7 months

Emma turned 7 months old a few days ago. Craziness! I feel like before I know it, she'll be having her first birthday.

In the past week, Emma has started crawling to us putting her arms up to be picked up. She has been crawling since about 6 1/2 months. I'm not so sure that this is a good thing because she doesn't have the sense to stay out of trouble. But maybe it would be the same if she started crawling a few months from now? She's an explorer, that's for sure! This week I've been really working on the word "no" but I'm not sure she fully grasps it yet. We will continue to work on it to help keep her safe! Although Emma's been standing for a while now while holding on to furntiuret, she's just started to cruise along the futon. Fun!

She still seems to like going to Mother's Day Out (MDO). She's happy when I leave her. She just likes that somebody is holding her or that she has new toys to play with. I hope this continues indefinitely. I think I'd have a really hard time leaving her if she were crying. I do think she's usually one of their fussier babies, from what I can tell. I think the problem is that she gets too distracted to eat and therefore is hungry. I know they try but she usually leaves only having 1 bottle. She usually has 3 bottles and food by the same time of day when she's at home. Last week we just started bringing food in addition to her bottles. She seemed to do much better, so that might be the trick. She's had a couple of boo-boos at MDO. One from another kid scratching her neck pretty badly. I'm not sure what happened with the other one on her ankles. But overall, she's a pretty tough kid.

Emma really loves people and makes new friends everywhere she goes. She has been scared of Daniel pretty consistently and has become scared of Pops. In the last week or so, she's done better and hasn't cried in their presence as much. Our theory is that she's afraid of guys with facial hair. It's not just guys, because she loved Peter holding her.

Emma officially has blonde hair and blue eyes. Poor Steve is so disappointed :-)  I think she gets those features from me. But she still resembles Steve. I think the shape of her face favors Steve. Emma's hands are exactly like Steve's too. It's strange looking at them.  Her hair looks curly when wet and is starting to have a wave to it even when dry. Love!!  

Emma has tried tons of foods. We just started meat in the last week. She tasted bacon (I know, shameful, but how could she be a Matthews without having eaten bacon?) and we also gave her a taste of Gus's chicken.  She couldn't mush the tiny bite up enough to swallow it though. I'm also starting her on jarred baby food with chicken. We also started Peach and Vanilla baby yogurt, which she really seems to like. She LOVES puffs! She's tried almost every fruit and veggie that I can think of. No favorite fruits or veggies that I can tell. I still think formula is her favorite besides puffs. She seems to be happy with most of the food we give her. Hopefully that continues but I know it's doubtful.

We've been lucky that Emma hasn't been sick much, besides her eye infections. This past week she had her first runny nose, which has just recently turned into a nasty cough. I used a bulb syringe with her for the first time. The first few times that I did it, she thought it was quite funny. I was surprised that she didn't hate it.

We still brush her teeth every night with bedtime. She loves watching me to do just about anything, including brushing my teeth. She's just fascinated. It's fun to watch her be so amazed.

As of 7 months, I'm only pumping twice daily now (once during her morning nap and once after she goes to bed at night). I can't keep up with Emma while pumping anymore. It's just not safe and clearly her safety is more important. My milk supply has continued to decrease so I know I won't make it to the goal of one year. And I'm 100% okay with that.

Emma has really started babbling in the past couple of days. She's talking up a storm! It's fun to hear her sweet little voice!

Ok, on to photos! A lot of photos!

 Mondays during the summer session at MDO - just these three kiddos! 

Not sure which one is Oliver and which one is Wyatt.

Henry wanted to play too!

Matching t-shirts

Ha!

Eating puffs

The puffs get sticky

Some of Emma's favorite toys

Emma liked the box. I liked it even more since it confined her!

 

Steve was trying to get his beer away from her. Looks like she was stronger :-)

One cool cat!

Sleepy time

She loves trying to take the cookbooks out. She had her worst accident yet on the edge of this bookcase. Ouch! I finally got it baby-proofed.

At the park with Sylvie

She loved it... for the first minute or so

One example of Emma getting into trouble :-) Don't worry. She did not get hurt. 

We ended up moving the bench so that she doesn't have access to it.

I had a number of videos to post but I'm having a little difficulty. Hopefully this one will work of Emma's sink bath! Hopefully more videos to come soon.