Margaret at Seven Months Old

Hello again, loved ones! I'll be seven whole months old tomorrow, so I thought I'd let you know how I'm doing.

My mommy thinks I am a study in contrast: Usually I am quiet as a mouse and quite placid. In fact, it happens almost daily that mommy sets me down to play and I'm so quiet for so long that she forgets I am there and thinks I'm off napping somewhere. But when I'm unhappy, I scream. I scream a whole lot and I don't stop. Just ask the staff at mommy's dental office where she and I went yesterday: the entire office complex could tell just how loud and long I can scream!

I am sitting up on my own now (and can get there from lying prone), which gives me a whole new perspective. My mommy put away my play mat, little swing, and reclined bouncy seat because she says I'm too big of a girl to use them anymore!

 

I like to hang out with my brother and sister, who go to great lengths entertaining me. I don't mind at all how they move me and carry me around. Sometimes I hear mommy or daddy tell the big kids to be less rough, but then they see how I am calm and laughing and they realize that I'm really not as delicate as they think.



I am almost crawling! My big brother was almost six months old when he was creeping like this, but my big sister was exactly my age when she learned how to crawl.

One might think with all this playing and creeping about, I'd be sleeping more soundly than ever, but that just isn't so. My earlier behavior of liking to fall asleep alone and quickly after brief crying turned out to be a phase: now I'm just like my big sister and brother were, liking to be soothed to sleep at length. (And who wouldn't want that, right? Are you with me?) I am a girl who likes to watch the sunrise, so I am sure to wake up each day between 4:30 and 5:30 a.m. Mommy says she wishes I'd sleep later and she tries to manipulate me that way--but I think everyone who knows Mommy has to admit that, as much as we love her, she just really stinks at this "sleep training" aspect of motherhood. When I take naps, whether it is two or three in a day, whether they last 45 minutes (common) or several hours (rare): I am as capricious as the wind. Mommy tells me that I'm her third baby to (not) sleep in this manner, so I think it's safe to say that the common denominator is Mommy herself. But, as I said earlier, we all love her just the same.

I have two bottom teeth and have tried about a half dozen solid foods this month--none more than maybe a whole teaspoon at most. I really have very little interest, but I don't gag, so I guess as long as Mama doesn't make me eat too much, I'll keep placating her by trying the weird stuff. Some of the food flavors I've tolerated best are avocado, roasted winter vegetable soup, and spicy beef chili (just the liquidy sauce).

According to the doctor who I visited today, I weigh 18 lbs 6 oz (77th percentile) and am 27.75 inches long (91st percentile).  At my age, Big Sister Mary was a pound heavier and a little bit longer--but those numbers must not be much of a predictor of anything because Mary's percentiles for weight and height have steadily decreased from about 90th and 60th respectively to now 53d and 23d percentiles (since she had her big girl three-year-old well child check today too).

It is nice keeping in touch with you all, dear folk!