Peyton Brooke {Seven Months}

Our little Miss P is growing and learning so quickly! Time is flying by and that makes me both excited and sad all at the same time. This is age is so much fun though, and I am loving every minute. Peyton turned 7 months old on January 13th and here is what she has been up to!

Weight/Length: As of January 13th, she weighed 17 lbs 5 oz. and was 28 1/4 inches long. Her chubby cheeks and chunky thighs are the cutest ever, I could literally squeeze her all day long.

Hair: She still doesn't have much hair at all, but it's starting to come in slowly. Depending on what lighting you look at her in, it could be either blonde or light brown. However, Jared and I were both towhead blondes as children, so I'll be shocked if she doesn't end up being blonde.

Eyes: Hazel now! Most of the time they are a green with flecks of brown, but sometimes they are really green...basically the exact same thing that my eyes do.

Diapers: She is rockin' the Size 3 Pampers Swaddlers Sensitive now!

Clothing: She can still fit in some of her 6 month clothing, but she is quickly outgrowing it. She wears mostly 6-9 month or some of her smaller looking 9 month clothes. For sleepers, she can only wear 9 months because of the length. Winter clothes for babies are super cute, but horrible to actually dress them in. I do not envy anyone who has children and lives in a place where it is actually cold for long periods of time. I basically would never leave my house. Peyton does not like to be covered up so trying to get pants, long-sleeves, hats and socks on her is just not even worth it to me. Therefore, on really cold days she either wears a sleeper out or we just stay home.

Favorite Things: her giraffe WubbaNub, rattles, books that she can pick up on her own, her baby doll, Oball, Touch and Swipe Baby Phone, Little People Cinderella's Coach, Click, Rattle 'N Roll Caterpillar, Rock-A-Stack, Baby Einstein Musical Activity Table, and her favorite book Who's Who at the Zoo (I decided to put the links for all her favorite toys in case there are any mamas out there who are interested in seeing what they are) 

Likes: sitting up on her own, picking up everything she can get her hands on, looking at pictures or videos of herself, being held up to stand or dance, standing at her activity table, looking at books, peek-a-boo, the itsy bitsy spider, any songs with hand motions, sucking on a teething ring or her WubbaNub, taking her paci in and out of her mouth, food, "dancing" to music, squealing and saying "da-da" or "ma-ma".

Dislikes: laying down for any reason other than taking a nap, clothing and diaper changes, taking away her bottle or food before she is finished, having dirty hands, being on her tummy, cold weather clothes, and not being able to see what is going on around her.

Feeding Patterns: We are now eating food twice per day, nursing 3 times per day and having a bottle of breastmilk once per day. She nurses at 8am, 1pm, 5pm and has her bottle at 8pm. She eats food around 2pm and 6pm. However, I am getting ready to change her feeding schedule to incorporate bigger portions of food twice per day with only nursing twice per day and still doing the 8pm bottle of breastmilk. During this last month, she has been eating sweet potatoes, carrots, oatmeal and bananas. The oatmeal and bananas mixture is by far her favorite. I am still making all of her food myself and I really enjoy it. It's easy and I can make a ton at one time for super cheap. The other day I made $10 worth of organic baby food for only $1.99 on my own. Not only is the food I make fresh and better for her, but it's a lot cheaper and I can do more flavor/mixture varieties as she gets older. Win, win. 

Sleeping Patterns: This child loves to sleep and I sure love her for that! She sleeps 11 hours at night from 9pm-8am. She has also been on a really good routine of taking a solid morning nap from 10am-1pm which gives me the perfect opportunity to get a lot accomplished around the house and eat my own lunch before she wakes up and needs to be fed again. The only downside to that nap time is that typically there are a lot of play groups and baby activities going on during that time that I would like to take her to; therefore, occasionally I will push her nap back an hour so that we can go participate in some of those things. She typically just goes with the flow and then falls asleep on our way home. We are still working on getting the afternoon nap routine settled because recently she has been wanting to wait and take her nap in the early evening and then I have to wake her up for her 8pm bottle and I just don't like that routine. I would rather her take an afternoon (around 3:00 or so) nap and then stay awake from her 5pm feeding until bedtime. Just something we need to work on. She is typically very easy to schedule and change up the routine with so I don't think it will be a problem. 

Month Seven Milestones: Peyton sits alone very well and I can leave her sitting on the floor or in the pack-n-play with no worries. She reaches out and picks up the toys she wants with no problem and if something she wants is out of her reach then she just leaves it there and plays with something else closer to her. I feel like this child is never going to crawl. She has no desire to be on her tummy or moving anywhere. She can sort of push up onto her hands and knees from her tummy, but she hates it so she mostly just lays there and cries instead. She only wants to sit (or stand with help) and entertain herself with whatever is close by. We took the infant divider seat out of her bathtub, so now she sits up on her own and plays during bath time. She not only says "da-da", but now "ma-ma" as well! She can sit in a regular high chair (like in a restaurant) on her own and also sits forward facing in her stroller now without the car seat adapter. She had her first taste of water from a sippy cup and although she doesn't really know how to use the sippy cup yet, she can drink water from it with help. We attended our first neighborhood play date and met some babies her age! She started cutting her first tooth which (thus far) has not been as bad as I thought it would be, she is handling it very well. Her favorite new thing to do is try to stand at her activity table on her own. She obviously uses the table to support herself, but she can stand up at it and I can let go of her for a minute or so and she just stands there playing. Like I said, I'm pretty sure that she might actually skip crawling and go straight to standing.   

Mama's Thoughts: Every day with Peyton is pure joy. Even the days that aren't so easy. She greets me with a smile every morning that just melts my heart. This has been my favorite age thus far. She is old enough to really play and interact, show off her personality and start being a little independent, but she's still young enough to not be mobile or talking back yet. It's perfect. She is so inquisitive and observant. I love watching her just take in everything going on around her and observe. Sometimes when we are at play dates or out somewhere, she just sits there and observes everyone and everything. She loves to look at people's faces and really study them. I always thought that she would just bang and throw toys around at this age, but she loves to turn them over and over in her hands and really look at them. She truly is an easy baby, which makes me terrified to have another one because I know that there is no way I could get this lucky twice. She is so sweet and always happy, which makes me happy all the time too. Her joy is contagious. I can't wait to continue watching her grow and learn every day. Being Peyton's mommy is the best job ever.   

Celebrated the baptism and 1st birthday of our friend, Joseph!

Our Church Small Group Christmas Party with Lorelei and Mary Claire

 Peyton got to wear mommy's dress and shoes from her 1st Christmas 1987

She got to meet Santa for the first time! (Read my blog post about it here)

 We celebrated Peyton's first Christmas Eve (Read my blog post about it here)

 All ready for bed and excited to see what Santa brought her for Christmas!

 Our first Christmas morning as a family of three! (Read my blog post about it here) 

 Christmas Day

Peyton got to meet Grammy's sister, Auntie Moe!

She made some adorable Christmas crafts for the grandmas (Read my blog post about it here)

 She had oatmeal and bananas for the first time and loved it!

 Sat in a regular high chair at a restaurant for the first time

 Family frolic around downtown St. Augustine

 Housewarming and Rose Bowl watching party in our new house

 Getting to know her new boyfriend, Harrison, who will be here very soon! 

 Loves to sit by herself and is so good at it!

 Mommy's training buddy for the Gate River Run

 Exploring our new neighborhood and all the wonderful fitness trails! 

 Daddy built a beautiful new bookshelf for her room from scratch! 

Enjoying the fact that we can wear summer clothes in January

 Peyton's first New Year!

 We got to enjoy lunch at the clubhouse at TPC Sawgrass! A first for both Peyton and mommy. 

Peyton loves to look at books, especially on her own. This book, "Who's Who at the Zoo" is her favorite. She gets so excited when she sees it and she gets mad if I try to read her a different book at bedtime. It has to be this one. Needless to say, I have this book memorized. 

Happy 7 Months Baby Girl!