Seven months

Dear Callum,

Today you are seven months old. That means you're closer to being a year than you are to being brand new. Let's not even discuss this, because I haven't wrapped my head around it yet.


You had lots of new experiences this month, chief among them finally getting to meet your cousin Morgan, and then taking your first plane trip and seeing her again at her house. You two weren't super aware of each other, though you did spend some time grabbing at each other, rolling over each other, and making each other cry. They were good first meetings.



By now you are absolutely full-on obsessed with the dog. You stare at her whenever she comes into your line of vision, and track her as she walks across the room. You try to grab her whenever she's anywhere near you, and you laugh loudly when you see her. Once she wagged her tail right in your face--hard--and you laughed hysterically the whole time. She is by far your favorite thing in the world and at this point your dad and I are only debating whether your first word will be "doggie" or "hund."



Physically you are looking more and more like a little kid instead of a baby. You sit fully on your own, and while you do occasionally get bored and tip over, or throw yourself backward, for the most part you can sit for indefinite periods of time with no support. You can spend ages just sitting on the floor happily playing with toys. You've also started banging toys together, and getting more and more enjoyment out of any kind of toy that makes a sound. You had a little "music lesson" this month when we visited a friend who does children's lessons, just things like bouncing rhythmically, singing, clapping, opening and closing your hands, and so forth. You were so into it that you were practically panting, and now you spend a lot of time opening and closing your hands while staring at your fingers, so we signed you up for a casual little baby music class that starts next month. We'll see if you like it as much!


By now you are an expert roller. As soon as we put you on the floor you zoom across the room and are at the other side before we've even processed what was happening. You also rotate in circles on your belly like the hands on a clock, and while you did that before inadvertently, now it's clearly purposeful, as you do it to reach for the dog or a toy that's out of your reach. You've tried to get up on your knees a few times, but not with any regularity, and given your extraordinary size I'm thinking it might be awhile before you start to crawl, though you do occasionally scoot backward. Which is totally OK with me--chasing you down as you roll is hard enough!


You've also developed a more noticeable object permanence this month, which has been really cool to see. Now if you're sitting in your high chair and you drop something on the floor, you lean over the side of the chair to peer after it and see where it's gone. And when someone walks through a room, you turn your head to watch them until they walk out of your line of vision--and then you turn your head the other way to keep watching them. It sounds like such a small thing but the amount of mental processing required for you to understand that if you turn your head the other way, the person will still be there is kind of astounding.


Now that you've passed the six-month mark we've been given permission to move into the world of yogurt and non-pureed food. Yogurt went over great but you are still working on your gag reflex, so solid chunks of fruit, Cheerios, etc. cause you to throw up as often as not. We've actually taken a break from the bite-size food for a couple weeks to see if you just needed some time, and we'll start trying them again soon. You do like to grab the food on your tray but you still have trouble maneuvering it into your mouth from your hand.


You continue to be very social and talkative. You babble constantly, still sticking to your two favorite consonants, ba and ma, and you've started combining them into fast-sounding talk, so instead of slow, deliberate, "beh... beh... beh..." it's more of a strung-together "bababa." A couple weeks ago I watched you have the cutest "conversation" with your dad--you would babble a few syllables, then pause and look at him expectantly, he would babble back at you, then when he stopped you would start again, and so on. I am still trying to get this behavior on video, but it was one of the sweetest things I've ever seen. You do a lot of spitting recently too, and sticking out your tongue--it seems like you're having fun experimenting with what you can do with your mouth. You've also started laughing socially, just because someone else is laughing, even though nothing funny (at least to you) has happened. That's another behavior that just melts my heart.


You continue to sleep great at night, and when we're not on vacation you also nap like a champ during the day. You vary between one long nap or two shorter naps each day, and both schedules are totally fine with us. You are still a happy, calm, laid-back baby whenever you're awake. Almost every compliment we get from a stranger involves some form of "What a happy baby!" (And a comment on the size of your thighs, but that's a different story.) You even got two teeth this month, and they are entirely through, though not entirely up. Teething seemed to bother you very little, if at all, but I've heard that bottom teeth can be easier, so we'll see what happens once some top teeth show up.


You are still positively enormous. You haven't been to the pediatrician for a weigh-in in awhile, but when I did some amateurish measurements at home, I came up with about 30 inches long and 26.5 pounds. If I'm in the ballpark, that's another 2.5 pounds you've gained this past month. In other words, you still show no signs of tapering off. You continue to show that you do things your way and that I do not need to bother looking at growth charts or milestone tables, because all that stuff really has very little to do with you.


You're completely unlike any other baby that I've ever met, in terms of both size and personality. You are so much fun and already, even at this young age, incredibly individual. It is just an amazing joy to be able to spend time with you. You fit so perfectly into our family and into our lives, and we are so privileged to get to spend every day with you.


Love,
Mama