7 months

Weight: 17 lbs

Height: 26”

Mom isn’t afraid of using food to get a good picture :)

Emmie is starting to pack on the baby chub.  She is super ticklish.  She laughs so hard when I nuzzle into her tummy or when I I love her so much, and I continue to fall more and more in love with her each day. She has such a little personality.  She is a total momma’s girl.  She will hang on to you (typically she has a hand full of my hair when I hold her) and she will let you know what she wants.  She loves to be on the move and is curious about everything.  She LOVES food.  People say that you waste more food in the beginning than you get into their tummies… not with Em.  She will literally lick the bowl clean.

Challenges:

I still hate that I miss Emmie’s happiest time of the day.  There are some days that Emmie comes home and she is cranky until I put her to bed.  I miss my baby. 

Busy weekends are hard as well.  Since I don’t get to see her much during the week I LOVE weekends spent at home with my baby.  It is hard because I am torn with wanting to spend time with friends and family and yet just wanting to spend days at home with my little girl.

Emmie just wants mom…. or Noi (Lan’s Mom… Vietnamese for Grandma)  Typically when I am holding Em, she won’t want to go to anyone else.  However this month when I was standing next to Lan’s mom, Em wanted to go to her.  In my head I know it is a good thing that she loves her grandma so much, however, it did hurt a little.  I love that my baby is head over heals in love with me.  I love that I make her feel safe and happy, especially since she spends the majority of her awake time away from me during the week.   

Em’s new tricks and triumphs and favorites:

Em now eats baby food.  She loves both veggies and fruit.  Thankfully she still loves nursing as well.  She probably has solids one or two times a day. 

We have a crawler!  She spent a long time doing what I call her beached whale crawl.  She went from doing her baby yoga to doing her beached whale crawl, to doing a real crawl. 

Each new triumph is so exciting, but it is also a little sad because our little girl is growing up. 

Sophie is still her favorite toy, however, she is expanding her toy favorites.  She also loves dollies, rattles, and loves loves loves sitting in front of her musical walker and bang on all of the toys. 

Things that I love:

I love my goofy girl.  I love that she is ticklish.  I love how proud she is riding on her daddy’s shoulders.  I love that she has favorite toys and makes decisions as to what she likes.  I love that she gives hugs and holds on tight.  I love that when she wants to be held and you try to put her down, she hangs on for dear life.  You can definitely feel that she loves you.  She loves typing on keyboards. I love that she is old enough to play games with.  Lan and I play “baby jacked” where we steal Emmie from each other and then chase each other around the house.  Em thinks it is hilarious. 

Things I have learned:
Keep favorite treats on hand for when you want your baby to sit for a picture without crying.  The few happy pictures I got of her were because of food :)  I recommend the freeze dried yogurt drops.

I have also learned that there are never enough diapers.  When first starting cloth diapers I was determined to do so with as few diapers as possible.  I thought it was absolutely ridiculous that some people had stashes with 50 diapers in them. I now think differently.  With going back to work, the more diapers the better.  Sometimes it takes me a few days to get diapers washed, stuffed and back in drawers again.  Many times the diapers never get back in the drawers before they are used again.  I tend to go through all of my diapers and then just barely have new ones washed again when I need them.  Diapers!…. need more diapers!  And it helps that they are just so gosh darn cute.

Emmie at the pumpkin patch with her best friend Brooklynn.