7 Months

Jonas is definitely beginning to make his desires known. He's still a fairly laid-back baby overall, but he has serious grumpy moments. Still, I'd say this is the parenting sweet spot. I know what I'm doing somewhat, we're in a good routine, and Jonas is learning new skills every day. I told Darby that if I could be given children when they were 6 months old, I'd have 10! :)

"Firsts" from This Month

• First time to swim. I signed Jonas and myself up for swim classes. What I thought would be just a little mommy and me play time turned out to be a water survival skills class. I had to put him under water! It stressed me out so much. He didn't seem to mind too much though. And while he was too young to master floating on his back or crawling out of the pool, he did get very comfortable in the water, so that's something, I guess.

        

    

• First 4th of July. We went over to our friends' house for a little party. They live out in the country, so we could shoot off fireworks. Jonas slept through that, but he did come with us to the fireworks store to pick them out.

Aunt Leila and Uncle Matt. Jonas loves spending time with them.

• First time to roll back to front. He still can't get his arm out from under his body, so no rolling back and forth. But, he does twist his whole torso around, so I'm calling it.

• First time to sit in a high chair/grocery cart.

• First night away from mom and dad. While we were in Waco for Darby's high school reunion, we took advantage of the free baby-sitting to spend the night in a hotel to celebrate our anniversary. We stayed downtown and played tourists, walking across the suspension bridge and having fancy cocktails on a rooftop bar. It was so nice not to have to worry about getting home in time for bedtime and being able to sleep in. And Jonas was in great hands with his Mamaw and Grandpa.

Things I Want to Remember

• He is really experimenting with his voice and goes through phases where he makes a certain noise all the time. For a couple of weeks, he would make a gasping noise. Now, he does a little click.
• He's obsessed with his "puffs" - little baby cereal snacks. The doctor recommended we give them to him so he could practice with finger foods. But now we've created a monster. For a while he couldn't feed them to himself and would just squawk loudly until we fed him one. He would demand a puff in between each bite of vegetables. Ridiculous. Now he rakes them up and stuffs his whole fist in his mouth to make sure they don't fall out. We have to hide the container or he would eat them all day.
• He loves straps, buttons, necklaces, and embroidered logos on shirts. If he sees one, he will not rest until he's touched it, or preferably, eaten it.