7 months

Dear Madelyn Kate,

On Saturday you turned seven months old. Since then, I have been putting off writing you this letter. I reasoned that if I did not write it, somehow it may not really be true. I simply cannot believe how fast you are growing. Before you came in to our lives, I never noticed how quickly time escaped us. Your constant changes and growth are an ever present reminder of just how precious time is.

Lately, you have been sprouting the most precious personality. You have realized that Mommy can't stand to hear you cry and that you get your way if you do so. I am going to have to work on being a little less of a softy or you will have me trained in no time (which I actually think that you already do).

This month has held so many changes. I'd like to think that you are my sweet little newborn baby, but as I watch you make your way from one side of the room to the other, I realize that your newborn days are a thing of the past. You have been scooting and rolling for quite some time now, but recently you have really started to show signs that crawling is in the very near future. You push up on all fours a lot of the time and have even made some forward motions.Most of the time you give up because I think you realize that rolling gets you places faster. I am not sure I am ready for you to be that mobile. I know that our house isn't! We have to start baby proofing soon!

You have started to eat a lot more baby food. So far you enjoy banana yogurt, bananas, pears (you LOVE these), sweet potatoes, peas (not your favorite but you tolerate them), squash, carrots, avocados, cereal, wagon wheels, biter biscuits, puffs and mum mums. Just about every time I let you have one of the finger foods it takes a dip in the tub to get you clean (yesterday you had a bath and two "quick dips"). I have tried to give you three different types of formula and even tried different bottles but you refused them all (picky little thing)! I was concerned you may not be getting enough milk, but you seem to be happy!

I took you to be weighed this week and you are still under 16 pounds. Some days you feel so heavy. Others you feel so light. You mainly wear 6-9 months clothes. Your 3-6 months jeans and dresses still fit, but I think that is because you are going to be short like me. You have been wearing size three diapers but Grandma accidentally bought you size twos last week. I put one on you and they actually fit so much better! I guess we made the switch too soon!

You are still sleeping 12 hours a night and wake up once to "snack". You don't actually wake up, you just "sleep eat" as I call it. By 7pm you are worn out and ready to wind down for the night. By 8:30pm you are almost always fast asleep! I love when you wake up in the morning. You are so snuggly and happy and ready to face the day.

You are still teething and love to chew on things but have no teeth yet. I could have sworn that you would have woken up the other night with a pearly white poking through (it was a long night of screaming which is totally out of character for you).

You repeat a lot of sounds that I make like: bob, da-da, and my favorite...ma-ma! You are constantly jabbering and love when someone talks to you. If I turn on music you "sing along". You really love David Crowder Band and Luminate.

It seems as though you may not like your jumperoo very much anymore. Most days you can't stand to be in it for more than five minutes. Just in the last week you have decided that you need to be on my hip at all times. We had two really long days where you screamed every time I left the room. On day 1 I pushed you around in an umbrella stroller. It worked out pretty nice because I could push you around the house with me. The only problem was that you wanted to play and kept trying to jump out! On day 2 I pulled you around in a laundry basket that I padded with a blanket and stuffed full of toys!

You loved being pulled all over the house! When we would start going you would grin and giggle in delight!

I love that you have really started to reach out for us to pick you up. I don't love that 9 times out of 10, if Grandma is in the room you reach for her! OK, so I think it is pretty sweet...except when you prefer her over me :)

Madelyn, of all the changes that keep taking place and milestones that mark your 7 months of life this far, the most precious gift to me as your mommy is simply that you are here. That we have been given the chance to watch you grow. That we are blessed with the opportunity to be awake at night with a teething baby girl. That there are moments like the other night when your daddy was playing the guitar and singing "How He loves" while you snuggled up to me on the floor. Each moment with you is treasured. You are our treasure.

I love you more each day. I pray you know you are treasured!

Love always,

Mommy