7 months old!

Oh my! I can't believe 7 months have already zoomed by! I am trying very hard to cherish every moment of Sam's first year... those moments just keep going by too fast.  I also remember trying to cherish every moment of Connor and Dylan's baby-hood... and with time, unfortunately, a lot of those memories fade. I want to keep a written record of these times so I can look back 10... 15... 30 years from now and just remember all of these precious moments. And I want to be able to share it with them as they get older, so I'm going to start journaling to each of my babies.

So Sam... this one is for you, baby.

I guess the biggest news at this time is you just got your first tooth!! Its in the front on your bottom left... and it is SO cute! You haven't been very fussy with it, in fact you've been more smiley than ever! (maybe showing it off!) You do chew on EVERYTHING, but you've been doing that for months. :) When you were about 4 months old I kept saying, "I definitely think he's teething." And, "He's going to be getting a tooth any day now!" because you just gnawed on anything that came close to your mouth.  Your Dad said, "If you keep saying that, eventually you'll be right." haha - your Dad - such a funny guy. :)

You don't really like baby food. You want what we are eating. Even before you ever tried your first taste of "table" food, you were trying to get to it and turning your nose up to a jar of squash... or whatever. You do LOVE baby yogurt, so you have that every morning for breakfast. For lunch I try (usually unsuccessfully) to give you 1 fruit and 1 vegetable. For dinner you usually eat vegetables off of my plate that I "mush" up for you. You are still nursing quite a bit... about every 3-4 hours (some days more often than that).

You are a very good sleeper! You always have been... and I'm SO very thankful for that! At just 3 weeks old, you were sleeping 5-6 hours straight at night.  Now, you usually go to sleep around 7:30-8:00, you wake up around 5:30 to nurse, and then go back to sleep until around 7:30-8:00. You want to be in your crib to sleep. You will go to sleep in your carseat if we are going somewhere, but you usually wake up as soon as we get to where we're going. And, you won't go to sleep in my arms anymore. You fuss until I lay you down in your crib. As soon as I do, you roll over and close your eyes. You ALWAYS sleep on your belly. I always lay you down on your back, but you immediately roll over. You've been doing that since you were 3-4 months old.

Sleeping in yout carseat with your favorite toy. It's a rubber dino that you love to chew on. I was surprised you fell asleep... I had just set you in here for a minute while we were at CC with Connor.

You love your brothers. They can both make you cackle... it's so funny! They love watching out for you and helping to take care of you. Connor actually did his school presentation on you this past week. Dylan likes to get you clean diapers. They both love playing with you.

You have become a very mild-tempered baby. You used to scream your head off every time I bathed you, or changed your clothes, or changed your diaper.  Maybe it was just being cold that you didn't like... but whatever it was, you definitely didn't like it. Now, you just let me do whatever. People keep telling me you are spoiled to me.  Although I don't really like that term, its kind of true. You are definitely mama's baby. You want me to hold you all the time or atleast be sitting right beside me. You don't like to be in your swing, jumper, exersaucer, or any other contraption. Others can hold you as long as you don't see me. As soon as I'm in your sight, you start fussing and flapping your arms and stop as soon as I get you. I can't say that I mind! :) I love making you laugh and you have the biggest grin.  Sometimes it can be a little hard to get things done around the house, but I just keep remembering this poem...

Mother, oh Mother, come shake out your cloth
empty the dustpan, poison the moth,
hang out the washing and butter the bread,
sew on a button and make up a bed.
Where is the mother whose house is so shocking?
She's up in the nursery, blissfully rocking...

...The cleaning and scrubbing will wait till tomorrow,
for children grow up, as I've learned to my sorrow.
So quiet down, cobwebs. Dust go to sleep.
I'm rocking my baby and babies don't keep.

by Ruth Hulburt Hamilton

I love you so much sweet baby, Sam!