7 months!

Seven months starts to sound less newbornish and more baby-getting-close-to-one-ish and I am not having any of it. This is my FAVORITE age. Sterling and I were discussing it at lunch today. (We spent lunch on his medical campus, which we have never done. I successfully drove from the 836 and got onto 826 without any mistakes. Think massive highway with about five criss-crossing roads going above and below and then add construction and a gps that never understands what is happening in the real world. I have lived here ten months and this is the very first time I have successfully navigated it. You can all give me a standing ovation now. *Any Miamians who may be reading this can stop laughing and just pretend like you're impressed.--Oh, I also made it into a parking garage without having to call Sterling for directions once I got in the vicinity. I swear that campus is SOOO confusing!)

Back to the baby. We were discussing how she is perfect. She is big enough to bounce around and play with and get the most adorable giggles out of, but small enough to feel like a perfectly tiny baby should. She coos, she laughs, she snuggles, she grabs. She is just SOOOOO perfect, I tell ya what. She grabs, a lot. I happen to like it. She grabs my nose, my chin, my head, my hair--then whips it right around as if to say "Hey, I may be small and unable to communicate, but I will get to look at and inspect you when I want to!" and my heart melts and I let her inspect my face with all of her grabby little fingers and intense little eyes and I just wish and hope that she would never ever ever grow up!

At seven months Molly has FOUR teeth. 

I just spent a few moments scanning back on my blog to see how many teeth Ruthie had. At the beginning of seven months she had four, and by the end she had six, three on top and three on bottom, so maybe Kayli is right and Molly is getting more right away!?! Also, I did a post for Ruthie's first pony tail too, and that made me laugh. 

Then I had to search for Will at 6 months, and Ruthie was chubby, but oh look at his cheeks! Molly is definitely my little skinny-minnie, tall girl! Will also had six teeth by the end of seven months, but he had four on top and two on bottom.

I think Molly's teething has been so horrific because she has a tight frenulum on her upper lip (like a tongue tie but on the lip) and hers has quite thick tissue. She'll probably have a gap between her front teeth until she gets that fixed when her permanent teeth come in. 

But IT IS SO ADORABLE!

Okay, nobody probably cared as much about my babies teeth as I do (I still have some dental hygiene tendencies, I suppose) so we'll move on.

Molly can crawl! 

She's been 'swimming' on her stomach for quite some time. It gets her places, slowly, but surely. Just in the past two days she has started using her arms in the official army-crawl style. She rolls all over the place and she is my only stomach sleeper. As soon as I lay her down she rolls over onto her stomach to sleep. Which, I might add, she has been doing SO MUCH MORE of since her top teeth came through! Yay for sleep! She has also been pushing her legs and bum off the ground a lot, so I see actual crawling happening in the near future.

She can also sit up like a champ! I still have to watch her as she falls over when she's reaching for things, but she can pretty much sit up as long as she wants to-and/or isn't getting mauled by Ruth and Will. 

Molly is in LOVE with her siblings. In the van on Saturday, Sterling and I were completely over the moon in love watching our kids interact. Molly had been crying, so Ruthie was making noises to make her happy (Ruth is the BEST at trying to keep Molly happy in the van!). Then Will started making the noises too, and Molly laughed. So then Will laughed. So Molly laughed harder. Ruth laughed at both of them. Pretty soon all three of them were hysterical. Will was laughing so hard-I don't think I have ever in my life heard him laugh that hard! We caught it on camera, but it was Sterling's phone, so it might never be uploaded. It was just the greatest though. Ruth and Will fight, but they also play a lot really great together. And both of them just ADORE Molly--Will doesn't always understand what being soft means, but he adores her just the same. They love getting her to laugh and they are always trying to mimic what I do to get her to laugh. Ruth, especially, is really great at it. She rubs her face into Molly's tummy, just like me, and gets Molly to giggle every time, it's the sweetest!

Right here Will and Ruth were hiding beside the bed and then jumping up to make Molly smile for the camera!

Molly's turtle-face. Sometimes when she is laughing she pulls up her shoulders like a turtle. Sterling loves it.

I tried and tried to get her to eat baby food and cereal, but she never would. The dr told me that if she was gagging she was probably too full, so I would make her wait up to four hours (she eats every three hours still) and she still would gag. I even tried dipping a soother in and trying to get her to eat that way. Well, I gave up and gave her some teething crackers this weekend. Apparently, she is over puree and ready for solids--haha! She was all over those things! Crackers, puffs, the dissolvable yogurt things--she has been chowing down. So I'm thinking it was probably a texture issue and now she'll eat just like all my other babies--mashed up portions from whatever we're eating at the table. The fact that she can eat crackers has simplified dinner time SO MUCh--she sits and eats perfectly content in her high chair while I cook. It's amazing.

Aunt Kayli sent a headband that Ruth promptly put on Molly's head. Haha.

She's still tall and skinny (I need to call for her check-up numbers, they don't ever give them to me like my old office so I always forget. ) She is super strong though. Oh yeah, she can walk backwards AND forwards in her walker now, which means she can pretty much get everywhere, haha. I video taped her this morning because she goes so fast and can maneuver around corners so easily it's really impressive!

Oh Molly, I just love this stage so much! I love seeing you watch and discover and inspect everything you see. I love holding your sleeping body (you are definitely spoiled, haha!). I love your soft, soft skin. I don't even mind when you have blow-outs all over my t-shirt at the park. I love your big, intelligent eyes. Your dad is smitten with your pokey-outie ears. I just can't say enough how much I am enjoying everything about you right now! Happy seven months!