7 Months

I learned something new when I went to take Abbi's 7 month pictures. When your child becomes mobile, it is no longer up to you on how the photo shoot goes - it's completely up to your child!! I tried doing her pictures earlier in the day, but she was not doing anything I wanted her to do. She wouldn't lay on the ground or even look at the camera. I got so frustrated that I just gave up and decided to try again later. After her next nap and feeding, we tried again. I decided to take the pictures in her room where she would be more in her "element" and able to play with things and do what she wanted to do. And I'm so happy I tried that. These pictures aren't perfect - in fact, most of them are pretty fuzzy since the lighting wasn't the greatest - but I have to say that these are my favorite pictures of her so far. They are all just Abbi, doing what Abbi likes to do - and that is so much better than a posed photograph!!

That being said, onto her 7 month post! This was a HUGE month for Abbi with lots of milestones, both big and small.

At 7 months, Abbi:

• Went on her first real vacation. 8 days in the car, almost 2500 miles, and she was such a good little girl! She got to see the ocean, a lake, and a forest all for the first time.
  
• Started crawling. She army-crawled the whole previous month, but took off on her knees about 3 weeks ago and hasn't stopped yet!
• Still loves to laugh - and her mama thinks it is the best sound in the whole world!
• Loves to grab hair. And she really knows how to hold on! She will grab anyone's hair, whether man, woman or child. I was at a thing a few nights ago when she grabbed a little boy's hair - it took him by surprise!
  

• Can pull herself up to sitting, although she sits like the above picture when she does. I think it's super cute!
• You know how most babies hate tummy time? Well, Abbi is the opposite and now hates laying on her back. It makes diaper changing and clothes changing nearly impossible.
• Started making consonant sounds. I was beginning to think that she would be a late talker since all she would do is make screeching noises, or throaty noises, or fake coughs, but she now loves to say "ba-ba-ba-ba".

• Is pulling herself up to standing and standing like a champ. This is her favorite thing to do these days, and you will find her climbing up on anything she can get to in the house!
• Hasn't quite figured out how to get down from standing yet, but she is getting there.
• Is able to cruise just a little bit when she is standing. I do think that she forgets that she is just a baby sometimes, though, because she will try to let go and stand without holding on. Obviously, she ends up on the ground when she tries this!

• Loves her books, but mostly just to eat them. I try to read to her often, but she would rather be the one holding the book, and usually putting it into her mouth!
• Loves all her toys, but her favorite things to play with are a measuring cup, Daddy's cell phone, and Daddy's watch. She also loves water bottles, but likes them best when they are about half full of water.
• She still loves Max and will chase after him. He still likes her, for the most part, unless she grabs at his tail or his ears.

• Has started eating solids. Loves: rice cereal, (although we stopped giving it to her because it gave her a belly ache), sweet potatoes - her FAVORITE!, and oatmeal. Doesn't love: avocados or squash. I think she has an issue with textures, because the two she doesn't love aren't super smooth, (since I'm making her baby food), so I think she'll like them when she gets older and likes textured food better.
• Still isn't sleeping through the night, but is getting very close. We were almost there, then she started standing, and would stand in her crib and cry and not be able to get back down. So crying it out isn't quite so simple anymore. But I'm confident she'll be sleeping through the night soon!
• Has her two bottom teeth coming in! I had stopped looking since I figured she'd follow after her dad and not get any until almost a year old, but when I was feeding her a few days ago, I noticed the two little guys coming through. But now she seems to be having some teething pains, but nothing too bad.

She's growing up right before my eyes! I was feeding her a few days ago and looked down and marveled at how big she was. It seems like yesterday that she was this teeny tiny newborn!