evynn claire | seven months

 How many months old? 7 months

Weight?   Length? No doctor appointment this month so I’m not sure!

Any teeth? still none! Ha! I’m almost wishing she would pop one already since I use teething as an excuse to myself when she’s extra fussy or clingy then I realize “nope… guess that wasn’t why!”

Sleep? I think Ev is starting to understand the crib is for naps!!! She truly sleeps better when shes by herself in her crib, vs. sleeping on our chest (if we move, she wakes up 10 min later). For both naps and night time, we can tell that she is tired when she’s rubbing her eyes and actively fighting her sleep. We lay her down and she’ll roll onto her belly for a second then by the time we shut the door and go look at the monitor, she’s asleep. Usually with very little or no crying. However, the last few weeks she’s been waking at least once a night and it’s been rough. I’m looking more into adjustments we can make to our “sleep training” so I’m thinking giving her a sleep sac (I’m too paranoid to give a blanket), putting her to bed way earlier, and trying to wean her from night feedings (it’s just too easy to offer her food first thing when I’m barely awake). I have noticed putting her to bed at 7 works for us, but any suggestions for how to make this work when we have church until 8pm or plans at night? Yikes!

Feeding? We’ve introduced bananas, avocados, steamed sweet potatoes, and baked apples, peaches, broccoli, blueberries, zucchini, and yogurt. Since we’re doing baby led weaning, we give her large pieces that she can pick up and put in her own mouth. I have to help guide her from time to time to get food in her mouth and not drop it all on the floor ;) she wants to latch on the banana and suck ha but to all foods she sucks on them and takes little nibbles. She seems to enjoy broccoli more than I anticipated! We’ve found she does best if we wait a few hours after a feed for her to be hungry. Sometimes I feel like she got absolutely nothing in her mouth and worry that BLW isn’t working, but then I remember what it is-baby.led.weaning. SHE decides how much to eat. After she “eats” at the table with us, we let her nurse/give a bottle. So she’s still nursing several times a day. I do try to give a bottle of breastmilk at nighttime because she is now getting sooo hyper right before bed to fight sleep. So the bottle helps calm her down, she gets too distracted nursing, ha!

Developmental milestones?

·      She can now sit herself up. She’ll be on all fours and then bend one leg and lean over and then sit up, play, then back to crawl to the next thing

·      She started clapping today (2/21)!! Out of the blue, then when we clap for her she just gets excited haha

·      We have to watch her very closely on furniture or she’ll lean forward/crawl right off (taking her 7 month pics was quite a challenge! I had to keep my hand on her feet to watch her from leaning forward)

·      She’s crawling very good and fast! She crawls with one leg bent like normal and the other knee bent up

·      She crawls over us! And pulls up on us, she’ll grab my shoulders and stand up. hasn’t quite realized she can do that to furniture..yet

·      She says “dadadada” all the time! No mama anywhere in there. She doesn’t associate it to Cody quite yet, but I don’t think it’ll take long

·      She notices when something is missing. When she’s in her highchair and drops food, she looks over the side to see where it went, ha.

·      Not quite developmental but, she finally has some straight, thin, blonde hair coming in!!

·       

Favorite toy?  She loves just about anything in front of her.. key rattles, stacking rings, stuffed animals, anything with lights. She enjoys her exersaucer and walker.

Speech and language? Like I mentioned above, she loves to say “dadada” and still loves to whisper. I love when we’re in the car and she’s back there making small noises to herself.

Loves? Crawling all over us, holding fist fulls of mommys hair, waking up at 3am for some lovin, watching veggietales, getting so close to the camera when the phone is on selfie-mode (see 7 month pictures for further), grabbing at anything and everything,

Dislikes? When she’s too tired, she’s a hot mess at that point and the best thing to do is just put her in the crib, initially getting in her carseat, when she doesn’t get her way, playing with the same toys over and over again

Firsts: First foods! And crawling, oh boy.

We love: How big she seems all of a sudden! She’s mobile and attentive and not so much a baby anymore! I treasure those moments when she falls asleep on my chest because it’s soooo far and few between. She’s too busy to be held down by mom. We, and our family, think she’ll be so outgoing as she gets older.

Being a mom is the hardest and best thing ever. Every single day I get frustrated, exhausted, and impatient but the second that I lay her down for a nap or leave her with Cody or anyone else, I miss her more than anything else. I love this stage so much and look forward to all the adventures and moments as a family of three (and hopefully more, someday!). I can’t imagine our family without her! I’m realizing that her milestones will come super fast so I invested in a video camera today. Iphones are great, but I really want some good home videos to look back on in the future.I was okay with her being 6 months old but 7 months old seems like a steep step right to 1 year, and I'm just not ready for that.

photo dump:

weekending

this weekend was beautiful! the weather was seriously 85 degrees (in february), and my parents were here (even though I took no pictures with them, bummer!)

On friday morning we went to Lubbock to file our taxes. After that we were so close to a beautiful neighborhood, the weather was absolutely perfect, and we had our stroller in tow, so we decided to walk through the neighborhood like we lived there ;)

(^^love love my lilyjade diaper bag!)

we ran a few errands.. mostly party planning supplies for ashley's upcoming baby shower! 

as my parents were pulling into town we met them at a new restaurant called "the pickle and the pig". it was delicious. we all got a form of sandwiches-philly cheesesteak, or jalapeño cheese bread with turkey and cheese and a side of lobster bisque soup. Then my dad proposed that we share a few slices of coconut cream cake, yum. 

(someone woke up from her nap right as we walked in the restaurant. she's definitely at a hard stage to take out to eat now)

since it was 2pm by the time we left the restaurant we were all stuffed. we picked up BBQ for dinner from our favorite BBQ place, "the shack bbq" but we were hardly hungry by that night. 

On Saturday morning we were extra thankful for my parents visiting-Cody spent a few hours working on homework and I went to a baby shower while my mom watched Evynn and my dad worked on our cars. We hung around the house all day and debated on "doing something", but no specific plans were made so we did nothing. That night we took the youth group to the Hillsong concert which was so fun and such an experience while nana and papa got to enjoy their grand baby ;) i may or may not have left a detailed list of instructions for the "babysitter" ;)

the next day we went to church, out to eat, then my parents went on there way. Cody, Ev, and I took turns taking naps then we made breakfast for dinner (and peas for evynn). Overall a great weekend! Now it's a dreary 37 degree day so I'm refusing to do much ;)

mid-clap, because it's our new thing...and peas on the head ;)

xoxo

Valentines Day came and went so fast! We're extending it throughout the week over here though because Cody's gift didn't get here until Wednesday ;)

 I really wanted to throw a "galentines" party with my girlfriends (and their babies), but I had to work the two days before the holiday, so it didn't happen. Next year?!

Evynn had been sick throughout the week and I either caught her bug or caught what my coworkers have over the weekend. By Saturday night leaving work I was achey and had a yucky throat. When I got home on Saturday night, my sister in law was over hanging out with her big bro and helping with Ev. Cody told me to go take a bath, which he had all ready for me. When I walked in the bathroom I saw a vase of red and pink roses and on the mirror "will you be mine? I love you, always will" So sweet and such a surprise. I investigated to find out that he used my lipstick to write it, but oh well ;)

On Sunday morning, I didn't feel great and Evynn had the snottiest nose, so I kept her home to avoid getting other babies sick. I was soooo tired and just wanted to rest and get feeling better. Luckily, Evynn felt the same way and we both took a 3 hour nap while Dad was at church. We spent the rest of Sunday hanging out, lowering her crib (when did she grow up?! why are we having to lower her crib already?!), and I started a early dinner of pasta and the easiest chocolate molten cake in the crockpot. Evynn hit the sack at 7:30 (then woke up again from 9:30-10:30 before going down for a few more hours...) so we got to enjoy adult conversation without dozing off at our usual bedtime of 9pm, haha!

I just had to take this valentines photoshoot with Evynn. I always thought it was so cute when I saw it on pinterest and knew if I passed on the opportunity with a 6month old, I would be mad at myself. So, we put her in a tutu and I kissed her all over (which is not hard to do!) with lipstick on. She is soo intrigued with the camera that she crawled towards me everytime. So I took a few shots, then sat her back a distance away, took a few more, and so on. They did turn out cute though!

finally on Wednesday night after church, cody got to open his present. I got him a crate from man crates.com, the breakfast package-pancake mix, syrup, a bacon press, pancake batter dispenser, and bacon flipper. all within a wooden crate that you had to break open with the (included) crow bar. i really liked the idea of this gift due to the packaging. what guy doesn't want to break something open ;) over all it was a great valentines and this year with a little mini valentine! I still have some roses to admire for a few more days...

6 month favorites/links I love

links i love:

I made these spicy thai noodles for dinner last night and my goodness they were delicious!! We had no meat, and I added extra frozen veggies ontop of the zucchini and mushrooms. We ate a whole pot, 2 bowls each, of them. Oops!

We are going to the beach this summer, I'm so excited! (an 11 month old in matching bathing suits, headbands, and sunglasses, yes!) i booked a beach house and found out it was on a HGTV remodel show so cool!

I'm really wanting to book a trip to marfa, tx soon! It's 6 hours from us now, but that may be the closest we ever are to the quirky town, so let's go!

the age old question keeps getting asked, "aren't you going to give her cereals?". We did not and went straight to table food, baby led weaning style. So far, so good! this article did a great job of explaining it!

a few 6 month favorites:

ikea high chair I got this when I was pregnant because it was cheap ($14!!!!) and sleek and simple. I'm all about getting neutral baby stuff to carry over to maybe a brother someday?! if not that, it's just nice to have clean, white in the kitchen! 

these catch all bibs the thought of the food collecting in there literally makes me gag. Since we've started feeding evynn, I've been known to have sticky hands covered in avocado or bananas, trying to get evynn to take a bite while saying "this is my worst nightmare". And while smushed food pieces is disgusting in my book, these bibs are nice to catch the pieces that don't make it

 in her mouth and a nice surprise for her when she looks down to find more food ;) they wipe and rinse off super easy!

baby moccasins these shoes are all the rave. when I was pregnant I thought they were cute, but I wasn't totally sold. They're a pretty bold fashion statement and I didn't know if I wanted my boy/girl to wear them all the time nor did I want to spend the amount of money that the original seller sold them for (but, hey amazon! $6, I can handle!). however, I did order and got as a gift a few pairs of these and they are THE ONLY pair of shoes Evynn doesn't kick off! So all that to say, we wear them everyday, haha! I already ordered more colors in 3-6 months but tiny feet over here are still a ways a way from fitting into them. 

"bringing up bebe" a friend told me about this book when I announced my pregnancy and I brushed it off, but thinking about what I wanted to read this year, I decided to order it and give it a try. And i LOVE IT! So much insight on american vs. french parenting and basically how we have it all wrong ;) not really, but definitely some good pointers about what works for them. I've highlighted all up and down this book for tips from sleeping to teaching children to wait patiently.

cup of coffee nothing special about this, just an extra need for caffeine over here! Since evynn is doing a combination of army crawling and actual crawling, she is much more busy. And she's such a distracted nurser, so no more Netflix marathons and cuddling. It's all about being busy and active. And she's in a stage where she's waking up 2-3 times a night for the last week or so. Yikes, more coffee please. Cody and I have a system, when I work the next day, He gets up with her. When I'm off tomorrow, I get up with her. But three nights in a row of crazy no-sleeping, I tapped out last night and asked for backup. Thankful for a you, Cody!

oh sweet girl, we love you so much! your sweet and sassy personality shines through everyday. You fight sleep like nobody's business but have leaned that when we lay you in your crib, maybe we're onto something and you are in fact tired, and you crash within minutes. Thank you for this. <3