7 Months Old!!

Another month has gone by and our little squirt is now 7 MONTHS OLD!! This past month, like the other months, seems to have gone by so fast until we stop and think about all that has happened and how much Hunter has grown. All it takes is a quick tour of the collection of pictures taken in the last 30 days and the realization that none of his size 6 month clothes fit him anymore...

Some highlights from the last month are that we endured an insane amount of snow and Hunter's worst illness to date (see "blizzard of boogies" entry). Luckily, the illness didn't last as long as the snow, which is still in piles throughout the neighborhood. His greatest development of the last month has undoubtedly been in the "talking" department. Hunter has really taken to babbling, and his vocabulary has expanded from just grunts and giggles to a variety of consonant sounds. That is not to say that he doesn't still grunt and squawk like a bird on a daily basis though.

The other area (not surprisingly) that he has shown a lot of growth is in foods! We have been steadily pushing the boundaries of Hunter's palate, and we have yet to find a food that he will refuse to eat. Hunter has tasted most of what the fruit and vegetable world has to offer, and we're now moving on to exotic things like yogurt and pasta. He is also now able to feed himself small pieces of cereal from his tray at dinner. He has also quickly grasped how to drink from a cup (not a sippy cup) a real cup! We're both a little surprised that we still have not seen any sign of teeth in his mouth, but imagine that they will start poking through soon enough.

Hunter sits up unassisted, rocks on his butt back and forth, quickly grasps items large and small, transfers them from hand to hand, and is currently perfecting his pincer grasp. He is also learning object permanence, so it's not as easy as it once was to hide something from Hunter that we don't want him playing with...now he goes looking for it.

Hunter has not yet reached full mobility. While he has shown promise for crawling over the last month, he still hasn't quite put the motions together. We think he certainly has the strength, he may just need someone his own size to show him how to do it. Some people have suggested recently that he is just going to skip crawling and start walking soon... we will soon see!!!

Most importantly, the past month has just been another genuinely amazing month of parenthood. The thing we are starting to notice with our son is that whatever age he is at the moment is clearly the best age a kid can be. It certainly can't get any better than 7 months old right??? It's such a perfect age... he's so cute... so loving... so full of energy and fun to watch... he's sleeping through the night... has such a great laugh... We'll let you know next month, but our guess is that we'll think the same thing about him being 8 months old.

Up next... Hunter's first trip to Vermont where he will get to watch Shaun White tear up the half pipe at the U.S. Open, and hopefully some warmer weather at home here in Maryland so that we can work in some more outside playtime...