Seven months

Matthew Jay you are SEVEN months old!

What have you been up to these days???

Here are your stats from your 6.5 month check up!
Weight: 17 pounds. 45%
Height: 28 inches. 92%
Head Circumference: 18 inches. 90%

Long, lean, and a big head like Daddy!

Daddy and I were talking a few nights ago, and we both agreed that this past month, we felt like every time we turned around, you were changing or learning something new!

You are wearing size 3 diapers.

You wear size 6-9 month pants, but can wear, depending on the brand, 6, 9, 12 or 18 month shirts and jumpers!

We went camping over Labor Day Weekend for the first time! (post coming soon...)

Sleep...awww blissful sleep! You are a WONDERFUL sleeper! At about six months, you were sleeping from 9:00pm-7:00am. Shortly after that, you were very ready to move your bedtime earlier! By 9:00, you were absolutely exhausted and begging us to go to sleep! We moved bedtime up to 8:30, and by about six and a half months, bedtime was 8:00! I have a feeling it might even get earlier, but for now you sleep from 8:00pm-7:00am.

You nap twice a day for 2 hours each nap! You take a morning nap from about 9:00-11:00am, and an afternoon one from about 2:00-4:00pm. Sometimes you sneak in a quick evening cat nap, but they are pretty rare! Nap times are God's gifts to Mommy's, and I'm SO thankful for a good sleeper!

You are loving your crib these days. When you wake up from bed or naps too early, you cry and are not happy. We let you fuss for a few minutes and you go back to sleep. When you wake up rested, and have slept long enough, you wake up SO happy! You coo and play with your stuffed animals in your crib for up to 30 minutes sometimes!

We still bundle you to go to sleep. You always wiggle and jiggle yourself out of your bundle though. Sometimes you stay in it until morning, but most nights your are out of it within a few hours, and sleep unbundled the rest of the night. When you are bundled, we put you to sleep on your back, but when you unbundle yourself, you always put yourself back to sleep on your stomach. I love, love, LOVE that you can wake up, even multiple times, and put yourself right back to sleep! You do seem kinda old to still be bundled, but it helps you calm down almost immediately when you are getting ready to sleep, and you are such a good sleeper that we will bundle you as long as you need it!

You are starting to notice when mommy or daddy leave the room...and you don't like it very much!

Just after you turned 6 months old, you started SITTING UP! It's so nice being able to plunk you down where I want you to sit!

At about 6 months of age, you were getting yourself up onto your hands and knees, looking like you were ready to cruise! You would rock back and forth, rearing to go! You started to even "plank" on your toes and hands for a little while. About a week later, you started to do something we called "The Seal". You would scoot yourself all around by moving just your arms, and dragging your legs across the floor. You looked just like a baby seal! That didn't last for long, and by six and a half months, we officially had a crawler on our hands! You crawl normally when you were on the carpet, but every time you crawl on the hardwood floors, your crawl on yours hands and toes! It's so funny to watch you bear crawl, but I think you get a better grip that way!

Planking on your toes and hands! Daddy was just trying to teach you how to do your first push up!

Matthew, you are such a routine baby! When we are just at home in our normal routine, you are the easiest and sweetest baby. Seriously, you hardly ever cry, and are so content. You are so easy to read when you are tired and ready to go down for a nap. As long as we are home, you go down for your naps very easily, sleep like a champ, and wake up so happy! With that being said, Lord help us when you get out of your routine! When you don't get naps or go to bed at your usual times, you get  fussy and cranky. Then when we do finally get you your nap, you are even harder to get to sleep, and fight it like crazy, even though you are exhausted and you also don't sleep as long by any means! I don't get it! All I know is that you absolutely thrive in your routine. Seriously, Wednesday night Bible Study, and even Sunday mornings are SO hard for you at church! Wednesday night, you are so tired and want to go to bed. We get paged out of bible study EVERY Wednesday night because they cannot calm you down! You do tend to stop crying when Mommy or Daddy comes to get you. I really don't think that you are just going through separation anxiety though....maybe you are and I'm just in denial. But you are fine when we pass you off in the nursery, and it's like 15 or 30 minutes later that we get paged. Also, you are absolutely exhausted by this time, and want to go to sleep. When you are tired, you want someone to comfort you, and right now that is accomplished through Mommy and Daddy! I think the nursery workers dread you coming into the nursery! Oh well, it's just a phase, and hopefully you will outgrow it soon! I guess I should enjoy this time, because soon enough you won't be needing Mommy or Daddy! Until then, we walk the halls at church!

You can pick up your binkie and put it in your mouth by yourself! We think it's pretty cute! I love that when you wake up at night, you can find your binkie, and put it back in to soothe yourself!

You love to drink from a glass. I think sometimes you prefer this to a sippy cup. You are still pretty messy, but it's improving. You love to drink cold water!

It is so fun to feed you solid food! You eat three meals a day now. This month, you tried oatmeal, rice, toast with jam, carrots, cheerios and squash...and of course loved it all! You are not a picky eater by any means! You haven't tried a food that you didn't love! You do so well with your foods, and actually tend to prefer when they are a bit chunkier, instead of pureed. We are letting you feed yourself foods like toast, cut up peaches and pears, cheerios, etc. At first, you would grab the food with your whole fist, and was hardly able to get any of the food in your mouth. Now you can pick up food with your fingers and feed yourself really well. You make so much noise when you eat! Grandma Sherry says that Daddy did this too! You also tend to get really impatient when your next bite is not at your beckon call....you like to eat fast! We are trying to teach you to be patient!

Matthew Jay, you are the absolute light of our lives, and cannot imagine our world without you! Your smile brightens our day, and we are SO. IN. LOVE. WITH. YOU!