12-24, Christmas Eve, 7 months old

Katherine,

On Sunday you were 7 months old, how very fast this month has flown.  Hopefully I'll get back on track with your birthday post now that the holidays are past.  You have been a delight to watch this month.  You have enjoyed the Christmas lights and ornaments and most especially the bows.  You have enjoyed laying under the tree looking up into it.  You have also spent alot of time pulling off two of my ornaments in particular to play with, and taking all the bows of packages.  You have figured out how to rip off the paper, but you only really want to take off the bows and play with them.

12-6, Shiny bows!

You are crawling with some speed now, even if half the time or better you are still doing that funny sitting crawl.   The one where you crawl a few steps, then sit to the side, and then get on all fours and sit to the other side, to inch along that way.  So, your most frequent destinations are the tree or me.  You are also pulling up now, tonight you even pulled up and tried to step along the foot rest, you even managed to take 2 steps, before you fell back down.  Your persistence doesn't seem to be dampened at all by your frequent falls.  You are continually bumping your head on the floor, the furniture, or just rolling off.  You rarely cry, but are quickly trying again.

12-21, Busy pulling up while Daddy plays Nintendo.

 Your babbling has increased this month.  You still are very quiet during the day, it almost seems like you spend much of your time listening to all the talking that goes on around you.  But when it is quiet, in the evening, or to your Daddy's great impatience, during preaching, you begin to talk.  I'm hearing more and more consonant sounds -  I have even heard mama in a string of other sounds a few times.  Therefore, your siblings have decided that hi and Momma are your first words, even though you don't know what they mean or say them on purpose.

12-9, Baby's first Christmas

You have begun to show a clear preference for me as well.  You are still a very happy child, and content to be hold and piddled over by pretty much anyone.  But, more and more frequently, if I am in the room, even when you aren't hungry or sleepy, you want me to hold you and not Daddy or your siblings.  Infact, it's gotten down right difficult to sit next to your Daddy and work on anything when he is holding you, because you seem to think that's an invitation to crawl out of his lap and into mine.

12-19, Playing with Britt and Ruth.

Your routine has been all kinds of messed up every since the week before we left for Alabama, so I'm eager to get you back into a routine, next week after New Years.  You are down to one nap a day, on average, only a late one in the early evening, but then you want to stay up half the night.  You only seem to be sleeping through the night at the moment after I nurse you to sleep and lay you down two or three times, and we have to leave the closet light on and the mobile running all night.

11-30, Whatcha doing Ruth?

I'm feeling a little bit better about my supply though, after yesterday.  While we were at Disney you nursed, who knows how many times, but you didn't have food or formula, and did fine, and slept through the night last night.  You have tried bananas, applesauce, pears, strawberries, squash, green beans, potatoes, sweet potatoes, grits and creamed corn so far.  Sweet potatoes remain your favorite by far.  Grits and creamed corn you haven't liked as well, though I suspect it's mostly because the texture is so different.  I didn't puree those things.  I'm hoping to go through the rest of my list in the next few weeks, so that we can start doing more table like food.

12-20, I just swapped out the 3-6 month clothes for 6-9 months.

You remain a very observant child, an incredibly happy baby.  Even at the doctor's office.  You were 15 lbs even on the 1st, and you only cried a moment with your shots, and then rewarded the nurse with a teary eyed smile.  You had the flu last week as well, and you were still so happy and content, despite a runny nose and fever.  Your personality is unlike any of your siblings, and we enjoy watching you grow into the person you will become.  We all love you so much, Little Love, and that's just what you are - a little bitty person full of and lavished with so much love from so many.

I love you,
Momma

12-22, Night baby girl.