7 months old . . .

Dear Grace,

I love how effortless it is to love you at all times. At this age, when you don't know how to throw a temper tantrum or talk back, it is impossible to feel anything but pure love and devotion towards you. I know it doesn't last forever, and so I cherish this fleeting time. I love how you express happiness in the form of excited arm flapping. And I love how just the sight of my face can make you smile and bring you such joy. I love how much of your dad I see in your features. Rarely does a day go by when somebody, whether it be a stranger in the grocery store or a colleague at work, doesn't stop to tell me how precious or adorable or cute you are. And I completely agree with them. I love carrying on babbling conversations with you. You have the hugest, cheesiest grin I have ever seen. It is hilarious. And adorable. And I love it. I love how easy it is to make you happy. All you need is for Mom to pick you up and all is right in the world. If only this could always be the case.

I love you Grace.

Between your round, chubby-cheeked face and your blindingly bright, stop you in your tracks smiles, you are the very epitome of a little sunshine. Your wide smiles always look like they are going to make those cheeks burst from the strain. And those two little bottom teeth just put things over the top for me. When your teeth popped through early I was genuinely sad, because to me it signaled the impending loss of babyhood. But now? I can't get enough of them. You are just not allowed to get any more teeth for a while. Or ever. That's fine with me too. (I am clearly in denial about that third tooth that has just broken the surface.)

You love to be around people. Whenever I take you out I always get comments about what a good baby you are. As long as you are not alone, you are happy and content. This poses a slight problem at home because I can rarely leave your line of sight without causing you to burst into tears. Lately this means I have to peek out of the shower every minute or so in order to assure you that I am still there.

It is almost impossible for you not to reciprocate when somebody is smiling at you. When I get bored, I like to just sit and smile at you until you crack a smile too. It's a little bit like a staring contest, but I always win because you cannot keep a straight face. Oftentimes when I am busy doing something, I will glance over and see that you have been grinning goofily at me without me even noticing. It's really hard to have a bad day with you around.

I want to photograph and video and write down every single thing that you do because I don't want to forget all of these amazing moments . . . and somehow, already thinking back to when you were a newborn, things are fuzzy. That was only 7 months ago . . . how am I going to remember the next 18 years of your life? Sometimes it takes me awhile to be excited when you do something new because I am a little sad . . . you are getting bigger and growing up each day.

A few of this month's stats:

Weight: approximately 19.4 pounds
(At six months you were 18 pounds, 4 ounces (90th percentile) and 28 1/8 inches long (95th percentile.)

Your sleep habits: You have no habits! Seems like every day is something different . . . usually you take a few cat naps in the morning and maybe a longer one in the afternoon (especially if I take one with you!) At night, you fall asleep anywhere between 7:00 and 10:00 and usually stay in your crib until 2:00. Once you cry, you come into bed with us. You wake up around 7:00 a.m.

Your eating habits: You love rice cereal and oatmeal mixed with bananas, carrots, cheerios, and most recently, avocado! We’ve tried beans and applesauce and you’ve gagged on them each time. We’ve also been dabbling with the sippy cup, but you don’t seem too interested. It’s been fun to be able to feed you what we are eating also . . . crackers, bread and Uncle Dean may have even slipped you a bite of ice cream when I wasn’t looking. Nursing you continues to be one of my favorite times of the day . . . although you are getting more easily distracted and a lot of times it’s on, off and look around, on, off and look around, etc.

Your favorite things: You are turning into a Daddy’s girl . . . as soon as he walks in the door you are leaning out of my arms to get to him. You can find the tag on anything and tags continue to be one of your favorite things to play with. Tags on clothes, blankets, washcloths, toys . . . your little fingers always go right to the tag. You also love to sit on the kitchen floor and play with measuring cups while I cook dinner. You moved into your big girl carseat and really like sitting up in the car now.

Other random info: You got your first tooth (bottom right) on Dec. 2nd. The bottom left wasn’t too far behind and now we can feel your top right one as well. You can roll over both ways, but you don’t do it very often. Usually you are sitting up on the floor and you maneuver and scoot yourself around that way. Once you get on your belly, you cry for help. You are wearing a few 6-12 month things yet, but mostly 12-18 month sizes. You are getting really close to crawling . . . I am not ready for that yet.

Things to remember about November and December . . . we helped at cousin Maddie’s “friend” birthday party, went to a baby shower for Gracee Rodriguez, watched the 6th grade play at Lynden Christian, went to cousin Jack’s baptism, celebrated your first Thanksgiving, had your pictures taken by the SNAPsisters at the Lynden City Park, Daddy went fishing and the power went out while he was gone, we got 2 extra days off from school because of the snow and it made for a lovely Christmas Break, we made Lefse at Grandma Larson’s, had lots of fun celebrating your first Christmas, New Year’s and Polar Bear Swim.

I'm still trying to figure out exactly how we survived without you. I guess we just didn't know what we were missing. I think you are the most beautiful baby in the whole wide world. I cannot wait to see you grow, learn and love. I am the most blessed mom ever. We're so glad God chose us for you baby Grace.

Happy seven months, baby girl.

xoxo,
Mom