Seven Months Old

Yesterday Ellie turned seven months old! It seems like she does something new each day. She has really started looking more like a little girl and less like a baby this month. We haven't weighed her recently, but she seems to be growing in leaps and bounds. Over the weekend she said "mama" on three different occasions. They were all when she was upset and wanted to be picked up or nursed. It may have been coincidental, or she may just be playing with consonant and vowel sounds, but I am going to assume she has said her first word!

How Ellie has changed over the past month:

• Ellie now has two teeth - both bottom front teeth have popped through the gum line.
• Ellie is down to three wakings at night (trust me, this is HUGE). If you have a baby younger than Ellie that sleeps, count your blessings!
• Ellie has dropped her evening nap. She now naps only twice a day (roughly 9:30-10:30am and 2-3pm)
• Ellie can stand up on her own in her bathtub, so we have to pay very close attention.
• No crawling yet, but lots of scooting and pivoting on her tummy. It won't be long now.
• Ellie had meat for the first time and seemed to enjoy it. We backed off though because it gave her a bit of an unsettled tummy.
• Ellie has added corn, watermelon, and cantaloupe to the list of foods she has tried. We haven't found anything she doesn't like. At first she wasn't keen on carrots, but now she gobbles them up.
• Ellie makes lots of sounds. She has been experimenting recently with very high pitched squeaking and humming. She also makes a lot of consonant-vowel-consonant-vowel patterns. She makes the /m/ sound, /h/ sound, and sometimes the /d/ sound.
• When she gets bored or frustrated she rocks and sticks her bottom lip out and blows air forcefully through her nose. It is adorable!
  

Events of the past month:

• Ellie has gone swimming twice. She didn't enjoy the outdoor pool much, but a couple of weeks later she really had fun at the indoor pool.
• Ellie went on two hikes, riding on Daddy's back in the carrier. She enjoyed herself both times and was a really good baby in the car on the way to the trail and back. After the second hike she was very tired and only woke up twice during the night.
• Teeth!

Now a few pictures:

Mama trying to get a peek at the teeth:

Blurry look at the two teeth: