7 Months

How can my baby be 7 months old?

This seems like yesterday:

3 days old, just home from the hospital.

Now she looks closer to this:

Yes. I know this picture is old. We're getting more taken tomorrow though!

She used to sleep with her head buried in my chest. Now she's way too big for that. She won't even fit!

She used to need me to hold her head up for her. Now she cranes her head every which way to see what's going on.

She used to stare up at her mobile, excited by its movement. Now she doesn't just stare. She bats at whatever's in reach. And if she can get it, it goes straight to her mouth!

She used to need Mommy to hold her to put her to sleep. OK... Some things haven't changed!

For the curious, here's her new developments:

• She's teething! It's official. The doctor saw a little nubbin of a tooth well below the surface, but it's on its way! And if I look just right, I can sometimes see the tiny nubbin as well.
• She loves loves loves fruit, especially pears, pineapple, and strawberries And sweet potatoes. Squash, not so much. Carrots are more touch and go. Regardless though, the first bite she still makes that "I don't know what you're giving me but I'm prepared to hate it!" face.
• She's had her first fever. Mommy and Daddy (ok, really just Mommy) panicked because we couldn't figure out what was wrong. No stuffy nose. No vomiting. Didn't seem to be the ears so much. So we took her to the doctor, and she had a sore throat. She seems to be over it and happy now though.
• She's still not crawling, but she's moving around a whole lot more. If I just hold her on the couch, she's wiggling all around, pushing off whatever part of me is convenient. If she sees something she wants she dives for it, and really quickly. She has a new mark today from where she dove towards me while I was holding my laptop and she smacked her face into it. No tears over that one, but it left its mark.
• She's saying "baa baa baa" now. I was getting worried because I hadn't really heard a lot of consonant sounds out of her mouth yet. I don't know when she started this, but now it seems like she's always been doing it. I really do think this is a new accomplishment though. She's also very interested and watches my mouth whenever I make repetitive consonants at her. So I look at her and say "ma ma ma ma ma ma" and "da da da da da" a lot. She digs it though.
• She's finally sleeping better at daycare! She still doesn't sleep for longer than 45 minutes at a time, and one 45 minute stretch is still really good for her, but it's progress.
• She loves daycare. She's happy almost every time I go over there to see her, and I'm still over there a lot. The only times she's unhappy are when she's tired or when she's hungry and I'm running late. Other than that, she's smiley and talkative and loves playing with the other babies and teachers.
• She's screaching at the top of her lungs a lot now. This is her happy screach. She's screached for awhile, but it seemed to hit new levels today on the car ride into daycare. Healthy lungs? Yup.
• She loves being read to. We read Dinosaur's Binkit a lot. I don't know if it's her favorite or ours, but we all seem to dig all the Sandra Boynton books so far.
• She fights sleep still. Bedtime is and has always been the hardest part of our day with her. She's such a happy baby, but starting around 7pm she gets cranky, and it's downhill from there.

OK. That's enough for now. Although it's easy to go on and on about how wonderful I think my little baby is because I think every thing she does is perfect. I totally thought I would be the disciplinarian before we had her, and now it's so totally going to be Jason.

The really awesome pix of Annabella

I can't take credit for most of the pretty pix of Annabella I've been posting. I thought I mentioned it at one point, and I tried to give credit where credit was due on http://annabellag.shutterfly.com, but on closer inspection, it seems that you have to click the "view album" button to see my comments, which are that our friend Justin took the professional looking shots. (We took the ones labeled "Annabella - first 2 months". The rest are all his.)

I've received enough comments/questions now from friends that I realized I needed to make this more clear.

I was hoping to keep this blog a little more anonymous than this, because I'm all worried about the crazies coming to find us... But our friend's website is here: http://justinbelcherphotography.com/ Not that you could figure out who we are just based on a friend's website, but you never know.

Jason and I are starting to get a little bit more into photography. But we are really lacking Justin's mad skills. He's teaching us though, and the photos from the very last post I put up were taken by either Jason or I, and Jason touched them up with Lightroom. I put all the ones Justin took up at the shutterfly site (URL above). Justin was kind enough to give us all rights to the pictures he's taking for us; so if you are not one of the crazies and would like to print pictures of my child (hi Grandma!), you should be able to do so from that site.

6 months and counting

Annabella is already 6 months old! I can't believe how fast she's growing and changing.

My little girl can now sit up all by herself. She laughs and growls and makes raspberries with her mouth, covering everything in site with spittle. She kisses your cheek (with her mouth wide open, again covering you in spit). She loves to grab onto Daddy's hair with both her hands and shove his entire nose into her mouth.


She sits across from her friend, Emma, at daycare, and they chit chat and share toys. Each of them finds the toy the other one has to be the best toy, reaching for it as best they can. I'm pretty sure they're gossiping about the boys.

She is learning to eat solid foods (and has been since 24 weeks and 1 day). Applesauce and rice cereal are big hits. Bananas and carrots are touch and go. Some days solid food in general just isn't going to happen. Some days she just loves it. Most days she reaches out as if she wants to try whatever it is Mommy and Daddy are eating.


She's going through a Mommy's phase, which is both nice and hard. Nice because it makes me feel like she loves me when she puts her arms up for me to pick her up and smiles when she sees me. Hard because she cries when I have to walk away without picking her up. Hard because she looks for me even when Daddy is playing with her and keeping her company. Hard because she wants me to hold her to help her fall asleep. Hard because she cries for other people just because they aren't me.


Everything that she can get her fingers on goes straight into her mouth. Fingers, hair, blankets, toys, anything really.

She loves exploring new textures with her fingertips.


Daddy's already working to make her a Browns fan. It looks like she's well on her way.

Rest in peace, my Cookie Monster

My last remaining childhood pet died this past week. He was a good kitty, and I'll miss him.

My family insisted on naming him Gabby, but I named him Cookie Monster. Eventually I gave in and started calling him Gabby too. But really, I think his true name was and will always be Cookie Monster. After all, he showed a definite preference for me :) Granted, it could have been that I always fed him tuna and always petted him just the way he likes and never touched his ears, nose, or feet, which he abhors. And we got him just after I grew out of that "Let's dress the kitty up!" phase. So he never had to wear dollbaby dresses or bonnets.

Gabby was very sweet, but easily crossed and very stubborn. He went to battle over the whole not being allowed on the counter rule, and I do believe he won. He had a loud purr and loved to sit on your lap. He was also a skilled hunter, bringing us many special furry gifts from his nights out.

We got him on Christmas Eve. We'd just lost another family pet, Snuggles, and there was a hole in our hearts. While no kitty could ever replace Snuggles, Gabby quickly eased our pain with his crazy kitten antics. He loved to play, and played so hard that we thought our sweet little kitten must be sick when he finally crashed. We soon learned that this was just Gabby: pure energy until he was just too tired to move.

Gabby, you'll always have a special place in my heart, and I miss you.