Here's our monthly letter to him:
10/15/10
Dear Santiago:
You are now seven months old! Wow! We are amazed at how quickly our time with you has flown by so far.
You are so close to crawling. We can see it in your face – you sit up and will look at something in front of you and reach for it. If you can’t reach it, you get so frustrated and give a little scream or shout. Usually we’ll let you try a few times, and sometimes we’ll position you on your tummy to see if you will crawl – but you are smarter than we are and instead of crawling, you’ve taken to rolling everywhere! The problem is that you can only roll from left to right or vice versa, so if something is in front of you you can’t get to it! You are also pushing up on your arms all the way and we often find you this way in your crib. Now if you can just get the strength the hold that belly off the ground, we know you’ll be crawling in no time!
You love the cats – when you’re on the floor, they’ll come over and sniff you and Monet will often be seen “marking” you with her head. I guess they’ve finally realized you’re not going anywhere, so they are going to say you’re “theirs.”
You are eating like a champ! You love all foods that we put in front of you, although sometimes we have to mix them together to get a combination that you enjoy! You are such a happy, smiley baby, and always smile when we go in to pick you up from sleeping from the night before or for naps. Nothing makes us feel better than to see your little smiling face peering back at us from your crib.
You have also taken to being serious a lot more, and we can see the wheels turning as you examine things, be it a toy you’re passing back and forth between your hands, or watching one of us. You’re so observant and we think you get that quality from your dad.
Here are some of the things you’re doing this month:
• Pushing up on your arms all the way
• Passing toys back and forth between your hands
• Playing with your feet and getting them to your mouth after the bath
• Outgrowing your bath seat – we had to buy a new pad for the tub to sit you on to bathe you since you outgrew your baby tub
• Still working with the sippy cup. You can hold it in your hands, you just like to use the spout as a chew toy right now
• Working on another tooth – you now have three, all along the bottom but we think we can see a fourth on the bottom coming in
• Holding spit or something in your mouth and then smiling and laughing with your mouth closed
• Rolling everywhere! Not just while on the floor but at night when we try to change you after your bath we have to work around your constant rolling to dress you!
• Hating having shirts and jackets put on. For some reason you’re ok with all other clothing going on but if we have to put your arms through any sleeves, you will scream in protest
• Wearing Size 3 diapers
• Wearing size 6-9 month pants, 6-12 month shirts, 12 month onesies (although a little long in the sleeves)
• Wearing size 2 shoes
• Wearing size 6 month hats
• Eating about 6-8 oz per feeding in three bottles a day and one nursing session
• Having formula mixed in with mom’s milk
• Rarely spitting up anymore
• Putting your arms out to be picked up when you’re in your bouncer or on the floor or bed
• Trying to help us feed you when you have a bottle or we use a spoon
• Start out sleeping on your back, then your side and you always end up on your tummy. You sleep just like mom usually, with one leg bent up
• Have three teeth but almost a fourth one coming in. All along the bottom
We love every minute we spend with you. Daddy and I both race home to hold you and play with you before we give you dinner, bath, story and milk and put you to bed. And on the weekends, we love spending as much time as we can with you. You constantly amaze us and you are so smart – figuring things out for yourself that we haven’t even figured out. We can’t wait to see what you have in store for us next month!
Love,
Mommy and Daddy
