What Jack's Up to at Seven Months Old

So, Mummy blinked and you turned seven months old, Jackson!

You are over 17 pounds (17 pounds, 1 ounce at your last pediatrician appointment about three and a half weeks ago), are 27 inches long, and have graduated from us calling you a "little peanut" to a "walnut." Walnut is one of your many nicknames, Love. I'm worried that when you are 18 we will still be calling you Cheeks and Tiny Magillicudy. You have started to respond to your name, though, so you know you're our Jackson.

There have been a lot of changes this month. We started solid foods a couple of days after your six month birthday, and since then you have had avocado, sweet potato, banana, butternut and acorn squash, new potatoes, and most recently, apple. I think that sweet potato and banana are your favorites, with butternut squash close behind. No food gets you as excited as your bottle of milk, though.

You have your two bottom front teeth fully in, we can see one of your teeth on the top, and you have three puffy gums where your other top front teeth are about to pop. Your sweet disposition hasn't changed during teething, thankfully, and but for the fact that you are always trying to put other people's fingers in your mouth we wouldn't even know you were teething. Mama says "yes" to almost everything you want, but Dear, nobody's fingers should go in your mouth but your own. I think that's the first thing I have said "no" to.

We had been working on sitting up with you for awhile, and at your six month appointment at the pediatrician's office I told the Nurse Practitioner it's something you hadn't mastered yet. She wasn't worried because you have incredible core strength when you lift yourself up during tummy time (you used to hate tummy time, but now you love being on your tummy), but she sat you up anyway to see how you would do. And surprise - you sat up by yourself for the first time! You stinker. You sit up independently pretty well now, although you are still a little wobbly.

Your current favorite thing is that you LOVE to stand with our help. You love looking at faces and watching people, so when we let you "stand" on our knees and look at us you giggle and get so excited that you start to talk. We can have a back-and-forth conversation with you in baby talk, and I think you really like to feel like you are heard. Me too, Buddy. I'll try to keep that in mind as you grow up and start talking more and more.

You also roll all over the place. It is scary! Your Granddad Frank and Daddy bolted down all of the shelves the other week because you are starting to roll to a shelf, and if you can't pull off whatever is in arm's reach, you start to pull on the shelf itself. You seem to really like the ability to go from one place to another on your own. You've had a twinkle in your eye for awhile now that says "If I could run from one end of the room to another I would." Your knees go down for an army crawl, but you haven't gotten your arms there yet. I bet it is soon.

About a week ago you started sleeping in your nursery. You have probably been ready for awhile since you have been sleeping through the night for three months now, but Mama wasn't ready to move you from the co-sleeper beside our bed. Daddy misses waking up and having you right there so he can put his hand on your back and whisper secrets, but he loves the look on your face when he goes in there first thing and the morning and you are all smiley and ready to start your day. I was not expecting you to transition to sleeping in your own room so easily, and after the first night when I realized that neither of us cried I turned to your Daddy and told him how surprised I was. He said "I'm not surprised - you know we have an exceptional little boy." So true.

We took a trip to Oklahoma for Thanksgiving and you got to see some of your cousins and second cousins. You really like watching other children, so we decided to put you in music class on Fridays. We have so much fun and you have started reaching for the bigger babies as they crawl or toddle by. You like any toy that we give you that rattles or makes a sound, so you really like shaker time in music class. Mommy doesn't have a very good singing voice, but you love it when we sing, so I sing in music class even though it's terrible. Maybe I will learn something!

You really like toys that pop out and that you can shake. You also like holding your soft baby books and they are your favorite thing to chew on. You also have some nice new wooden teethers and you like holding those and passing them from one hand to another. You are also getting more and more into playing a little Baby Einstein piano, and you really like the top of the piano where you can spin these little plastic balls. I love how much you enjoy music and sound and I am really trying to nurture that. Don't worry, Daddy will stop me if I go all stage mom.

Every time I'm in the grocery store or out and about with you and people ask how old you are, when I say "Almost seven months" it seems like everyone says "Oh, this is such a fun age!" I totally agree - you can still be a sweet and cuddly baby that likes for his Mama to hold him, but you are also turning into this fun, independent little boy that is seeing the world for the first time. It's likely, though, that I will think every age with you is a fun age. We love you lots, Cheeks, now and always.