7 Months: Where Does the Time Go?

A super close-up!

I tried to get a photo of her teeth.  It didn't work.

Yes, Joanna is somehow seven months old today.  I checked the calendar a few times to be sure.

Joanna is a very happy baby.  She smiles at everybody, she loves to be engaged, and she laughs easily.  Of course, there are times she gets upset.  In general, she's easy to calm.

Jo's first tooth arrived on May 18.  Her second tooth erupted this past Wednesday, so she now has two bottom teeth.  With both teeth, I worried she had an ear infection because she cried while pulling on her ears and titling her head to the side.  Neither of our kids teethe well, I've come to discover.  I took advice from a friend of mine and gave Jo a cob with the corn scraped off.  I don't know if it helped her teething pain or not, but she loved it.

Jo loves food.  She eats Cheerio halves all the time now.  She gets about one out of four into her mouth herself.  If I'm eating a bread product, like a bun or toast, I tear off teeny tiny pieces and let her have those.  She eats pureed baby food a few times a day, too.  I'm trying to get her up to three non-milk meals a day, but she typically has just two.  Jo loves proteins; her favorite meals are pureed turkey meals and pureed lentil meals.  She likes vegetables a lot, too, especially jarred green beans.  She doesn't like a lot of fruit.  She hates bananas and makes sour faces at apple sauce.  I think she liked mango, though!

We practice letting Jo drink sips of water from the cup.  She loves water.  I mean, she loves it and gets upset when we take the cup away.  She's getting pretty good at sipping from it, but I always hold the cup for her.

Our baby girl is a strong one.  She sits all by herself now.  She loves rolling over.  She's been working at scooting forward a bit like an earthworm, but sometimes she ends up moving backward, and, other times, she just spins like a clock.

As far as people go, Joanna acts like she needs me all the time.  People generally aren't allowed to hold her if she sees me in the room.  It's not that she necessarily wants me to play or talk to her.  She just wants me to hold her, and then she's content to socialize with other people.  It's kind of cute, but it's also exhausting holding a 16+ pound baby all day long!  Joanna loves her daddy, and he makes her laugh all the time.  He tickles her belly and lets her pull his hair.  I tease him that Jo already has him wrapped around her little baby finger.  The other person she just adores is Grandpa Larry.  She gets super excited to see him and starts kicking her legs frantically and squealing when he's around.  She grabs at his nose and twists and grabs hold of his cheeks.

Jo is "talking" more.  Her newest sound is, "BWA," and she says it all the time.  She's in the midst of a screeching phase, but her screeches are more like angry screams, even though she's not angry when she yells.  She sure sounds like she is, though!  That makes trips out and about interesting.

Here's a list of Jo's likes and dislikes at 7 months old:

Likes:
*Playing roll-over
*Daddy tickling her tummy
*Mommy pretending to eat her feet
*Watching Oliver play with his toys
*Strumming the guitar on the iPad
*Pulling at Grandpa Larry's face
*Being held by Mommy
*Baby food and Cheerios
*Water to drink
*Water to "swim" in, including baths
*Going outside
*Sitting in the grass

Dislikes:
*The car seat
*The hot car
*Oliver hugging her for too long
*Teething

A bit of nostalgia: Oliver's 7 month update