7.5 months

Dear Andrew,
You sure are talkative lately! You entertain our friends at church with your cat-like growling (and some of your baby friends are scared of that sound!). You like to talk to me in the morning... you use a lot of W sounds, some M sounds, and just recently started playing with B's. Your favorite vowel sound is still "ah" but you bust out an "ee" every now and then :)

You're sitting up like a champ and can lean over really far to grab something you like. Your hand-eye coordination is really improving, actually... when we were at lunch with Mrs. Paige and Mrs. Dana you lunged from my lap, half way across the table, and grabbed my water mug perfectly! (and the resulting bath was just in time for us to go home)

You love playing with your toes and are totally infatuated with mine. So sad that I won't let you eat them... your teeth are sharp!

Speaking of teeth, your 7th one came in this weekend. #8 is close behind... it's taken 3 weeks of ice, Tylenol, and lots of comforting to get you through these two making their grand entrance. I hope your canines wait a little while!

Thank goodness you're not mobile yet. You keep trying to get up on your toes - knees haven't occurred to you yet. BUT, you can get around the floor pretty well by rotating and rolling :)

The cord to my laptop is now the most desirable thing in the living room.

You still love the colorful ring stacker. Except now you know how to take the rings off. It's very exciting for you :)

So far you've tried rice cereal by itself and mixed with bananas and avocado (separately). You tolerate about 10 bites of the banana, decided there was definitely something wrong with the avocado, and aren't interested in the plain cereal. The puffs that you can pick up yourself are a big hit, though! Unfortunately, feeding yourself pieces of banana, carrot, and potato aren't as exciting. Mashed potatoes last night weren't welcome either, although you sure liked the few bites of KFC mashed potato you had at Mrs. Marla's house last week. Oh, and you loved the crumbs of Mrs. Kathy's cinnamon scone that I gave you at church two weeks ago. Crazy kid.

You won't let me clip your fingernails. I'm not sure how to remedy this... and they're getting sharp. You have a bunch of scratches on your nose and face. Sorry.

Outside fixes everything. You love when I take you out to the front yard to play and wait for Daddy to come home. Cats and dogs now rank higher than airplanes... when Oreo comes by you are mesmerized. I'm allergic to him, though, so I'm afraid to say that your only hope of kitty happiness is visiting other families with them or playing with Oreo in the yard. Just don't get his fur on you :)

You recently found the ONLY sound-making hand-held toy we own. If it didn't make you SO HAPPY I would give it away. Thankfully you get tired of it after about 5 min.

I forgot to put velcro tabs on your taggie blanket when I made it for you. I was so excited about the nylon strap tabs, rope knots, and circle/star toys I cannibalized from that octopus toy you gnawed apart that I put on it that I forgot to do the velcro. So you still seek out everything with velcro or straps on it to chew on instead of the blanket I made you. I may have to take it apart and add velcro...

You've now rolled in a giant U from my left side to my right side while I've been typing this.

We've gone swimming twice now! The first time was with Uncle Nathan and Evie and Hannah in their little inflatable pool in their backyard. (Click HERE for Aunt Jackie's post about it... I don't yet have the photos to post directly). The water was COLD! You kept playing until your lips turned blue and I took you out :) The second time was in Mrs. Vicki's big pool. You got to sit in her little floaty ring with Mrs. Marla while I helped Marlie "swim" around the deeper sections.

You love having your friends come over for Music Class every Monday. You're totally overloaded and exhausted afterward, but it's fun to watch the big kids dance and sing!

Bath time is still lots of fun. You're almost too big for your baby bathtub! But it's so much easier giving you a bath in the sink than bending down at the big tub that I still use it. You love the "Things That Go" book that Grammy gave you when she visited a while ago. You also love to stick out your tongue and lick the water when I use the sprayer to rinse you off. You laugh and giggle and flail your arms :) I wonder how that will work in the big bath tub...


Last weekend you got to meet a bunch of people from Daddy's school. We went to the groundbreaking for the new school building and you really enjoyed being outside in the sun! The hat you wore kept you from getting burned but Daddy wasn't so smart. His head is red. You played piano for the first time with Mrs. Peggy at Momma's old school. At first you were scared of it, but then it was exciting :) The students at the awards dinner (for Daddy's school, held at Momma's old school) were SUPER excited to meet you. It made me so proud :) And happy to see Daddy excited to show you off. You wore your "My Dad is the World's Greatest Statistics Teacher" shirt one of his students gave us last spring.

You still like to take your diaper off. I need to buy you some shorts - it's too hot to wear pants all the time! And you need some more footie pajamas but I can't find any bigger than you're currently wearing (and will soon grow out of!). I might have to order them online or make some.

I installed your big boy car seat on Monday. I was sad to put away the infant carrier but you LOVE the new car seat! When I put you in it you spread your legs out wide, hung your elbows over the sides, snuggled your bum down in and looked out the window. You liked looking out the window before, but now it's even better since you're about 6 inches higher and don't have to look out just the top - now you can see the cars, etc, going by!

For Mother's Day Daddy took us out to lunch and then you and I met Mrs. Paula and Elias at Mud Pie and Co. and painted a plate. It has a green rim with blue dots and we put your footprints in the center of it! Elias's plate for his Momma is brown and blue with little tiny dots and his feet. You boys are so thoughtful ;)

Uncle Kevin and Uncle Kirk are coming to visit next month! Daddy is super excited to see them and for you to meet them. Uncle Kevin is the one you're named after (middle name). Kevin is his middle name too! When God decides to give you a baby brother, his middle name will be Kirk.

I love you, my sweet boy! You're growing up so fast... I just cherish every time you snuggle with me or flash a big toothy grin. Daddy and I are the center of your universe right now, and while it's exhausting sometimes I dread the day that your friends (and, gasp, girls!) become more important than we are. You are a sweet, sweet gift from God!

Love,
Momma