Dear Charlotte,
We have a crawler! On July 18, just one day before you turned 7 months old, you scooted across the living room in the most adorable little army crawl. Previously, you had been pulling yourself a bit with your arms when you wanted to reach a toy that was just out of your grasp. Suddenly, it seemed, you figured out that you could move a little easier with just a little push of your feet… and you were off! You’re a fast little belly crawler! Your first stop was the heater vents, where you proceeded to stick your tiny fingers in the vent and then tried to eat it. Time to baby proof.
You expanded your food experience this month by trying apples, peas, sweet potato, carrots, and rice cereal. You weren’t particularly into of any of them. We celebrated your first 4th of July (you wore a blue onesie with white polka dots and a red heart on the bum… I must say, it was pretty dang cute!) with an indoor picnic due to the insane heat. No fireworks for you but I’m hoping you’ll be interested in them next year.
This month, we decided to move you to your own room. And you decided that you weren’t too fond of that idea. To be honest, I wasn’t either. But we knew that the longer we waited, the harder it would be to make the transition. And you were creeping up to the weight limit on your bassinet so it had to be done. You’re a belly sleeper, like your mama, which made me even more nervous since they say that babies shouldn’t sleep on their bellies. I’d flip you over onto your back, and you’d scream and immediately flip back onto your belly where you’d settle in comfortably. Eventually I gave up and resigned myself to checking on you every five minutes or so instead of continuing the baby-flipping battle. The first night of you sleeping in your crib was hard. I didn’t sleep a bit… How could I when I was watching you on the video monitor the entire night? I felt like you were losing a little bit of your babyness and gaining a little independence from your daddy and I. I was scared to give up the security of having you within my arms reach. I suppose it was a lesson in letting go. In letting you do your thing and having faith that you’ll be ok. I’m sure it’ll be one of many parenting lessons to come. You better believe that when you woke in the morning to eat at around 6am, I brought you into our room for early morning baby snuggles. I still do that nearly every day. I do believe that you’ve converted your mama into a morning person… I absolutely love that time that we have cuddling in bed together as a family.
Love,
Your mama.
Christine - I miss her! Love you guys!