Seven Months

Eli's seventh month has been more of a quiet one without too much activity, especially after all the Christmas festivities during December. Over this past month, Eli's schedule has become much more consistent, where he eats and sleeps at the same time every day. I think with the start of eating solid food, this has helped create a much more routine schedule every day.

As for his eating patterns, his formula still provides the majority of his calories every day, but he takes less formula at meal time. He is still trying out new fruits and vegetables twice a day for lunch and supper. This past month he has added new vegetables to his menu: Carrots, peas, which were not his favorite; he did much better when I mixed in some formula with it, and green beans, which he loved! He also tried fruits for the first time. With both the apples and pears, it took a few different tries until he seemed to like these better. He loved the peaches, though, which surprised me because they had such a strong smell unlike the applesauce and pears. He has been spitting up much less lately but still drools quite a bit with no sign of any teeth yet. I tried giving him some water in a sippy cup, but I think it will be a while before he really learns how to get anything out of it. He would rather just play with it and throw it on the ground, so I think I will wait and try again with this task later.

Eli's sleeping pattern is still the same. He will usually nap for an hour in the morning and 2 hours in the afternoon. He is still sleeping really well throughout the night from 7:00 to about 6:30 or 7:00 in the morning.

Eli is still a very active boy playing with all his toys. He also really enjoys playing peek-a-boo, pat-a-cake, and looking at himself in the mirror. He laughs much more now; not just when he is tickled. Sometimes I am stumped as to what he could possibly be laughing at, but I guess he is able to find humor in things very easily. He is generally a very happy, active boy:)

Six Months

Elijah experienced many firsts during his sixth month. He visited Santa for the first time, celebrated his first Christmas, enjoyed his first grocery shopping trip, started sitting alone, and began to eat solid food. This morning, we took him to his 6-month doctor's appointment. He weighed in at 21 pounds and 10 ounces and measured 29-1/4 inches. The nurse said he was between the 90th and 97th percentile for weight (not sure why it is such a broad range), and he was actually off the chart for his height.

One of the most exciting things this month for Eli (and me:) was trying out solid food. He started with rice cereal, which was not his favorite.

He enjoyed the sweet potato and squash much better! Next on the menu will be carrots (I cannot image what these might taste like as baby food), and then he will move on to the green vegetables and later on fruit. He is really getting the hang of eating from a spoon and swallowing the food instead of spitting it back out. He is one messy eater, though!

This was even after a bib was used.

He is still taking 6 ounces of formula at a time and taking in 36 total ounces in a day.

Eli is still a really good sleeper. His morning nap is between 45 minutes and an hour, and he sleeps in the afternoon for either 2 hours at once or he will take 2 separate 1-hour naps, totaling 3 hours of napping each day. He is almost always ready for bed by 7:00 at night and wakes up between 6:30 and 7:00 in the morning.

Since he received so many neat toys for Christmas, they are among his new favorite things. Eli especially likes toys that make music. He received 2 different activity walkers for Christmas, and he loves to sit in front of them and play with them. He has become a master at emptying his bucket of different shapes, as well as taking off the rings from the stacker. He also likes to bang the different shapes together. He loves to watch the ball popper, and this might be one of my favorite toys he got too! As far as listening to books being read, he is now more interested in putting the books in his mouth and grabbing the pages. Eli seems to enjoy going to church too, which I think is because he has so many different people to watch, and there is enough variety of activity between the music, sitting, and standing to keep him entertained. He also has really become a friendly boy by smiling at people that come up and talk to him. Another one of his favorite things is listening to Ian's friend AJ play his guitar. Now that he has some bath toys, that has made his bath time experience more fun too.

Once his socks are off, he likes to put his toes in his mouth.

He also seems to love the freedom of kicking his legs when he is lying down. You definitely don't want to be in the way of his legs when he is exercising!

The biggest milestone this sixth month has been the ability to now sit by himself. There are still times when he topples over, but his balance has been getting much better, and it is more of a slow fall.

Eli is very good at entertaining himself, especially for longer periods of time now. He can roll over both ways, but he hardly ever does so. He seems to be much happier now that he can sit up though and play with his toys.

Never too young to be a member of a club...


Have you ever wondered what Eli would look like with glasses on?


Apparently, I did...

(Disclaimer: No worries about trauma from having my glasses on; his vision checked out okay on the vision screening at his appointment today...lol.)

Last but not least, here is a sneak peek of his 6-month photo shoot:

It was a bit ironic the photographer had this sock monkey hat set already out for him to use when we got there, since I was planning on that same idea for the theme of his first birthday party. You can't really see it here, but the diaper cover even had a tail!

To see the rest of his pictures, you can click on this link for the online photo gallery:

http://www.shootingimagesphotography.com/

Then, click on "Enter Site." Click on "Clients" towards the bottom right hand corner. The password is "mmcdonald." There is a link on the left hand side that says "Elijah 6 months" for his most recent pictures.

How fast the first half of his first year of life has gone! This sixth month stage has been my favorite so far. We are looking forward to what the second half of his first year will bring.

Christmas Part 4

Our last Christmas celebration for this year took place on New Year's Eve when we went to my aunt and uncle's house to celebrate with my mom's side of the family. Eli had lots of people to watch to keep himself entertained. This Christmas season has really been a whirlwind for him with so many people to meet!

My cousin, Nichole, knitted this cute hat for Eli:



Eli and Nichole