Ruthie is Seven Months Old

At seven months old, we couldn’t love our little Ruthie Mouse more! Everyone falls more in love with her every day, and it’s easy to see why. She is quite possibly the sweetest, most content little one I’ve ever been around! We had a more difficult month this month after switching formulas (Mama is still oh-so-sad about the Similac recall), but she still remains our little sweet delight!

At seven months old, Roo is...

• sleeping twelve to thirteen hours at night and taking two two-hour naps each day. She just began to drop her third nap a week or so ago, and she seems to be doing fine with a little fussiness around that usual naptime. I imagine that if her second nap is shorter, she’ll take a third nap -- but we really haven’t gone without it long enough to know.

• eating about 5 ounces of formula (now Enfamil Soy) four times a day. Her morning and bedtime bottles both have cereal to help control spit-up, and she eats baby food at breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Ruthie also experiments with table food, and she loves Cheerios. She also loves to suck on green beans and carrot sticks, and she especially loves getting to sit next to Daddy, because he’s pretty willing to share his dinner (and dessert!) with her.

• spitting up a little less, but I’m always amazed at the amount of Shout I have to use on her laundry basket.

• still wearing 3-6 month clothes, but she’s busting out of her 6 month jammies in the feet. Now that I’ve done the seasonal swap out, she’s wearing some 6-9 and 6-12 month clothes, but those are all pretty big on her.

• sitting up with confidence (as in, for as long as she wants, unless she’s toppled by a sister or a dog, and she loves to play in a seated position. She can also scoot backwards while on her bottom (just a few inches or so) and on her tummy (several feet, here, but usually slowly). Ruthie seems to want to crawl, but I’m praying she’ll content herself with her slow scoot for now.
  

• starting to jabber and make sweet babbling noises on occasion.
  

• scooting all over her crib, and seems to prefer her tummy for sleeping. Just the other day, she had pulled the monitor (which was at that point still in her crib) to her and was laying on it as if it were a pillow. Precious!

• learning to play in the pack-and-play for longer stretches of time. She is starting to have a little separation anxiety, but I’m hoping this structured time can continue to bless her Mommy in the late afternoons!

• loves to “fly” when you lay her down, especially for diaper changes. Her little arms and legs just flap at a rapid clip! She is the most exuberant flapper we’ve had yet.

• is starting to get quite grabby... many times a day, I have to extract her fingers from my hair... I’m reminded now why I don’t have much recent jewelry!

• loving to play with blocks, soft critters, and anything with a tag. And her sisters. Oh, how she loves her sisters!

• loving to look at books with real babies, although books make a mighty fine snack, too!

• letting us know she’s done with her food by blowing raspberries. Not the nicest table manners, but I’m thinking it’ll be a few months before she can master the sign for “all done”.

• especially happy outside, and she’s loving our cooler fall weather these days. The stroller, the backyard swing, and the grass are all happy places for her.

What a happy seven months we’ve had!
What a happy seven months we’ve had!