Ethan at Seven Months

Our little Ethan is growing by leaps and bounds!  We are now at the seven-month birthday and a lot of fun things have happened this past month.  There have been many new things to try!

The "biggest" change is that Ethan is now eating baby food!  We thought he would love it and take to it right away, but this has not been the case.  He was all excited to eat his first bite of oatmeal cereal, but when that spoon went in the face he made was priceless!  You could almost hear him say, "What IS this stuff?  The food I've been eyeing on your plate could not possibly taste this bad!"  We've progressed to the veggies and some fruits, but nothing seems to be good.  He still turns his nose up at all food and doesn't eat much.  Most of it his little tongue just spits back out.  It has definitely become a race to see if we can catch what's coming back out before he can get his fingers in it and make a mess!  The spoon is a much more enjoyable thing than the food.  He loves to grab it and chew on it!  Daddy is teaching him to not grab or chew it so mealtime can be more efficient, but it's still a work in progress.

 A surprising change for us this past month was that Ethan got his first two teeth!  Momma and Daddy weren't really expecting them to come anytime soon, though Momma did check periodically since Ethan had been chewing and drooling A LOT!  One morning she checked-nothing there.  The next morning Caleb noticed "something in Ethan's mouth" and lo and behold there were the beginnings of two teeth!  We haven't seen any more since, but those two popping up from the bottom gum are very cute! 

Bathtime has also changed drastically this month.  Ethan has "graduated" to the tub-sitter, which he LOVES!  He had been trying to sit up in the infant tub for awhile, so we decided we might as well try the other.  He really enjoys being able to sit up and play with some toys while getting clean.  The best benefit is that now Caleb can fit in the tub too, so bathtime is now brother playtime.  It's really fun to watch them interact as Ethan tries to grab the couple of toys he's not allowed to have and Caleb giggles and says, "No, no Ethan"  and replaces the toy with something else.  Which Ethan chews on for a second and tries to go after the "forbidden" toy again!

Ethan can now roll both ways!  Yeah!  This makes it fun to keep things out of his way.  Though we have found that it is another skill completely, to bump into something and be able to think, "Hmm, guess I better roll the other way."  This means that Ethan still gets stuck frequently when he bumps into the furniture!  Silly baby!

Night time sleep is still a huge struggle.  Ethan still sleeps better all wrapped up and swaddled, but he is now strong enough to get out of that swaddle which wakes him up and he gets mad.  So, Momma is still waking up many times at night to re-swaddle him AND get that pacifier back in his mouth!  I am definitely waking more times NOW than I was when he was one month!  I only get about two or three hours of consecutive sleep before having to "help" Ethan out.  We've got to get this soon, I'm running on fumes!

Another new change for Ethan is the Jumperoo.  He's now strong enough at holding his own head up and pretty much sitting up on his own that Daddy got out the Jumperoo to see how Ethan liked it.  It is one of his FAVORITE places to be!  He can jump for a very long time, especially when someone sits right next to him while he's jumping to keep him company.  He loves the toys to chew on and the light up parts with music too!  It's really fun to watch Caleb "play" with him while he's jumping.  Caleb will stand in front of Ethan jumping and say, "Jump, Ethan, Jump."  At which Ethan will giggle and begin jumping too!  Very adorable.

Ethan is such a sweet baby!  We have so much fun watching him grow and change each month.  What a joy and delight he is!  I can't wait to see what new changes come this next month!