7 months

***We leave very early in the AM tomorrow to head Back East to see my family. Wish us luck, but know if you leave a comment (and I really hope you do! I love comments!!) I might not get chance to approve them until we are back next week.***


Wow Critter Girl, you are already 7 months old. And today, on your 7-month birthday, you will take your first plane ride. I hope you like it!

This month you got your first teeth! Finally! I feel like every month for the past several I've written about these teeth-to-be, and now they are here! You have 2 little bottom middle teeth poking out of your gums. They are slow-growing (it seems that way to Mommy at least) but fully broken through. They came as a pair, which sort of surprised me, I thought they would come one at a time. They are super-cute on you in your less-gummy smile.

And you can sit up by yourself now. You love to sit and grab on to every toy you can reach. Then throw it down to pick up another one. Or put it in your mouth, then throw it down to get another. I think you like the new, higher vantage point, you can survey your domain, your kingdom (aka your playmat). You can now take a bath in the regular tub, sitting up like a big girl.

You found the volume switch on your voice this month, and ooooh boy! You love to be loud. You will scream/yell then laugh. You think it is so funny to be loud and watch people's expressions when you split their eardrums. Secretly, Mommy thinks its funny too. You've also begun the first babbles, ya-ya-ya-ya and ha-ha-ha-ha (which is priceless, you sound like you've just hatched an evil plan and it amuses you) are the ones now. You've also said pa but not strung together in babble form. soon, I'm sure.

You can grab onto me now, so when we are walking you are like a little monkey, straddling my waist and grabbing my arms and shoulders. It is very sweet. And the hugs and slobbery open-mouthed kisses, well we all know how much I love those.

Happy 7-month birthday, my sweet Critter Girl. I love you more than these words can say.

The stomach

The Critter Girl has a love-hate relationship with her stomach. Not her internal, digestive stomach, but her outside, lying-on-it, tummy-time stomach.

While she started out loving tummy time, she grew to hate it at about 4-ish months. Right around the time she rolled over for the first few times. You'd think, great, she can now roll over, so problem of hating being on your stomach is solved, right?

Wrong. So very very wrong.

Critter, after maybe 5-6 successful flipping over from her tummy episodes, went on strike. She would no longer turn over, preferring to lying there and cry bloody murder. She would wait it out crying until someone (read: me) would flip her over. No fun for anyone.

At 6-ish months, she just started rolling both ways, as if we had not just lived through the last 2 months of tummy torture. I swear she said to me, "It soooo not a big deal, Mom. Geez, let it go!" when I stared in amazement at her rolling off her tummy without tears. She may have rolled her eyes at me too.

Which brings us to now. Her latest thing is rolling in her crib. But when she ends up on her tummy, she will often start the crying thing again. Like she is stuck, like she can't roll over, like she did not put herself in that position herself (we always put her on her back to sleep, like the Sleep Sack tells me to do). This can happen in the middle of the night sometimes, which sucks.

But now, sometimes, after the crying, or after I go in there and turn her over, now she will turn herself right back on her tummy and fall asleep. WTF, Critter? Is it torture or is it cozy?

Apparently to her, her stomach is both. See, love-hate. Sigh...is this just a preview of the teenage years? We may be in trouble.

Travels and zucchini

I'm still in swoon-over-Critter mode over here. She is just super-cute and fun these days. She has two small bottom teeth, and I think she is chewing away to get one of those top ones moving. I can't be sure though, as the Critter does not let me see her top gum line willingly. I catch glimpses when she laughs or smiles, but she is coy with that upper gumline. And her other new thing is she loves to scream/screech as loud as she can - it is like she discovered she can control the volume of her voice. And loud is fun.

I think the ear-piercingly-loud screeching practice is in preparation for her first plane ride, which will be next week. We are going Back East to see my family for 5 days. The Critter's first plane ride...I have to admit, I'm a bit scared. Mr. P says it will be karmic payback for him - as he is well known to get very aggravated and annoyed by travelling families. He is one of those business travelers that are all business, and get annoyed when others slow him down.

All I can say is, "Welcome to your new life, buddy!" He is preparing to buy drinks for everyone on the plane.

Anyone have any words of wisdom they've heard/done/read about travelling with young kids? I'll take anything I can get. We did buy her her own seat (ouch, in the wallet) so she'll be travelling in her carseat.

And on other topics - Zucchini! I sauteed up some zucchini coins in butter til they got GBD (golden, brown, delicious) and soft, then into the processor. I did them a little more chunky this time, just to see how she'd fare. She liked the zucchini, but the larger chunks she did not like. Which is ok, I'll stick to the more pureed stuff for a while longer. I never did those green beans from last week, we ended up eating them ourselves in a stir-fry. Sorry, Critter. Maybe next time.

XOXO

Note: This is a post that my still-fighting-the-good-fight IF sisters may want to skip. I would have, I totally get it.

I think the Critter Girl is learning to give hugs. And slobbery wet kisses.

Oooooh boy, it has hit me like a ton of bricks. I am her mom, and she loves me.

I know, I know...I've been her mom for awhile now. I know this. And I know she loves me, and I love her more than anything I've ever known.

But when she tries to wrap her Popeye arms around my neck and shoulders, and nuzzles into my neck or chest and holds on tight...whew! It truly takes my breath away. And it hits me like nothing so far has - she is mine, my daughter, my little girl. I'm her mom.

Wow. Just wow.

I never knew such a feeling. Such love that it makes you cry. Not like this. It's overwhelming (I may have cried a tear when she hugged me once) and wonderful and....just breath-taking.

It has taken me 6 months to wipe away these last IF scars, to truly open my heart all the way. That sounds bad, like I didn't love her before - which is not true, not what I mean. I don't know how to really explain it...to find the right words. I just feel more open than I have in a very long while. Healed. Not forgotten, but healed.

Her hugs, her slobbery kisses on my cheek, they have changed me for good, for the good, and forever.

Library Paste, revisited

As I alluded to at the end of the last post, butter makes things better. Butter and cinnamon make them even better than better.

The Critter loves her CoW, and honestly, so do I. Most days that she eats it, I eat it with her. I do add a touch of salt to mine, but otherwise we're eating the same yummy, comforting CoW.

So I thought, if butter and cinnamon can make CoW better, what about those baby cereals that I have sitting around, waiting to be used. As you may recall, I've likened these made-for-baby cereals to library paste, and I stand by that claim.

But if you doctor it up with some butter and a pinch or two of fresh cinnamon, well, they are not too bad. Admittedly, I've only tried this with the oatmeal cereal so far. But it was edible in my opinion (and yes, I try everything the Critter eats) and she really liked it too. So we can add another food to her list, and it is easier and faster to prepare than the CoW.

Spinach went so-so. She ate it mixed with other things, but it backed her up some - maybe the iron? Who knows. This week we are trying green beans. I've pretty much lost my fear of major allergic reactions with her, she has done well with wheat, a touch of dairy (butter) and meat. More dairy, like yogurt might be on our horizon.

Teething Bites

Oooooooh boy! Teething...its rough. Poor little Critter Girl, she is having a tough go of it. We've been watching this lump on her lower gum for months now, and she has been drooly, chewy little girl. But otherwise happy.

In the last week, things have turned from happy to not so much. Cranky, confused, profusely drooly. She will have moments of happy then suddenly she's crying. Very out of character for her.

And then we saw it. The lump on her gums now has a pearly white line - the tooth just beneath the gum. So close, but so far away too.

It has been days. Every day I expect to see that tooth above the gum line, and it does seem to get more clear every day. It feels hard and sharp when we put our finger on it or she chomps on our fingers. But it is still not fully broken through. Ouchy ouch ouch. It is taking it's sweet, painful time.

Poor little girl. And her poor little gums.

P.S. - Cream of wheat (COW) is good. COW with butter is even better. COW with butter and cinnamon is the bestest thing ever! Just so you know...

Spinach and Farina

I have made progress in meeting some other moms. I found a group online, through Meetup.com that seems ok. I may try to meet 3 other moms at a local farmers market next week, when it is not so damn hot. I'll keep y'all posted...

New foods for this week are spinach and farina aka cream of wheat. I'm not so sure how any of this is gonna go. The spinach was not the sweeter baby spinach (the grocery didn't have any - grrr) so its just normal, big-leaf spinach. I washed it really well, then just put the still-wet-from-washing spinach in a hot, dry fry pan til it wilted. Then into the food processor with some of the leftover cooking liquid, and ta-da! It is a beautiful dark green, but a touch bitter. Yummy for mom, I'm not sure what the Critter will think. I think we'll go 1 part spinach and 3 parts apple/pear/sweet tater. And hope for the best.

And farina! I'm excited to see if she will eat this - given her dislike for the baby cereals thus far. I got just normal-people farina (also know as cream of wheat - but in my Italian upbringing world, it is always farina) made by Bob's Red Mill. Yum. We'll make enough for the both of us and eat it together for lunch today. I hope she likes it.

Other than that, things are going well over here. It's hot as hell, which has put a damper on our outdoor time. Hopefully it will cool back down by the weekend, fingers crossed. The Critter is working on sitting up on her own. She is still tippy turtle, but she is getting better. She is also beginning to show some stranger anxiety, it is not all the time, but sometimes she clings to me for dear life when presented with new people. Especially new, loud, in-her-face people. I cling to her too with those people, lol.