7 months

Long post again. -Those of you that know me from my note writing high school days, know that it's hard for me to write without a million details. This is my journal basically- so it's hard for me to be brief.

At seven months Beckett loves walking he even likes to run sometimes. He loves to explore his surroundings- it always gives him the biggest smile. When exploring our house his favorite thing to check out is Dan's bike. I will try to guide him away and he will turn right back to it. The problem is he wants to do walk around all day and can't quite do it by himself. We don't have to help him much- but you get a back ache from being hunched over so long. He wants so bad to be mobile and is not content just sitting or laying. He has mastered sitting by himself. We're trying to give him tummy time so he will learn how to crawl, but he gets fussy if he's stuck in one spot. He's starting to get some crawling motions. He can turn a full circle on his tummy- but not travel anywhere. He's a super climber- he'll pull himself up on anything he can- especially if he sees some interesting object he can grab. He knows to raise his hands up or out when he wants to be picked up or for assistance in balance when moving. He does this butt bounce/leg kick thing when you sit him down- (he's trying to get out of the chair or wherever he's sitting).

Beckett is a daddy's boy. He loves his daddy. His face lights up when Dan gets home from work. He bounces and squawks with excitement when he gets to play with him.

He loves to play with something while he nurses and will eat in any position. With his short attention span he's done eating after a minute and then wants a little more a couple minutes later. We've tried solids again. I'm not sure if he's getting much; it looks like he mostly spits it out. But at least he is letting me put food in his mouth for a few minutes- then he refuses. We figure he is swallowing some food because he has had some real foul funky farts. Because of this, Dan thinks we shouldn't start him on solids until he's potty-trained. (And that may not be for a long time because he probably could sit in a soiled diaper all day and not care).

Beckett doesn't do much babbling- usually only if he's tired. However he is great at making noises with his mouth. His recent favorites are tongue clicks, gurgling, spitting and blowing bubbles. He'll do a caw sound to get daddy's attention. He loves to watch what's going on and my favorite thing that he does now is he'll lean over to see something. He'll peak over the couch or around corners. He sometimes leans over to see something even if he doesn't need to peek around anything.

Here are some of Beckett's new favorite toys. The top one he loves because he can stand at it (and the music and lights it makes). He likes to push his car back and forth.

Warning lots of videos that I've been collecting over the past month. I like to have a visual for some of his developments that I've been describing.

The top video shows Beckett walking, near the end he takes 4 steps by himself before falling. The one underneath shows him standing by himself for a few seconds. His balance is obviously not always as good. You probably should mute the videos so you don't hear my annoying voice.

This video below shows one of the things Beckett likes doing with Dan- watching him run around. You can also see how Beckett can pull himself up.

We've been trying to get a video of Beckett doing his tongue clicks- but haven't had much success, so this is him doing his spitting that he loves to do.

This video shows Beckett laugh. He's a little bit ticklish if you find the right spot. He still doesn't laugh very much and if he does it's pretty brief.

This is Beckett shaking his head no, my favorite thing that he does. We've been trying to get it on video forever- This is about as good as we'll get. I have to try to hide the camera so he won't be so distracted.

Rants from a sleep-deprived mom

Beckett's sleep was getting worse and worse, so I knew something had to change. He would wake up every 1-3 hours during the night, take 30 minute naps max, take hours to put to sleep (me walking him around), and was starting to refuse to sleep unless in my arms- which he didn't used to do. In the beginning I read many books on sleep training and most discouraged crying it out. They would say it's cruel and your child won't learn to trust you. (Which I think is bull- there are many other opportunities for your child to learn trust). I tried many of the suggested methods to avoid crying it out- but none really worked. From the beginning I would try to put Beckett down drowsy but awake like you're supposed to so they could fall asleep on their own, but that was difficult. I figured most of the time he just cries for hours when I'm trying to help him go to sleep- so what's the point. Then I tried the Ferber method of crying but coming in at increased increments. That I think made Beckett even more mad. So I tried just letting him cry it out. My pediatrician said some sleep expert said that babies won't cry more than 2 hours (I think she was referring to at night so maybe nap time is different?). The first time I tried it Beckett was still screaming two hours later- so I gave up. That night he woke up every hour and one of the times it took 2 1/2 hours to get him to go back to sleep- so I was determined to let him cry all day if that's what it took. Sure it stinks listening to him cry- but I was going to lose it if it didn't get better. So the next day I tried it and he was asleep after crying 3 minutes. The same with the next nap. And he napped over an hour and slept 8 hours during the night after crying only 30 minutes. I knew it was too good to be true, but it gave me hope. After 2 weeks of letting him cry it out- every once in awhile he'll cry an hour or more and sometimes and he doesn't cry at all. Every now and then he'll nap over an hour- but most are still only 30 minutes. During the night he wakes about every 4-5 hours and sometimes longer. So we've still got to work on it- but it's getting much better. He's learned he can sleep on his stomach which helps. I love that I can just put him down and then it's my time while he's putting himself to sleep- way better than what I was doing before. Sorry that was a lot- but moral of it is don't feel bad if you let your child cry it out- some kids need to. I'm sure most moms already know this- especially if you have more than one child.

Firemen story time at the Library. It was cold outside, so no smiles from Beckett.

So Beckett I don't think is ready for solids. I've tried many different foods and all of them he refuses. He'll purse his lips together and just shake his head no- even the rice cereal which he used to let me at least try to put it in his mouth. I'm tired of wasting food so we're giving it a rest. I'm eager to get him on solids but he's not. He'll only eat from me and he's been horrible at that recently. I'm afraid he's not getting enough. He loves sucking on apples that I've been eating but refuses pureed apples. But since he has teeth I'm a little nervous letting him suck on my apple. He loves watching us eat and will grab at our food- but he grabs at anything. He still freaks out anytime he sees our water bottles. So we've been letting him drink from them (we dump the water in his mouth). We've tried the sippy cup and he's not into that yet either. So I got him his own water bottle which he loves. He hasn't quite figured out how to use it on his own- the bottle did say for 3 and up so I know it's a little ahead of him. He loves it nonetheless. I should have photoshoped out that attractive drool. When will the drooling ever end?!

My little brother Adam came for a quick visit this weekend. We went to Rifle Falls- our main attraction. It's been somewhat warm here so the falls were not frozen. Adam also got to attend Rifle First Ward's main event of the year with us- "Wild Game Night". No not game as in Monopoly or Risk, which was my first thought when I heard about it. I cooked up some Texas Brisket Style Elk- not that we did the hunting. Other meats there were deer, bear, pheasant, octopus, fish... Fun times in Rifle We tried spiking Beckett's long hair. I had to take a picture of him playing in his pink chair with his tough boy hairstyle.