Happy 7 Months

Happy 7 months to our little Emma Reese! It's hard to believe that it has already been that long because the time has just flown by at what seems like the speed of light. The fact that we will be celebrating her first birthday in just five short months completely boggles my mind. Where did the time go? This month there has not been as many new changes as in previous months. The theme seemed to be improving and adding onto all of the many new and exiting developmental milestones that she has been working so hard to perfect. Here are just a handful of her latest accomplishments...

• Though she is not totally mobile yet, she is getting extremely close. She is now able to get all the way up on her hands and knees, rock back and forth, and take a step here and there. She is very proficient at scooting, rolling, and rotating her body 360 degrees when on her stomach. Because of this she is now easily able to move about the room freely from toy to toy.
• We have now begun introducing meat into her diet and are feeding her what is the equivalent to stage 3 food in the homemade form. So far the only meats she is eating are turkey and extra lean ground beef in the form of a finely shopped spaghetti.
• She is now holding her own bottle for the entirety of her feedings. Her motor skills have been more than advanced enough to do this for months, however, Miss Emma is quite lazy when it comes to feedings and up until about a week ago, she refused to hold her own bottle.
• Her newest word is "Mama" which is typically yelled at me when I am making her food and in her mind, am taking entirely too long.
• Grammy bought her a new toy this month that is made up of gears that come on and off and are set into a tray that lights up. When the button on the tray is pressed the gears light up, move, and a song is played. Emma loves this toy and it is safe to say that it has now become her favorite thing to play with. Thank you Grammy!
• She has now begun eating 8oz at some feedings rather than the 6oz that she typically requires.
• There are no teeth yet but she has been teething up a storm and her two bottom teeth can be felt right under her gums if you run a finger across them.
• Emma loves being read to and is finally beginning to understand the concept of listening to the story rather than chewing on the book. She loves turning the pages for me and her entire face lights up the moment I begin reading to her. Thus far her favorite book seems to be "Goodnight Sleepyhead."
• One not so exiting skill she has gained is the ability to remove her socks in the blink of an eye. She will take them off no matter where we are, ie. home, grocery store, park, car seat, etc...
• Her new favorite game is taking all of the toys out of her toy basket one by one each morning during playtime. Sometimes she even puts them back into the basket.
• Grammy made Emma a beautiful pink blanket about a month ago and it is now Emma's favorite thing to snuggle up with. She has a lot of nice blankets but has really taken to this one in a way that she has never done with any of the others.

We love you our little Emma-Bear and we are so proud of everything you have achieved throughout the course of this past month. You are a wonderful little girl and have brought so much joy to our lives. We cannot wait to see what you have in store for us this next month! My prediction is that you will master crawling within the next four weeks- I guess we will just have to wait and see!

The above photo displays Emma practicing her crawling skills. She is getting pretty good!