Happy 7 month birthday!!!

Today Oliver is 7 months old. He's such a big boy now, and very busy all the time! He loves to play and he's a master roller. He can even army crawl and when he's laying on his back he will push himself along backwards. It's not the best way to get around, but he's getting there. He laughs at everything now, too. We play peek-a-boo and sing lots of songs. His favorite is the itsy bitsy spider. He still loves bathtime and now he has a rubber duckie to play with in there. He's in the stage 2 foods, which he seems to like so far. He's a very good eater! Let's see what the book (What to Expect the First Year) says he should be doing by now...the ones in black are things he isn't doing yet, the ones in blue are the ones he does.

By seven months he

...should be able to...
-feed himself a cracker (since he's not eating table food yet we have not tried this, although he does hold his bottle and tries to take the spoon when we are feeding him)
-razz (like raspberries)
-coo or babble when happy (although most of the time he screams with delight!)
-smile often when interacting with you

...will probably be able to...
-sit without support
-bear some weight on his legs when held upright
-work to get a toy that's out of reach
-look for a dropped object
-rake with fingers a small object and pick it up in his fist (we haven't tried this because of the "small object" part)
-turn in the direction of a voice
-babble, combining vowels and consonants such as da-da-da, ba-ba-ba, ma-ma-ma, etc.
-play peek-a-boo

...may possibly be able to...
-creep or crawl
-pass an object from one hand to the other
-stand holding on to someone or something

...may even be able to...
-pull up to standing from sitting
-get into a sitting position from stomach
-play patty cake or wave bye-bye
-pick up a tiny object with thumb and finger
-walk holding onto furniture
-say mama or dada indiscriminately

well according to the book he's doing pretty well. He doesn't seem interested in talking AT ALL. He likes when he makes a sound and I mimic him, but he doesn't try to mimic me when I say something to him. I've spent a lot of time going "ma ma ma ma ma" "da da da da da" "ba ba ba ba ba" but all it does is make him laugh. Well at least he's entertained!

I've mentioned before that he is all about manipulating things with his hands. He's very good at turning things and getting them where he wants them to go. Even the round blocks we just got him and an egg shaped toy he already had, and the big soft blocks. He can hold all of them and wave them around and get them to his mouth.

He also loves to stand. Almost anytime he's in my lap he's standing. His legs are so strong! He's getting good at sitting up, too. He sat and played for about half an hour yesterday. Of course, I was with him, but he was sitting all by himself and I was just rotating the toys (when he drops one I hand him another one).

So overall my little man is doing very well. I'm excited to see what month 7 will be like.

spring!!

Here's one of the pictures that was taken at the studio. Oliver was very good and we actually got some really great shots. There are three posted here, but we actually got about 8 or 9 poses. All of them are adorable, but these are my favorites.

cute feet!

A picture from our visit to the studio

awwwww

This is one of the pictures we got taken a few weeks ago. Isn't he just precious?!

Melinda...

that tray thing is a portable high chair. It folds up for easy storage and transportation and it straps to a regular dining chair so it can go anywhere with you. The white part of the tray comes off and can be put into the dishwasher. There is also a cover for it so it doesn't get dirty. There are 3 settings for the tray and 3 settings for the seat so you can adjust when the baby gets bigger. I love it! I found this one at Target for about $25 (US) but there are some others that are less, and some that are more. It just depends on what you want. I think this one is made by Fisher Price.

I couldn't help myself

loooooooook at his pretty eyelashes! They're so pretty!!

new toys

Here are some little balls that we got for Oliver. They have a fire truck, an ambulance and a police car in them. They're cool because the cars always stay right side up even when the ball rolls.

Oliver likes to sort through his toys and get just the one he wants. He's very opinionated and will really search through the pile before choosing one. In this picture it looks like he's diving for the fire truck ball.

Here's a picture to show how well he can hold it. Also, if you make the picture bigger you can see his long beautiful eyelashes. Anyway, he is getting really good at manipulating things.

Sunday...

We went to my friend Laura's wedding. Here she is talking to Oliver after the ceremony. She looked beautiful! I don't have a picture of the groom, but he was pretty spiffed up for a South Carolina boy. I am very very happy for them!!!
This is a picture of me and Oliver. We looked pretty spiffy, too, I think.

He's such a good boy!

Oliver helped me match his socks and sort his clean laundry. What a good boy!

6 month checkup

We had Oliver's 6 month checkup today. He weighs 18 pounds, 14 ounces and is 27 inches long, his head was 17 3/4 inches! He's doing very well for his age, doing all the things he's supposed to like rolling over, sitting up, and manipulating objects. The doctor told us we can go to stage 2 foods (except no meat) now, 3 times a day! She said cut down on the milk and feed him more solids because she doesn't want him to "be a tank". Well I think he looks great...see the picture in my previous post. You can see his neck most of the time now and his belly doesn't hang over his pants like it used to. He only got 3 shots today but he did SOOOO well! He cried a little bit at the first two (in his legs) and then he cried a lot when she did the one in his arm. We gave him a bottle right after and he calmed right down.

We stopped at the grocery store on the way home and got him some mixed veggies (stage 2) and apricot with mixed fruit (stage 2). Don't worry, I checked to make sure he had already had all the ingredients before and each one had one new ingredient. We tried the mixed veggies for lunch and he liked it. It tasted kind of icky to me though. It was a bit thicker than the stage 1.

We also got a gum brush to brush his little gummers and teeth. It comes with special flouride free toothpaste but she said we didn't have to use it. I suppose we should brush him once a day? twice? I don't know. I guess once would be fine. He's never had a problem and we usually just swab out his mouth with a washcloth when we give him a bath. He's never had thrush or anything.