happy seven months old little man! another month bites the dust, and this last month was quite a month. i think you learned new tricks and developed more this month than in all the rest of the months you've been here, combined. seriously kid, you just learn and grow so dang fast that i'm afraid to even blink, for fear that i'll miss it. as i have said before, it makes me sad to think how fast this is all happening, because i wish i could keep you my little baby forever, but at the same time i love watching you grow and learn new things...it makes me one proud mama. :)
october was a fun month...in fact, it has always been one of my very favorite months. i love the cool (but not cold) weather, the falling leaves, the early nights, the pumpkins, the smells of fall...pumpkin bread and pumpkin chocolate chip cookies, pumpkin pie and pumpkin cheesecake, ginersnaps, roasts in the oven, apple pies, roasted pumpkin seeds, caramel apples (i guess you can't really smell those)...everything about this month has always made it such a good one, in my opinion. it's no surprise that, with you here, october was even better.
we took a couple trips out to gardner village to take pictures of you with the pumpkins. you hung out with mr. locke a few times. we got together with all our friends, one night up in logan for iron chef round II, another night at our house for a halloween party. we went to vegas to support grandpa jeff on his wedding day. we took family pictures, which turned out adorable. we dressed you up in your halloween costume and showed you off to family and friends. we saw grandpa jimbob for the first time in awhile. we supported uncle zac at his uga player of the year banquet. like all the other months since you've been here, this last month was busy, but oh so fun.
in your six month letter i mentioned that we needed to try and get you on a consistent napping schedule. i am afraid we haven't perfected it, but i think we are getting a little better at it. i have never done this before, so sometimes i find it frustrating because everyone does it (it meaning parenting) a little differently. i have come to learn that we just have to do what works best for us, and if that means three short naps a day instead of two long ones (which is what the parenting websites say to do) than so be it. when you wake up, between 7-8, you drink an 8 oz bottle of formula. then you like to crawl around on the floor and play in your jumper for a couple hours. two hours from the time you woke up you eat 2 oz of baby food...usually some type of fruit or oatmeal...then go down for a nap. this first nap lasts between 45 minutes and an hour and a half. when you wake up we usually just play for a while until it is time to eat another bottle. you get your second bottle 4 hours after your first one, usually between 11 and 12, and you drink between 6 and 8 oz. we play for a while longer, and then about two hours from the time you woke up from your first nap, you go down for another one. this nap lasts anywhere from 1-2 hours. and the schedule continues in the same way. your third nap (if we're lucky) is usually around 3 or 4, and only lasts about 45 minutes, but i think most days you get the proper amount of sleep during the day, so it's all good.
you eat approximately 6 oz of baby food each day - three times a day, 2 oz each. for breakfast you have some type of fruit, for lunch a vegetable or yogurt, and for dinner some type of meat. and you now eat 4 bottles a day, between 4-8 oz per bottle, totaling between 26-30 oz of formula each day. i know you probably don't care about this, i am just documenting it so can turn here for help when you have a little brother or sister. :)
your personality comes out more and more all the time, we love watching it develop. from the time that you were five weeks old you have been quite the talker mr. finn. so many people have commented on what a chatterbox you are...i think you must take after yours truly - the only thing people remember about me as a baby was that i was a "gooer." dad doesn't know if he was a talker as a baby, but he sure is a talker now, so i think you must get it on both sides. :) anyway, you are still talking in full force. you have started to make a few different noises. you're still not babbling like i thought you'd be (baba, mama, dada, etc) but you are still a noisy one. you scream a lot more these days, but it's a happy scream and i love it. also, i am pretty sure you have started responding to people when they talk to you, because if i talk to you, a lot of the time i hear an "ahhhhh" or an "oooohhhh" back from you. i love it! when you are eating, you'll take a bite, then make a noise or scream haha, and i often wonder if you are a demanding little thing and are telling me to hurry up and give you another bite? let's hope you're not demanding. ;)
you are still just as easy going as you've always been. you're content to play by yourself for quite a while. you are still wary of strangers, but as long as we've been hanging out in the same place for a while you are usually very content to be in anyone's arms, whether i am nearby or not. you do very well in your carseat and stroller. when you wake up in the morning, and most of the time after waking up from a nap, you just sit in your crib and talk to yourself for a while, it is adorable!
i think you are still a mama's boy, but you and your dad have a great relationship...i love watching the two of you together. this past month dad started getting you from your crib in the morning and bringing you to bed with me, where you eat your bottle. i must say, i love that i don't have to get out of bed! dad said that he likes doing it because he loves seeing the smile on your face first thing in the morning. :) you love your dad so much, and you think he is so fun and silly to be around, and dad loves spending as much time as he can with you every day. you also love your big brothers as much as ever, and claus loves you and showers you with kisses like he always has. i think dukey is warming up to you...he gave you kisses, voluntarily, for the first time a few weeks ago. slowly, but surely, he's getting there, and i know that he loves you, even if he doesn't show it in the way that claus does. you sure think you're big brothers are silly little guys...we often hear you laughing at them. :)
your dad affectionately teases me for giving you - and everyone else - so many nicknames. he often asks me, "now, where did you come up with that one??" haha truthfully i sometimes don't even know where they come from, they just evolve off of previous ones and eventually we are calling you a name that has nothing to do with the name finn! some of your nicknames are fingy moo, moo moo, moomers (both derivitives of fingy moo), finnster mcgee, buhhbs, baby brother, finners, finnigan, baby, and i am sure there are others i can't remember right now! like i said, they sometimes just come out of nowhere. :)
besides electircal outlets, cords, dvds, remotes, cell phones and my shoes, the toys you like to play with are your race track toy, rattles and balls. you don't love your jumper as much as you used to, but you'll still play in it for about 10 minutes at a time. and for some reason you don't spend as much time in your swing as you used to, but you are still content to sit in it for quite a while.
as i mentioned earlier, this month you learned so many new tricks! grandma cindy's favorite thing you learned was patty cake. she and i have been playing this with you since...well, pretty much since the day you were born. we've always known you liked playing it, so i guess it shouldn't have been a surprise that you learned how to clap your hands at only 6 months old! you clap your hands all day and night, i am not even kidding. when i check on you while you're napping or when i go to pick you up from a nap, i often find you on your back, clapping your hands. when i change your dipey, you clap your hands. when we are just sitting around hanging out, you clap your hands. you do it all the time, and i must say it is one of the cutest things i've seen you do.
one day you all the sudden started clicking your tongue. i don't know if you heard me making similar sounds, or maybe dad or grandma, but one day you could magically click your tongue and you do this quite often. it is the cutest little sound coming from your tiny mouth, and every time you do it we stop to listen. love it!
we were laying in bed one lazy morning...you had just eaten and were ready to get up and about, so you were a bit restless, but dad and i were still tired, so we were stalling getting out of bed for as long as we could. well, you rolled onto your tummy like you always do, crawled over to me and started blowing raspberries on my arm. it was so funny! the night before you and krew were playing together and we heard a farting sound. we figured that one of you must have tooted, haha. but then the next day when you did that to my arm, we realized that you had learned to blow raspberries. now you do it whenever you can get your mouth on bare skin, it's so funny. along similar lines, you started making kissy sounds this month, and you still love to blow bubbles all the time. you're a noisy little boy, that's for sure, but i love it!
i think your biggest development would be that you learned to crawl. you get faster and better at it each day, it is so amazing. your favorite things to crawl to are electricl outlets, cords, my high-heels, vents, dvds and pretty much anything you shouldn't touch. ;) my oh my, you keep me on my toes, and i have a feeling it's only going to get worse. i think crawling is just as much excercise for me as it is for you! the other day i was making the bed and you were crawling around on the floor. it took me about 5 minutes longer to make the bed than it normally does, because i kept having to go pick you up and sit you down five feet from the electric outlet...you would immediately crawl right back to it each time, and it only took you about 5 seconds to get there, it was amazing. just yesterday i cleaned out the shoes from the floor in my closet, bc i caught you with one of my high heels in your mouth! eeew, yuck. now i just pray that it will be at least 5 months before you are walking. :)
also, yesterday we had to lower the mattress in your crib because when i went in to get you after a nap, you were standing up in it! crazy beans. it was a tad frightening to think that you could have toppled out, but we caught it just in time. i guess i shouldn't have been surprised because also yesterday, i set you down in the family room to play with your toys while i made some breakfast, and when i went down to check on you, instead of laying on your belly by your racecar track playing with that, you were sitting by the stairs, trying to figure out how to climb up them! it's as if i can see the wheels turning in your head...you see dad, your brothers and i walk up and down them all the time, and you are figuring out that the stairs take you to a new room, so you are wanting to know how to climb up them. i sat and watched you for a few minutes, and i am still just blown away at how fast you learn these things. you put your hands on the first step...then put one hand on the step up...then your other hand...until you were pretty much standing. you didn't figure out where to put your knees yet, but i know it's only a matter of days before you get there. you pulled yourself up onto your jumper toy yesterday as well. i was in the bathroom, i could see you in the mirror, using it to pull yourself up. in a matter of seconds you were standing, and a few minutes later i heard a thud! you fell down. you didn't even cry, though, what a stud.
last month sure was a good one, but i am so excited for this next month. my absolute favorite time of the year is christmas, and i can't wait to enjoy this year's holiday season with you. i am excited to dress you up all cute and handsome for christmas parties, and to take you to meet santa claus, and i can't wait to see if you love playing with wrapping paper on christmas morning (because i have heard that is what babies your age love the most at christmas time). mostly i am just excited to feel that spirit of christmas this year. i know it will have a whole new meaning for me, now that i have given birth to the most beautiful, wonderful, perfect baby boy on the planet. you are my light mister, and i love you more than words.
love,
mom
