7 Months

Leo turned 7 months old last week. He is a very happy and energetic little boy! Here are a few things about him this month:

- He talks quite a lot and sometimes hums to himself, in particular in the car and when he's falling asleep. He says "babababa," "bwabwabwa," and "mamamama" though he doesn't equate this sound with me.
- He now complains when he doesn't get what he wants or when he doesn't want to nap. He pretends he cries but doesn't have any tears!
- He laughs a lot -when he's tickled, when we pretend-scare him, when we run to him, when we make silly faces. And he gets hiccups every time he laughs, without fail.
- He's always in a good mood.
- When he doesn't want to drink his bottle, all I have to do is pretend I'm drinking it and he suddenly wants his milk back. Same thing when he wants my Iphone. If I pretend to be on the phone with a toy, he'll want that instead. Very useful!
- He is so full of energy. He never sits still anymore! He crawls, climbs, and walks when held. He bangs on everything. Even when I rock him to sleep he asks to be rocked even faster.
- He is no longer breastfed. He doesn't care much for solids yet unless it's read food (cut red pepper, bread, croissants!).
- He doesn't sleep through the night. He doesn't need a pacifier anymore but is used to eating and being rocked upright before bed. We'll wean from middle of the night feedings and sleep train once he's over jetlag.
- His hair is starting to curl in the back and above his ears. It's so cute!
- He has 2 bottom teeth. It's really cute to see them when he smiles.
- He loves people! On the plane he relished all the attention he could get (above all the attention from old women who didn't understand I was trying to rock my baby. TO SLEEP). He stares at people until they smile at him and then he smiles back. He also still raises his eyebrows a la Joey in Friends ("Howya doin'?"). It's pretty funny when he does that to women in the elevator or at the store.
- The main thing lately is that he is trying to explore everything and wanting to be independent. However, he wants me to be close by. He explores around me. He clims over me to see what's behind me. He crawls somewhere and then comes back to me and wants to be held. I know it's normal and it's really interesting to see it happen right there in front of our eyes. I don't know how I feel about his becoming more independent but I love that he needs me to be his own little person.
- I love him so much. I love him more and more every day. He's so, so, so awesome. I sing to him at night to his mobile music and tell him how much I love him. Usually it goes like this "I love you more than life, I love you more than Twix (replaced by food, books, baths, wine). That's how much I love you baby!" ;)

That's it. Leo in a nutshell at this point in time. And I tried to take his 7-month pictures. Um, FAIL! But those pics really show how energetic and fun he is.