Seven Months

Matt told me last week, "I can't wait till Claire turns seven months. Then you'll stop singing that song." ("That song" being the theme to Dawson's Creek. Remember?)

Yes, Claire is now seven months old. And it was a big month! Claire took her first family vacation, of course, but also learned to sit up and creep! Babies seem to grow up quite a bit between the 5 1/2 and 6 1/2 month marks, I think. When we arrived at the beach, Claire would gradually tip over if we set her up in a sitting position, but by the time we left she was sitting up pretty sturdily on her own.

And, she was enjoying toys a lot more. She likes her Baby Einstein play station, blocks, balls, and other little things she can pick up and put in her mouth. She even creeps well enough now to chase a little ball across the room when it gets away from her! It's slow going, but she definitely takes off in that direction, pushing with her left elbow and right foot (always that combination) to move a few feet a minute. It's so sweet how she "follows" me if I leave a room. I may walk out to do something, and return a few minutes later to find her maybe three feet from where she was, but trucking quite determinedly in the direction of where I went.

Kate may be getting a little concerned, as this little interactive baby doll she got about seven months ago is starting to have desires of her own, which occasionally conflict with her own desires. Claire likes to grab Memory cards while we're playing, crawl through the Memory cards spread out to play, or look at toys Kate would rather keep to herself.

As for the stats, Claire is about 15 pounds now, up to 30th percentile from 10th. Must be all those carbs she's enjoying in addition to her pureed baby foods—bread, crackers, scones, etc. Claire never met a food she didn't like.

Claire wears 6-9 month clothes, but also some 3-6 month things, still. She's in a size 2 diaper and is about to outgrow size 1 shoes, I think. (She doesn't wear a lot of shoes, now that it's summertime.)

She still wakes up once in the night, usually, and then again just a little before I would prefer to get out of bed. (Maybe 4:45, meaning I get back in bed at 5:15 only to have my alarm go off at 5:30.) She went "all night" at just a couple months, like Kate did, but she might have been getting an 11:00 feed then, not having a real bedtime yet. I can't remember. Kate always got an 11:00 dream feed via bottle from Daddy. Since Claire nurses, I pump around 10:30pm, and she doesn't want to wake up to eat around this time anyway, I can't seem to make her get the late night feed she needs to make it until morning. Oh well.

Claire is such a sweet girl, and getting so, so big! We love you so much, Clairy-Beary!