7 months

So Wes is now 7 months old. Such a big guy!

- Still no teeth (where are they?) But he does have some bumps on the bottom front, so I think they should be making an appearance soon.

- We are weaned. Too soon, but the milk is gone. At least I made it 2 months longer than I did with Carly.

- Wes LOVES solid food. LOVES it! He has tried the following: butternut squash, sweet potato, peas, green beans, carrots, bananas, plums, zucchini. He actually hates zucchini and green beans, and prefers bananas heavily over anything else. And his favorite veggie by far is carrots.

- He is still a very clean eater. It's a miracle after dealing with Carly as a baby. He keeps his hands out of his mouth. It's great! The exception is when he eats a food he doesn't like. Then he spits it out, and blows it out, and wipes it out with his hands. It's quite funny that he'd rather wear green beans than eat it. Any location is better than his mouth for those. But foods he loves, he won't spill a drop. Can't waste the good stuff.

- Wes has been sleeping wonderfully at night. Lucky, lucky me. Once we started solids, I wasn't being terribly consistent with them because I figured they were just for practice. And so a couple days I didn't give him any at all. Coincidentally, those were also a couple days he would not sleep. Awake for hours fighting it and fussing. So one night I decided at about midnight to feed him some solids to see if it would help. He ate 12 ounces that sitting! And then he slept 12 hours. So now I load him up with a bunch of veggies in the evening, and his evening bottle is only 4 ounces or so, and he's out like a light!

- Most days, when he naps he can just be put into the crib awake and he knows what to do. Nights aren't usually this easy- he fights it at night for some reason. But during the day, if I can tell he's getting tired, I just place him in his crib with a blanket and he'll usually fall asleep on his own.

- Growling. He loves to shriek and scream. You can hear his high pitched trills throughout the apartment (its helps that it is a small apartment). He also growls now. He makes this loud, low pitched grunting noise that a normal person might make when frustrated. But he primarily does it when super super excited and all screamed out. So he goes from talking, to yelling, to screaming, to growling as the excitement grows.

- Babbling. Wes is now doing the identifiable babbles: gagagaga, dadadada, babababa. Yet to be seen is mamama, but I'm working on it. Marshall is working hard on the dadada. Let the games begin!

- Crawling progress. He can't crawl yet. He is on his tummy 80 percent of the day. Okay, not really. He sleeps a lot too, and loves his bouncer. But he spends probably the majority of his awake time on the ground scooting around the living room. And he spends a lot of that time on hands and knees rocking. He is also moving his hands and knees forward, but not in a coordinated fashion I'd refer to as crawling. He also loves to do planks, where he is in a push-up pose on his hands and toes. He can hold it an amazingly long time. I am sure we'll see full fledged crawling this month. He is so. dang. close.

- Wes is great at maneuvering while on his tummy. He doesn't do the army crawl (too busy up on his hands and knees to want to be on his belly). But he can spin in any direction at lightening speeds. He can do the 180 on his tummy so fast it kinda defies logic. You'd think the kid would have rug burn on his tummy.

- Wes has started taking baths in the big kid tub. So far just solo, since he still can't defend himself from Carly. But I'll put an inch or two of water in there, and put him in on his belly, and he's in heaven. He kicks and squeals, eventually growls, and splashes. It's a blast!

- Wes can now sit unassisted for a pretty decent period. He gets too excited though, and jerks backward and falls over. But he can sit upright, and doesn't have to support himself with his hands.

- He can hold his own bottle. Except when sleepy. Because he has to sleep with his hands over his eyes. Just like Marshall. The genetics run strong on this one. When sleepy, those hands fly over his eyes, and it just isn't possible to hold a bottle and have your hands on your eyes.

- When just laying back and chillin', he has his hands behind his head. Lounging like a grown man. It's the cutest.

- He also likes to keep his feet together. When standing or jumping, or doing his baby push-ups, or just laying down, he often has his feet crossed or on top of one another. Doesn't make for the sturdiest base.

- He plays rough. In the last month he has gotten more bold in his interactions with others. He now loves to find opportunities to pull Carly's hair. And when being held, he loves to explore his handler's face. With great force. He loves to gouge eyes, scratch noses, and hit and slap. All in good fun- he is just very excited. But you have to be on your guard with this one!