7 Months Old Already?!?!

It's hard to believe that less than a month ago, we were taking pictures of our sweet girl out in the snow in her snowsuit and now she's wearing her spring clothes and enjoying the sunshine. It feels like the last month has flown by faster than any other. I'm getting to the super-busy point in the school year where days and weeks seem to fly by and, before you know it, a month has passed and I don't know where the time went. I have to force myself to slow down and savor every single moment I have with Molly, since there are precious few. So, what's Molly been up to this past month?:

• Molly has decided that solid food is not as vile and heinous as she once thought. When we started solid food at 6 months, she would squeeze her lips tight, turn her head, push the spoon away...whatever she could do to keep us from getting it in her mouth. If we did succeed in getting some into her mouth, she'd either spit it back out or just let it sit on her tongue and, when it eventually flowed down her throat, she would scare me to death by choking and gagging until her face turned purple and she coughed it back up. Thankfully, after 3 weeks of persistently offering food and letting Molly play with the spoons and bowls, she has become comfortable with eating something besides breastmilk. I am SO relieved, as pumping 5 times a day to keep up with her increasing demand for milk was beginning to exhaust me!!!
  
• With my Type A personality, I had already worked out a master schedule of introducing solids. Well, as I'm slowing learning, a baby will take any plans you've devised and force you to toss them out the window. So, Molly hasn't exactly followed the food schedule I had planned out, but so far she has tried 5 fruits (bananas, peaches, pears, papaya and avocado), 1 vegetable (sweet potatoes), and 1 grain (brown rice cereal). I don't think we've found a "favorite" food yet, but the one she'll eat the most of in one sitting is avocado. She looks super cute when she squeezes her lips together after taking a bite and inadvertently creates a little green mustache.

• One of Molly's new favorite things to do is to stand up while holding onto something for support. She has not yet tried to pull up on her own, but, if we stand her in front of something, she'll stand for quite a while to play before falling back on her bum. However, she's still not a big fan of tummy time for play. Based on these observations, the scientist in me hypothesizes that Molly will walk or cruise before she crawls and may even skip crawling all together. She just doesn't play on her tummy long enough to figure out that she can push up from this position. Only time will tell.


• Molly celebrated her 7 month birthday with her very first illness, a nasty cold :-( It started with a few sniffles and a little cough, but grew into a congestion monster. Her little nose was so stuffed that nursing was difficult and when she slept, she'd wake herself up coughing every few hours. I felt so awful for her! I wish I could be sick for her, but I know that baby colds are inevitable and it's just something we'll have to deal with from time to time. Thankfully, after a week of Baby Vicks, saline drops and nose suctioning, sleeping with the humidifier, and sitting in the warm shower, the worst of it seems to be over and our little birdie's on the mend. Hopefully, now we can all get back to a normal sleep schedule!


• Even when she's sick, Molly is such a happy girl. She smiles very easily and graces us with lots of coos and laughter. Nothing warms my heart more than walking through the door in the afternoon after a long day at work and being greeted by her enormous smile that lights up her entire face...and mine.
• Her favorite toys are actually not baby toys at all. The toys that get the most play time are things like a Starburst candy wrapper, a ball of aluminum foil, the safety straps on her high chair, or her play cellphone (which is actually a real floor model phone that doesn't work).
  


• Molly's newest physical development is the emergence of her two bottom teeth. She handled the whole process like a little trooper...a tiny bit of fussiness and lots of chewing on stuff. She'll chomp on anything she can get her hands on. Interestingly, teething rings don't hold much interest for her. Rather, she prefers to chew on hard items such as her Baby Bjorn bib or her Bumbo play tray. In fact, she uses the tray more for chewing than playing!

Here are some pictures taken over the last few weeks,including a visit from GG and Pop and some photos of Molly enjoying the sunshine with Mommy and Daddy after a LONG winter.