Ezzy's 7 Month Update

Ezzy from 1 week old to 6.5 months old.

Ezzy - everyone agrees that you are the cutest baby, and I won't argue with that, but what melts my heart the most is how sweet you are. You've got at least five different smiles, depending on your mood. There's the close-lipped angelic smile, the big gummy grin, the bashful smile, the giggling smile, and the playful sticking-out-your-tongue smile. Unless you're tired or hungry (or without Mommy for too long) you're such a sweet and cheerful boy. You're getting stronger by the day, and I can tell you are so close to crawling. You want to be mobile so bad, and you get frustrated when you can't get to where you want to go on your own. You absolutely LOVE food. If whoever is feeding you makes you (gasp!) wait for the next bite, you let them know in a very unpleasant way that you are waiting and HUNGRY! The smallest things make you laugh and giggle, and my favorite times are when you and Daddy and I start giggling over a water bottle or a silly dance or song and we'll giggle for a full minute and then suddenly you stop mid-giggle and stare at me with a stony glare like there's absolutely nothing to be laughing at and I must be insane. It cracks me up every time. You are the last thing Daddy and I think about every night before we go to bed, and sometimes Daddy misses you so much that he wants to wake you up for one more cuddle, but we let you sleep and look at the thousands of pictures we have of you instead. We love you more than you will ever know.

Some 7 month stats: Ezzy weighed 14 lbs, 14 ounces at his doctor's appointment two weeks ago, but when I weighed him right now he was 15 lbs, 14 ounces. He's been eating a ton and he feel's heavier, so hopefully that's accurate because he was still in the bottom 10th percentile for height and weight at his last appointment. I forget how long he is, I think they said 24.5 inches at his last appointment. He was wearing 9 month pajamas over the weekend though, so maybe he sprouted in height as well.

Our 7 month daily routine: It's been such a crazy month, with relatives visiting and us going out of town, that any semblance of a routing has pretty much flown out the window. Ezzy has been waking up about once to twice a night once he finally goes to sleep. That's the tricky part. Sometimes he doesn't go to bed "for real" until midnight. By "for real" - I mean that he'll go to sleep in my arms, but wake up as soon as I put him down. Ezzy's a happy boy in the mornings, and he's still good about playing in his exersaucer while I have some breakfast and coffee. Then I'll feed him his breakfast which is half a banana, applesauce, and some rice cereal or oatmeal. Naptime is anywhere between 11 am to 2 pm and I still nurse Ezzy in our bed and then sneak out once he's asleep. A good nap for him is three hours long, but with all of our running around lately he's been making due with an hour or less. Depending on when his nap is, I'll feed him lunch either right before he goes to sleep or right after he wakes up. Lunch is usually some kind of green puree - either peas or green beans. Around 6 he's hungry again, and I'll feed him another puree. Sometimes I'll make it myself, or sometimes I just do store bought. My favorite store-bought baby foods are the Plum Organics. They have such interesting flavors and all the ones I've tasted have been good. Joe gets home around 6:30 and we usually eat around 7:00. Around 8 pm it's time for Ezzy's bath, jammies, story time and trying to get him to sleep. 

Some notable changes from last month:

• Ezzy is up to three solid meals a day, plus still eating breast milk about every three hours.
• He's better than ever at sitting on his own. He still topples over sometimes, which annoys him, but a lot of times he's able to catch himself and push himself back into the sitting position.
• He's making progress on the crawling. He'll get on his hands and knees and sway backward and forward. A few times he's made a big movement like he's trying to lunge forward, but he falls on his face instead. 
• Right after his six month update he started doing a different laugh. Now, in addition to his gasping laugh (that sounds like he's taking a big, squeaky gulp of air), he also has a chuckle/giggle laugh, which is pretty much the cutest thing ever.
• He's been eating his meals in his high chair.
• He rode in his stroller without the car seat for the first time while at Disneyland. It was really useful for naps. I still use the bjorn carrier when we go grocery shopping, but he's so big that it's started hurting my back, so I prefer carrying him over the strap-on carrier whenever possible.
• He clasps his hands and twiddles his thumbs like a little Mr. Burns. Uncle Brett pointed out that only evil characters do that, which would make Ezzy the cutest, most angelic looking evil character.

Ezzy likes (in addition to his 6 month favorites):

• Plastic bags (only with supervision, of course).
• Wrapping paper.
• Water bottles (he loves them so much, it was worth repeating again this month).
• Unwrapping presents.
• Disneyland's parade.
• Having "conversations" with people. Aka - yelling "AAAaah!" at each other while making wild hand gestures and pounding on his chest.
• Morning cartoons - anything with a lot of songs and music.
• The star on top of the Christmas tree when it's lit up.
• Sticking out his tongue.
• Food!

Ezzy dislikes:

• Not being able to crawl forward when there's a toy in front of him that he wants.
• Not being fed fast enough when he's hungry. He doesn't understand that we need to refill the spoon before he can take another bite.
• Being without Mommy for too long. I left him for about three hours while I was in Modesto and I guess he was pretty unhappy about it for the last hour and a half.
• Missing his naps. Actually, we all dislike this one.
• Disneyland's rides.