Hannah Update: 7 months....really?!

...I've had this update in my head for over a week, complete with pictures, but I can't find my camera cord, so I kept putting it off. Well, if I keep putting it off, I won't write it, so I'm going to write it now and hope to find the cord to add the pictures soon.

I can't believe how quickly time flies by and what my little girl is now doing! God is so good and I am so blessed with her presence every day. Last night I held her while she was sleeping for just a little longer than normal. Breathing in her scent and willing that she feel the deep love that I have for her, emanating from me. I pray that she always knows how much her daddy and I love her.

So, what she's doing now:

1. Eating food! We started with rice cereal a couple weeks before her 6 month birthday. From there, we quickly added in veggies and then fruits. So far we've tried avocado, peas, green beans, sweet potatoes, pears, apricots, and bananas. As we started introducing food, she started getting constipated so I added in oatmeal instead of the rice and things started moving again ;) I also waited a bit with the bananas because I knew they could cause more constipation and also because they were so sweet and I wanted her palate to get used to some things that weren't as easy to like. It's been fun! So far her favorites are sweet potatoes, green beans, and bananas (of course).

2. She is making more distinct consonant sounds. Her most recent are "babababa" and "dadadada." So I guess that technically she's saying "dada," although I'm not sure it can truly be marked as such since she doesn't seem to connect her daddy with "dada" yet.

3. Copying what we do. The first time she did this was one of the first times she was sitting in her high chair eating. She had cocked her head to the side and I copied her and went back and forth from side to side. She just stared at me. However, the next time I put her in the high chair, she started doing it! It's now become a fun little game where when we sit down to eat, she sometimes cocks her head from side to side before taking a bite. She'll also "blow raspberries" if I do, and copy "dada" and "baba" when I do it. She also "sings" when I sing a song to her. So sweet. At the same time, it's somewhat scary because she's become so attentive to what we do and say- we really have to make sure we're modeling what we want her to do!

4. Sitting up on her own. Starting a few weeks ago, Hannah started sitting, starting a little wobbly, but soon getting the hang of it. She can now sit up on her own for pretty much any length of time. I think the longest so far has been about 25 minutes, and even then she didn't topple over. It's nice that she can do that and reach for her own toys.

5. Rolling alllll over the place, especially on our bed. She's not crawling yet, but is much more content to have her tummy time for a long period of time.

6. She has two teeth! Her bottom two teeth came in about a month or so ago- love it! It caused some trouble with sleeping and we're finally getting back to a stretch of about 6-7 hours at night. However, I know that could always change at any moment. :)

7. She is (finally) sleeping without a swaddle. John can take credit for this one. One evening, he said that we should just try it. And voila! Just like that, she's been fine ever since! I think it's actually helped with her sleep, as the swaddle was hindering her from being able to roll around or help her get settled down anymore. It was really a lot more freeing than I thought it would be!

I love our little one more each day- I'm trying to treasure the daily moments while at the same time, I look forward to the little milestones right around the corner!