7 months old

Emily is 7 months old today!  She's celebrating by blowing raspberries & playing with her toes.  That's the life, isn't it?  We haven't had nearly as much going on this December (as in years previous), and I've found that I have really enjoyed playing with my girls.  Emily is really interacting with us more, and I've enjoyed watching her facial expressions as she starts discovering the wonderful world of textures, noises, sounds and tastes.  We're well into the food sphere these days, but she eats quite daintily and takes her food in small portions.  She is not a fan of sweet potatoes, but enjoys her green vegetables (for now!).  Honestly, I think she tolerates bananas, but I'm looking forward to introducing her to a wider variety of fruits soon.  She has mastered the art of pursing her little lips with an impish look that says, "I'm done, Mom.  Seriously."  Some of my highlights with her have been during Elyse's afternoon nap; we usually get 30-45 minutes of quiet time together, and I so enjoy playing with her & just trying to make her giggle :)  She loves to watch Elyse still, and I think she wouldn't know what to do without such great entertainment!  Emily is getting feisty, though, and several times Elyse has come up to me whimpering, not wearing her glasses... sure enough, Emily's over on the floor gnawing on them...  It is rather funny to me, but Elyse puts up with it pretty well.  They still love each other to pieces.  Emily has (SADLY) brought back the crack-of-dawn feeding, which saddens me, but I'm hoping it will be gone soon enough.  I am dealing with an entirely. different. personality than my eldest, so I hope to learn a great deal this time around about flexibility and patience :)  For now, I just try to enjoy the times I have with her when everyone else is asleep....  No, I'm not jealous.  I see signs of new little teeth, so I'm hoping they pop through without too much of a fuss.  Emily is trying to sit up, but still topples very frequently.  Her hair is still a crazy mess, and I often see her sleeping at night holding a fistful of hair at the top of her head.  She can almost roll from her back to her tummy, but she hasn't accomplished that yet.  She will scoot around as she needs to, but she still hasn't tried to get up on those little knees of hers.

fun's:
* watching Em play with her toes.  quite possibly the cutest baby gesture out there.
* okay, rubbing her eyes is a close second :)
* hearing her play after waking up from a nap in her crib
* watching her face light up when Elyse comes storming in the room
* bath time is so fun these days - Em loves kicking!
* her faces when she tries new foods... hilarious!
* I've found she's very ticklish!  .. under arms, behind her knees, her sides, back...  the list goes on :)
* she is into making a gargling noise that is just intense
* she's into making silly noises in response to silly noises
* I can tell she's going to be a little clown.  she'll play games with us when we put her to bed & get all goofy over the silliest things!
* pigtails!

not-so-fun's:
* blowing raspberries while eating her veggies (okay, it's kind of fun...)
* *ahem* this special morning feeding!
* she chews and drools on EVERYTHING
* she still won't extend the time between eating much past 3.5 hours
* though she's still a fairly sound sleeper most of the time, she's starting to wake up more often when a certain big sister of hers decides to make some noise :)
* Em loves her toys & gets rather upset if she can't get a grip on her favorite toy
* I actually heard her shriek in anger the other day.  I laughed, but I probably should be scared :)
* she's into that "just-put-me-down" stage... sometimes she just wants her BED.  Not Mommy.

We love you, Emily Mae!

You definitely add so much sweetness to every day.