7 Months and One Week

I love blowing raspberries

I decided to give Etta a running start on 7 months before I blogged about her. So 7 months and one week seems like a fair point to stand back and evaluate.

Still don't like baths. Still don't get them very often.

You are the smiling-est, happiest baby. I thought your sister was happy, but you take the cake.

Love playing with my rings, just like my sister did!
You have discovered the joy that is raspberries and you will happily do them over and over. This afternoon, your sister and you were having a back and forth raspberries contest in the car. If someone starts doing raspberries, you mimic them immediately!

You also love peek-a-boo. You just laugh and laugh when I cover your face with something and say, "Where's Etta?" then pull it off and say, "There she is!"

Goofing off with your favorite person

Two days after you turned 7 months you chose between two books! I put "Good Night Moon" and "Pat Them Gently" in front of you and told to choose one. You examined both and then decisively grabbed "Good Night Moon"! Now every time we read before nap or bedtime, I let you choose the book.

The last month has been really difficult as far as sleep goes. We sleep-trained you and you are much better for naps, although you still go down for pretty short periods of time, but you have gone from sleeping 7.5-9 hours at a stretch to sleeping 4. If I'm lucky. It's been hard, you slept through the night almost from the get-go, so going back to such extreme sleep-deprivation has been hard on your momma! This weekend you did 8 hours two nights in a row, so I'm hopeful that perhaps we're on our way back to longer stretches of sleep.

You eat 3 meals a day and often demand more, more MORE!

You suffered through your first Slapdash. MeMe stayed with you and Stella, and on the Sunday after it was all over, you wouldn't let me out of your sight. In fact, you wouldn't let me put you down, even to give you to Daddy. You are truly a Momma's girl.

You went on your first family vacation, to Galveston! You weren't too fond of all the time spent in the car, or all the missed naps, but I still think you had your own brand of a good time. At Schlitterbahn, you were all suited up in your life jacket and sharing the intertube with your Daddy and you totally passed out as we floated on the Torrent River. Everyone in the park thought you were adorable. Bathing Beauty
While on vacation, you also had a couple of complete meltdowns in the car on the way back from dinner. Your Daddy, your sister and I sang Old McDonald with increasingly silly animals and objects and you calmed down immediately. That is still your favorite song.

You started sitting in real high chairs at restaurants and sitting in the shopping cart at the grocery store.
You drink out of a sippy cup, although you usually need Mama to hold it so you can actually get water out.
You took your first bus ride
You slid down the slide in the backyard for the first time.

Sometimes I feel guilty because the number of photos I take of you pales in comparison to the ones I took of your sister. And I don't blog about you nearly as much, or in as timely as a fashion, as I did with your sister. And sometimes you get dragged around rather than having your naps exactly when they are supposed to happen. But I enjoy you so much, Etta. I really feel like you've made our family complete. We're now a self-sustaining, contained unit. And I hope that in exchange for not having a moment by moment photographic record of your life, you are getting better parents (because we're more experienced and much more relaxed), and a sister who adores you and keeps you constantly entertained.

And finally, because it's just too much of a coincidence that I took pictures of you and your sister in the same outfit at almost exactly the same age:

Here you are,And here's Stella:

I love you sweetie, till' next month!