Seven Months
Signe is now seven months old, and it just keeps getting better.
She seems to be done with teething for the moment. She has two little pearls just barely peeking through her bottom gums. They are razor sharp (if razors were serrated) and she really enjoys practicing chomping down on things. Heaven help you if one of those things happens to be your finger.
Solid food is now a twice daily event in Signe’s world. She likes applesauce, pears, oatmeal, rice cereal, sweet potatoes, and carrots. She will not eat peas. I’ve tried a few times now, most recently last night, and she just won’t have it. I spooned in about four bites and was just starting to think that maybe she had warmed to peas. Next thing I know, four bites worth of peas come oozing out of her mouth. It was pretty disgusting, really. Good thing she’s cute.
Signe is such a fan of solid food that she doesn’t seem to want to nurse anymore. I don’t know if it’s because solids are still new and fun, or if, as I truly suspect, I have one of those freakishly social kids who refuses to stare at my decolletage for several minutes at a time when she could be squirming around to see the TV, her daddy, the ceiling fan, Niles, her toys, or whatever else is going on. The only time I can get her to really nurse is first thing in the morning and in the middle of the night. Morning is fine, but those 1:00, 3:00, and 4:30 a.m. feedings are starting to get to me. But I don’t want to give them up because I’m afraid I’ll dry up completely if I do. Like most things related to motherhood, giving up breastfeeding feels like a horrible decision but is one that will likely be made with or without my consent.
Signe is still small, but pretty dextrous. She has mastered pincer grasp (forefinger and thumb) and sits on her own. It’s rather awesome to be able to sit her down on a play blanket surrounded by toys and watch her amuse herself for a good 30 minutes or more.
GTB and I need to step up the babyproofing because Signe is going to be crawling any day. She mostly rolls over to get at what she wants right now, but occasionally, she’ll lie on her belly, scoot her legs up under her, straighten her arms, and kick. This motion usually sends her backwards, which is terribly frustrating to her and friggin’ hilarious to her mama. If she knew how often I laugh at her expense, she’d probably be pretty pissed at me.
She started saying “Dada” a couple of weeks ago. She doesn’t yet know that it refers to GTB, but you won’t convince him of that. She won’t say “mama” or anything that sounds like it, so I suggested to GTB that our new rule is that whomever she calls for in the middle of the night is who has to get up. He didn’t buy it. Not that it would matter anyway, since her only sound when she gets up in the middle of the night is still “Waaaaahhh.”
Her newest trick is waving goodbye. I started waving “bye bye” to her whenever I left her at the babysitter a few weeks ago. I didn’t suspect it was working at all until Wednesday morning when we were saying goodbye to GTB. When I said “Say bye bye,” she waved her entire left arm up and down. It’s pretty adorable. And it makes me think we need to really get working on our other signs.
That’s all I can think of for now. It seems like she can do something new every day. And I’m starting to really understand what everyone means when they talk about how fast kids grow up. I’ve probably said that before, but it feels more true with each passing day.