Riley - 7 Months

 

Not quite walking but Riley is moving along the sofa, transferring to the chair and the wall and also walking with a push walker. He absolutely loves it and so proud of himself.

 

He wants to do all the things we do...walking, eating finger foods.

 

He loves his Monkey, mirrors, balls and anything with wheels.  He also likes helping with laundry and emptying the dishwasher.

It seems my daily conversation with the daycare at my gym at pick up time is always the same:

Daycare Worker - "He is soo active."

Me - "Yes he is."

Daycare Worker - (casually looks at the sign in board with his age)  "He is really only 7 months?!  But he is crawling and standing and wants to walk everywhere?!"

Me - "Yes I know." (As if I didn't know that he is really only 7 months old and into EVERYTHING.  The other day he crawled into the kitchen, opened the dishwasher, and took out a spoon all before I barely even noticed he left the room).

Unfortunately, our happy little sleeper started waking in the night with nightmares as he is tackling this next phase and growth spurt and has decided he no longer wants to sleep in his crib.

I do have trouble keeping him entertained when we are at home, even for a few hours.  I am starting to think daycare might have been a good idea.  He is so active and loves other kids. So in the mean time, we are trying to fill our days with as many gym sessions, coffee meetups, lunches, and play dates as possible. I am usually double booked these days. And when we are home, we build play gyms out of the couch cushions, make forts and tunnels with blankets, sing songs, play hide and seek with Monkey (Monkey is always doing crazy things like riding his train or swinging from the lamps) and have our own cupboard in the kitchen full of bowls and rubber spatulas.

 

We are also still traveling a lot. I think it is good for him. So after Spain and Portugal this month, we head to Paris next week.

We are also annual members of the zoo.  Riley likes the monkeys and the petting zoo but loves the fish and penguins.

Before Riley arrived, I always said he would have to accommodate my schedule.  Well, he does for the most part but we have made a few trips to the zoo, the cartoon network has made its way on a few times (he loves Dora, Garfield and Bob the Builder), my ipad is now full of baby apps and movies (He loves the Happy Feet app. Its actually pretty cool for babies), and if he is lucky, sometimes we stop at the park or something.  I do love to see him happy and sometimes wearing him out makes my life better too.  He gets quite fussy when he is bored.

Riley's Stats

• Nights in his own bed - 0

What I Love about Riley this Month:

• Tickles - He is soo ticklish on his neck and underarms.
• He is soo active - Some may dread their 7 month old who is crawling, standing, climbing and walking but he is soo fun. I wouldn't have it any other way.

• He wears his heart on his sleeve (or his face) - He has the best facial expressions and eyes.  You can read everything he is thinking and what he is going to do next. 
• The look on his face when he wants something - He is so focused and his whole body shakes, whether it is the pool, bath, daycare, a particular toy, or a chocolate muffin.

• Every month I wonder how I will be able to find more new things I love about Riley but at the month's end there is always something, and I love that in and of itself.