Theo at Seven Months

Theo turned seven months old on Friday. We took him to Mexico to celebrate. Actually, we visited Cabo for a wedding, but the trip happened to fall on Theo's seven month birth date on Friday the 13th. We did celebrate by taking him in his first swimming pool that afternoon, and even giving him some non-homemade guacamole for the first time ever. He liked the pool and loved the guacamole, as usual. We missed his monthly photo shoot due to our travel plans, so his seven month photos (which start on photo 148) were actually taken on the 16th instead of the 13th.

Theo, at seven months, has his first two teeth. Neither one is very far along, but both were definitely visible outside the gum line by seven months. He blows raspberries, sometimes for fun and sometimes because he's mad. You can tell he's excited when he makes his usual inhaling noise, but also when he shakes his head back and forth rapidly. He's definitely a charmer, whether it's a stranger or someone he knows, and he prefers to have all the attention of everyone in sight. Going out never fails to entertain him, but he has discovered a preference for mama, especially if she's in sight and particularly if he is hungry or tired.

He still sits like a champ, but has discovered he can reach things by leaning. Theo has no sense of self preservation whatsoever. He can grab objects outside his immediate area by supporting himself with one hand and picking things up with the other. He will also roll three quarters of the way over to acquire things, but if it requires the complete roll to his belly he'd rather complain about it and wait for someone to move it closer. He has also developed the pincer grasp recently, exploring smaller things with his thumb and index finger. He loves to rub any tags he can find this way. He has been thrilled with a host of new things to excite giggles, and you never know what will enthrall him. He still loves anything that's not actually meant to be a toy, especially if he sees us using it. Balls are especially exciting, and that pretty much applies to anything that rolls, from Easter eggs to cars. We celebrated not only his first Easter this month but also my first mother's day. He seemed to enjoy both occasions.

Theo sleeps fairly well during the night, still going to sleep by 7:30 each night and not waking up until somewhere between 4 and 5:20 a.m. He has gotten much better about "sleeping in" and will let us rest until around 7:15 or 7:30 a.m. these days. He spends a lot more time moving around in the crib, sometimes rotating up to 180 degrees. He eats three meals of solid food a day, and is nursing six times a day most days. His favorite solid food is still, by far, avocado, although he does seem to like the mangoes as well. He eats everything else (sweet potato, squash, yogurt, pears, and bananas) with about the same enthusiasm. He drinks water from his sippy cup with some meals. In Mexico, he drank about half a bottle of water from a regular plastic cup. It was hot down there! He also drank water from his red bucket, even though we had just poured it in there for him to play. He picked it up with both hands and tilted it like a pro, and we had to refill it several times before he drank enough.

At his last weigh in almost two weeks ago, he tipped the scales at 17.5 lbs. Theo continues to grow and delight us every day in new and amazing ways.