The Lion at 7 Months

Ok, this is a few days late, but with Christmas, you can forgive me, right?  And, of course, we don't go to the doctor until the 29th, so I have no stats.  Last time I knew, though, he hadn't gained any weight this month.  Which strikes me as crazy knowing how much the piggie eats!  (He was at the doctor for 2 ear infections a week and 1/2 ago.)  **EDIT: According to the vet's scale he's gained 2 pounds and is at 20 1/2.  Which I also find hard to believe!**

At 7 months, the mental strides are STAGGERING.  I was floored at Christmas exactly how well he understood each and every toy, even though they were mostly for 1 year+.  He was hammering balls, stacking blocks, and walking with a walker (with me hovering).  It's all moving WAYYYY too fast.

Food

He's up to 3 teeth that have cut through and one that is VERY close.  That will give him all 4 front teeth.  And, man, does he like to use them.  Ouch!  He also loves to eat.  His most recent love is cantaloupe, and devours it down to pulp in his solid-food-ring-thingy in about 10 seconds and screams for another.  I don't even know if I need to list everything he eats anymore.  It's a lot!  Fruit: apple, pear, banana, raspberry, cantaloupe, Vegetable: avocado, carrot, parsnip, pumpkin, peas, green beans, (allergic to sweet potato and squash), Grain: oats, wheat, (problem with rice), Protein: turkey.  I'm sure I'm forgetting things.

Activity

He is still only army crawling.  It is FAST and very effective, and I think that's slowed real crawling.  He can get up on hands and knees, but then drops down to move.  He can pull up from sitting to standing, and can get DOWN from sitting to stomach, but he has not mastered stomach up to sitting, so that keeps us a little safe.  He has mastered crawling up the one stair that gets him out of the family room into the kitchen.  Which I'm not thrilled about.  And it means that yesterday Chris and my dad were quickly installing the baby gate on the kitchen steps and putting latches on the cabinets.

Talking

Robby babbles continuously, using virtually every combination that you can think of.  And...the volume is quite loud.  He doesn't even stop talking or singing while he eats, which can cause quite a mess.  Oh, spoiler, he got a toy piano for Christmas and sings along while playing it at full shriek.  It's cute, but loud.  Words are still hit or miss.  We definitely hear hi, mama, dada, and puppy, but we're still not sure if they're "words" sometimes.  He does wave with the "hi" now.

Social Interactions

Robby is VERY attached to me right now, and if he sees me, he will cry/scream/tell you in a loud voice until he is in my arms.  However, he still loves to be around people, and really plays very well with other children.  It's funny picking him up from daycare, though, because I'll walk in, and Hilton will come flying over (he's a much faster crawler at 10 months) and Robby will just SCREAM that someone else is taking over his mom.  

Sleep 

Oh, sleep.  The past 3 days or so have been better, so I won't curse it too much.  And he did have 2 ear infections and 2 teeth coming in, so the end of month 6 was down right AWFUL.  He would wake up for HOURS at a time, multiple times a night.  I was even waking up Chris and forcing him to take over.  Seemingly, we have solved the "going back to sleep" issue, by no longer laying with him on the futon EVER. But let me tell you how much it depresses me to not get to snuggle with him at night anymore.  I just sit in the rocker, and then lay him down, and he'll fall back asleep.  He is still waking and nursing at least 3 times a night.  Ridiculous, but I'll miss that one of these days, too.

Controlling the Chaos

Robby continues to be BUSY.  I was actually reminded of my fears when my mom was holding him and he was watching me cook, and she said, "See, he's not ADD, he's paying close attention to what you're doing." Yes, I've been a little paranoid on that front.  Anyway, as you can see in the picture, my mom was on baby watch for this round of pictures.  And she was very necessary because he has learned how to rock the glider on his own, and he was having a blast catapulting himself forward.  TERRIFYING.  He's a riot with everything he's learning to do, but I suspect that it's only going to get scarier from this point out!