Seven Months

Highlights:

-whines/whimpers with his mouth closed (new trick this month)

-naps great

-wakes up every 4-6 hours on a typical night

-eating all the food

-rolls over proficiently from tummy to back

-has pushed up onto hands and knees a handful of times

-had/has a viral infection (Roseola) poor rashy baby :((

-dive bombs my chest now when hungry and just nuzzles his face against me until I feed him

-loves making noises by banging him arms/hands against toys and various surfaces

-proficient wiggler

-started sitting in the shopping cart

-Obsessed with bath drain/bath plug

-loves snuggling with his blanket

-the pacifier is his one true love

-recognizes his name 

We're having a hard time with nighttime sleep. He wakes up at least twice a night to eat. Usually he goes back to sleep easily and well. But, I am still nursing him when he wakes up. I just don't know what to do to help him sleep better. I am unwilling at this point to completely stop nursing him, because WE need to sleep. He's in our room. If we let him just wail until he falls back asleep, we won't sleep at all. I seriously need at least two, two hour stretches of sleep for my personal sanity (I'm talking just borderline being able to function as a human being) and I won't sleep if I can hear him making any noise. So, that isn't an option. BUT THERE ARE NO OTHER OPTIONS. *crying emoji* What are we supposed to do to help him?? We are seriously at a loss....I keep thinking "One day, he will be 14 and won't want to get up for seminary and i'll miss this" but right now I need to sleep....you know what I mean? 

In other news, he is eating great. We will probably start doing more this month, but right now we do one main 'meal' a day. He eats everything well. I typically have some baby-type foods for him each meal (cheerios, pureed veggies/fruits, yogurt melts) but also make sure he has bites of just whatever we are eating for dinner (tomato soup, mashed potatoes, ground turkey, bits of chicken, asparagus, hummus, etc.) He will eat whatever we give him right now with very minimal gagging. In fact, when we first gave him a cheerio, which was his first really solid thing, I was amazed by how immediately he started to chew. There was no chewing learning curve for this one. He hasn't figured out, however, how to bring the foods to him own mouth. He will pick the food up, but won't bring it to his mouth to eat. So, right now, we are doing all the feeding. He just opens his mouth up like a well trained baby bird.

This one is actually from right before he turned 6 months, but too cute not to include. 

This is Omar; our friend from Djibouti, Africa. He speaks french, arabic, somali, and english. He is the most wonderful, kind soul--so full of light!! He only refers to Ezra as "My Ezra" but with his beautiful french accent, of course. He would've held him the whole day. He just bounced him around and sang him songs in Arabic. Ezra loves him. We met Omar two years ago and I have tried to be more like him ever since, but I don't think I can be! He is TRULY one of a kind.  

If this isn't exactly what church is about; what is it about? Hopefully no one scolds me for talking a picture during sacrament meeting, but I needed to memorialize this moment.

A rather cheery-o babe. Also, my new favorite picture. 

Window gazing, a favorite hobby