7 Months Old...

Today Riley is 7 months old...it seems too soon to be writing another month milestone blog! I feel like this month has been a big month of changes...Riley is just taking in everything like a sponge and she is so much more interactive and mobile...what a fun age. Here are some things Riley is doing at 7 months of age:

• Sleeping 10-11 hours at night...she will still moan for the binky some nights but we are trying to make her work through that...it's funny because she never wakes up in that process...it's like she dreaming of binky land!



• Touching everything with extreme interest in figuring it all out...what it feels like, what it sounds like banged up against something else, and her favorite is what it tastes like!



• Moving and shaking...she is sitting up completely on her own and likes to play this way...there have been times when I sit her up with a few toys to play and go into another room and when I return she is not on her belly rolling around...we have to keep our eye on her! She has not made too many strides towards crawling yet but when she's on her belly she pushes her legs so she knows what's coming!



• We have been working on the crying when someone leaves the room issue and she is getting much better at it! She is starting to understand that we will come back and we are starting to understand what her winy cry sounds like!



• She is eating 3 baby food meals a day consistently and has dropped her bottle intake to 20 oz a day...she eats rice cereal mixed with fruit and apple juice for breakfast, a veggie mixed with fruit for lunch, and a meat and veggie meal for dinner...she is a great eater and nothing has bothered her so far! The last few days have been fun feeding her because she is much more involved with her hands and tries to bat down your hand as your feeding her...I think we could feed a small country from her bib these days!



• She feeds herself her own bottles...in the morning Jason has been laying her down on the boppy, covering her little legs with a blanket, giving her bottle to her, and turning on some cartoons and she drinks her bottle and watches the only TV she sees all day! It is so cute and has become somewhat of a morning routine for her...this will be great when I am doing this whole parenting thing solo so I can get ready while she is "eating breakfast"

• Talking up a storm...lately she says "ah-ga", "tha-da", "da-da", "thhhhheee", and "ga-ga"...she is saving the best for last..."ma-ma" that is! She loves to bang her toys and talk...it's so fun to sneak up and watch her play when she doesn't see you there...just wonder what is going on in that head of hers!



• We are working on clapping hands and she gets it...she does it very slowly, but she does it nonetheless...she also like to wave with one hand but I don't think she realizes what she's doing quite yet, but it's so cute to see her little fingers move in the waving motion!

See? A lot has happened in one month! Riley started her big girl class on Monday (the 6-12 month old class) and she is one of only 3 girls so she is going to be tough! When I took her in there were three little boys just waiting for her to get out of her carrier and they were patting her and petting her on the head...she just looked at me like she was saying "Mom, where are you leaving me?" There is a little boy named Eli in her class that is a total flirt and I couldn't keep him away from her...he then proceeded to take her little bunny and cuddle up with it...Riley handled it well...so I set her down to play and she just had this look the whole time like "Ok...I'm not sure what is going on Mom but I will just go with it." She is such a sweet girl. This class is very different from her last class and I know she will learn so much so fast...she just watches everyone and takes it all in...they have this table that they all sit at and it's so cute to see her...this is really the age where this kind of interaction is so good for them! I can already tell her talking has increased just since starting this new class and I know crawling will be here shortly because she is one of the younger ones in the class and she sees everyone else moving around! So as I went to leave the classroom Eli would stop just hugging my legs...the teachers say he is a big flirt...even with the moms I guess! He is such a sweet little boy! I am so thankful for all of the great ladies that take care of Riley during the day...they do a great job!

Riley helped do some of the driving on the way back from Texas...we were tired, what can we say?

Here's some jumperoo video...this little girl LOVES to jump and even if you are holding her and letting her stand in your lap, she is jumping!

So I finally unpacked my bag from our vacation only to re-pack it since we are headed to Dallas this weekend for Jordan and Ashley's wedding...we have known Jordan and Ashley for about 6-7 years and had many fun times together in college...here is a picture of the four of us at the lake in 2003...we had just gotten Hank and had him at the lake with us.

We are excited about this trip because we will get to see a lot of our college friends and they will get to meet Riley...this will be her second wedding to attend and she's ready to dance again! I was helping pull together some pics for a slideshow for Jordan and Ashley and had fun reminiscing on the good 'ol days of college...I miss it so much! It was truly the best 4 years of my life and I have some great memories and lots of funny stories!

After this trip we are going to settle down for a little bit and enjoy our time together before Jason leaves...he received all of his deployment gear today so now it is in our house and it has become more real to all of us.