A Letter to Elise at 7 Months

This post is going up super late because we were having technical difficulties with our nice camera. Finally this weekend Ty was able to snap some pictures of our sweet girl using our fancy camera. I think the pictures were worth the wait!

My sweet Elise, you are such a good little girl. You are so happy, so full of joy, so ready to smile at any given moment. You've been laughing for a while but just this past week started laughing more frequently. Before it was so hard to get you to laugh and we really had to work for it! Now you hear me laughing and laugh in response without even knowing what we're laughing about. I love that about you and I love how you smile with your mouth open and now have 2 little jagged baby teeth showing through that bottom gum! You are just so darn cute. I also enjoy that you are a momma's girl and whip to attention when I enter the room and even reach for me. I'm sure that won't last long but it's fun right now. It's so enjoyable how babies constantly show their love. That's one thing I really enjoy about babies! You have also started to show interest in other babies and reach for as well as talk to your buddy Addison. She is slowly catching up to you in size and now weighs more than you although you are still a little taller.

We have seen an increase in your mobility and you roll like a champ, all over the place. You even try to roll over in the bathtub! I love watching you do it because it reminds me so much of your brother! You can also sit for really long periods of time without falling and without support! You have also learned to lean forward to put your hands on the ground as support. You push up on your arms and are starting to work on getting your knees under you. There have been a couple times that you have army crawled to get something just a couple pushes. You are like your brother in that aspect as well. If you are trying to get something and can't quite get to it you just pick something else to play with. The only things you work really hard to get are my phone, Carter and his hair specifically, and Harper also for her hair.

One thing about you that really cracks me up is that you lick stuff. Rather than stick things in your mouth like most babies, you lick things. Most of the time you then stick it in your mouth but you almost always lick it first! You also like to drink water. You turn your head and drink out of the bathtub. You also like to grab my water bottle and drink out of the straw. Daddy has even given you a few drinks from a cup.

You are always grabbing stuff and I have been super impressed with your pincer grasp. You can pick up food really well, you just aren't super successful at getting it in your mouth. You do love food though. We were going the baby led weaning route but you weren't getting much in your mouth and I do want to go ahead and introduce foods so once you are able to feed yourself we have more choices for what you can eat. Some foods you had for the first time this month were pear on October 4th and butternut squash which I puréed for you on October 21st. You have food once a day with us at dinner time. The weekend of the Prairie Fire half marathon you ate an entire banana smashed up with Oma while I was running. It reminded me how nice it is for you to be eating foods so I don't have to worry too much about being gone too long or pumping enough milk. Eating will be getting easier as you now have 2 teeth! Your first tooth popped through on October 18th and your second came shortly after. You now have both of your bottom middle teeth.

Sleeping has been huge this month. You have gone 12-13 hour stretches quite a bit. We always get at least 7 solid hours out of you. That means I sometimes feed you once per night and others not at all. When you sleep all night you wake up super hungry and cluster feed in the morning. If you wake up to eat during the night you wake up happy in the morning but if you don't wake during the night, you scream when you see me. Sometimes it's like you forget you are hungry and then you see me and panic over your starvation. Your first 12 hour stretch came right after your 6 month birthday on September 25th. I was a little worried you were dead but didn't panic like I did with Carter the first time he slept through the night.

You are getting so big! You wear 6 month and 9 month clothes across the board. You are pretty long with the length of your pants and the length of your sleeves causing you to need 9 month clothes in some brands. At your 6 month well check which was really at 6.5 months you weighed in at 15.4 pounds which put you in the 27th percentile and you measured 26.5 inches putting you in the 66th percentile. Your head was 17.2 inches for 78th percentile. Just like your brother you are longer than you are heavy and your head continues to jump up quite a few percentiles each time we go! You are such a big girl!

My favorite thing about this month is how vocal you have become. You seem so close to your first words and I am so looking forward to it! You love to mimick right now and will copy coughes, facial expressions, snorting, and other noises. Your favorite thing to do is blow air through your mouth with your tongue out to make noises. Carter calls them your "elphalant noises" and finds them hilarious! He will report to me when you are doing them and tell me how funny you are. You still think he is the best and love watching him. You smile at him and even laugh sometimes and he just loves it. He'll even say, "Sissy look!" He also asks me to show you things and makes sure I follow through. Anytime he walks by you he stops to give you a kiss. It's the sweetest!

I love you so much, sister girl! You are such a sweet baby and bring me so much joy. I look forward to each day I get to spend with you and really try to slow down and enjoy the little moments when I can.

Now on to daddy:

So close to being a little girl on the move! You want to be mobile, and in a few weeks or months, I am sure you will be. That will be so much fun. I think that your brother will be the most excited!

You have been experiencing so many new foods it has been very exciting during dinner time. You are such a fast little eater it's hard to do anything other than feed you! Soon you will be feeding yourself with us at the table.

Something you do a ton is blow spit bubbles. Cracks me up and you love to do it! Growing up so fast baby girl and I can't wait for the next month!