Julia Rose at 7 months old

It is absolutely ridiculous how big this little girl is getting.  And I mean that both teasingly and literally.  Rose is definitely into 12-18 month sizes now (in fact, she's already too big for many of those clothes, particularly ones with more restrictive, less elastic waistbands, which is so weird because just last month I was saying how I was just moving her into those sizes so I think she must have had a major growth spurt recently).  I'm guessing she easily weighs over 21 pounds now and that is some serious weight to carry around.  By the end of the three hour church block on Sundays my arms feel like lead. 

 

Her biggest milestone achieved this past month has been learning to roll over from her back to her tummy, which she now does whenever we put her down to sleep.  She likes to sleep either on her stomach or sleeping on her side.  But so far she refuses to get up on her knees in anything resembling a crawling position.  She loves sitting up to play with toys, however, and recently has decided that standing is pretty much the coolest thing ever and wants to be held in a standing position to look around. 

Rose is still a good sleeper and we have adjusted her schedule to where she can stay up most days until 7:00 so that Paul gets to see her more, which has been really so nice.  She has been waking up once a night 4-5 times a week lately (teething, grrr) but really she just needs a little comforting and then goes right back down to sleep until about 6:15 usually.  When she does wake up in the morning she will happily hang out in her crib gurgling and talking and twisting around and around and around in little laps for half an hour until I go in to get her.  I am trying to be intentional about giving her this time to entertain herself because I know it will help her as she gets older when I can't attend to her every second.  And she is just so darn cute to watch on the monitor as she just chatters away in her crib.

Rose has both of her two bottom front teeth now and has been fussing more lately again so I'm thinking that maybe her top ones are starting to make their way in too.  She still loves to eat pretty much anything but is definitely starting to show an interest in table food, particularly when I feed her little pieces of muffin or bread or anything like that.  She still eats purees primarily but we are working on giving her more opportunities with "real" foods like spaghetti and tacos and fish and chicken - basically whatever we are having that we can mash down small enough for her to handle it.  Fresh fruit, especially pineapple and raspberries, seem to be a favorite for her and she also really likes those baby "puffs" and cheerios although she hasn't figured out her coordination enough to get them into her mouth on her own yet.  But they are perfect for church because when she starts getting fussy I can just pull those out and keep her happy for a good 20-30 minutes while she sits on my lap gumming those down and shaking the container they are in. 

Rose looks like she is going to have wavy hair.  She has a spot on the right hand front side that curls after her bath, even when I have combed and brushed it down.  It is darling and we are waiting to see if the rest of her hair curls as it gets longer or if it is just going to be that one spot. 

Rose has become much more vocal too.  She says "mamamamamama" most often but I can't claim "mama" to be her first word quite yet because it is definitely just a babbling sort of jabber and not a formed word.  But she continues to be just a really social, happy little gal who loves to be talked to and interacted with and has a big smile ready for pretty much anybody.  Oh, and Rose also figured out how to clap this past month (although not yet on command though she finds our excitement when she does it pretty hilarious). 

In this next month I am thinking/hoping Rose starts making progress with crawling - at least some pushing with her feet a bit or trying to push up onto her knees.  I think it will make all of our lives a little bit easier if Rose could get around a bit because she gets frustrated just laying in one spot and my arms and back are taking a beating from how heavy she is!  Plus, I think that Clara will be excited to see Rose more mobile.  Clara has definitely been much more interested in and interactive with Rose this past month as Rose has been "talking" to her more and showing greater interest in toys and standing and playing. 

And that's pretty much the scoop on Rose these days.  She was totally over this photo shoot by the end but I had to include this shot because you can actually see both of her little teeth in it!