even playing with the car. but, in a split second he snatched it away from her and knew he was wrong. she could care less. but, it was our first teaching moment of having to share with his sister. his sister. she was not going home like his friends do, she's here to stay. it was a hard knock for him. it will be something we will have to continue to work on with him, for a long time probably. but, it's so good for him.

i feel like all these little stories are part of the good the bad and ugly of having two small children. it's hard work. but, at the end of the day it's the best work for me. i love it, and i love them. i feel so blessed that i get to call them mine, and they get to call me mommy.