Teething, writing -- we're busy

I only have a moment but I wanted to make sure to write a few updates before more days went by...

The baby is clearly teething. He's got two little buds just under his gums that look like they're threatening to push up AND he's been pretty uncomfortable. For him, he's unhappy and irritable. I'm hoping he gets two little bottom teeth for Christmas! Also, he's on the verge of crawling for real. He can get up on all fours but still does the worm to get anywhere, however getting somewhere he can! He can also go from laying down in his crib to standing up by pulling himself up on the bars. He only started this today and, wow, things are moving fast.

About a month ago, Carolina brought home a project on which she traced her name. I didn't know she could do this, so we started doing a lot of tracing so she could practice writing -- and gave us an excuse to make some great Christmas cards. Well, about a week ago, when we got to the last of the Christmas cards, she insisted on writing herself. I'd just tell her the letters and she'd do it on her own. She is doing a really impressive job of forming letters. I'm terribly proud of her and, better yet, she is proud of herself!

Yesterday we baked cookies for Santa and it's the first Christmas that Carolina is old enough to not only understand what's going on but also is really involved with it and getting excited. It's pretty fun.

Today the baby is 7 months old

And he's a solid kid. We get comments all the time about how cute, curious, and big he is. And he is all of those things. He just loves to stare at people, he really drinks them in.

He is NEARLY figuring out how to crawl, and will be especially pleased with himself when he figures out how to walk. He can't sit up on his own yet, as in, go from lying down to sitting up, but he'll sit up for a very long time. He will go from sitting up to down on the floor and start to "worm" crawl towards something he wants. EVERYTHING goes into his mouth.

He takes 4 definite naps a day and goes to sleep at about 6.30/7pm. He likes taking a bath about 6pm with his sister. He really, really loves his sister. And he gets up 2-3 times a night, maybe more if something is up. Last night something was up. I lost track of how many times he woke up. Mostly not to eat, and I don't know what was bothering him. I'm sure if I held him, he'd have slept for longer at times but I like not having to hold him to sleep and my back appreciates it, too. He's finally sleeping in his crib for his last nap of the day 90% of the time. I guess it pays off to stay home and create a consistent routine.

He has 3-4 meals of "solid" food a day, sometimes like 4-5oz of food and sometimes only a handful of spoonfuls. And he drinks milk before a nap, sometimes when he gets up. "What is his favorite food? Food. What is his least favorite food? Not enough food." Yes, still.

He'll take a bottle, as long as it's my milk, and isn't really interested if it's more than 2oz since I'm usually around and he'd rather get the rest from me. He flatly refuses anything that smells of baby formula. I've gotten the smallest amount of formula into his bottle just so he can start to get the taste. Yesterday, I put a bit too much (nearly a 1/4 of a scoop, and a full scoop is for 2oz) with 1.5oz of my milk and 1oz of water. Ugh! What a fight. He eventually took 1oz of it since he was hungry but, wow! I know that when he's hungry, he'll take it, especially if I'm no where around.

He's started to not like being left in a room alone. Although, unlike with Carolina, he's never really left alone. With Carolina, we'd go out very occasionally without her and have my parents come over. Or I'd be in one room and she'd be alone in another for a minute or two. But this kid, I'm always here and his sister is usually around. Maybe that's why the younger ones are more social and the older ones are more independent? Maybe that's just nonsense and it's depends on the personality.

Either way, I'm planning on having him taking formula, without my milk, within 2-3 months. This is trickier with two kids around as I don't have as much time to pump, and he takes more milk, so when I do have the time on a day when I have "extra milk", I don't always have the interest to pump in lieu of something else (sleep, eat, go to the bathroom alone, read something...).

That's the 7 month update while they are both napping. I. Love. Big Naptime. :)