As a 7-month-old now, I’m feeling very mature.

I’ve grown over a pound since last month – now I’m 14 lbs 10 oz, which is still only in the 5-10 percentile for my age although mom and dad think I’m huge.

I like to “talk” a lot with my new noises, and I love to eat “solid” foods, like rice cereal, oatmeal, applesauce, pears, peas, carrots and bananas.

But my mostest favorite things these days are sitting up by myself (until I fall over) and practicing my crawling/scooting.

As you can see in these videos, I’ve made lots of progress over the past week and I love the newfound independence it gives me! I will admit that I still have more than my fair share of face plants, but hopefully I’ll figure out a less painful way of getting forward soon.

Another activity I absolutely adore is bathtime with Maddy. I sit in my bumbo chair and we play the “who can splash the other more” game. It’s super fun.

Mommy says that one reason I’m able to enjoy all this stuff is because I’m becoming a pretty good sleeper most nights and days (except when my runny nose really gets to me). I sleep 10-11 hours straight most nights, and either take two solid 2-3 hour naps or three 1-2 hour naps every day. Yay for me!

I won’t go into details about how my digestive system is also maturing, let’s just say it’s a much less enjoyable part of this growth stage.

Happy 7 months to me!

- Hayden

Here’s a random video and photo below…

Maddy’s becoming very expressive of her emotions. Some common statements from her these days include:

- I don’t like you!
- I need attention.
- I’m lonely.
- Carry me!
- I need to be alone.
- Go upstairs and work so I can play with Boi (our nanny).

She also says many happier and endearing things, like “Mommy, let’s eat together!” or “Mommy, let’s sit on the couch with Hayden.”

She also loves to play doctor ever since she saw her big cousin Sage playing doctor over Skype. The other night when we were Skyping with my mom, she explained in detail that she was a doctor helping take care of Hayden because Hayden was sick because she fell off the chair and bumped her head. Not at all true, by the way.

She still loves to read books and has started “reading” them alone more often, which I love. Her favorite this week is a book about going to the aquarium, which her Auntie Leigh gave her after we all went to the Monterey Bay Aquarium together. The book lists the names of many many kinds of fish, and I noticed last night that Maddy had memorized a bunch of them – like the Lookdown fish, Parrotfish and Jawfish. Every time we read it, she is sure to inform me that she doesn’t like the crab, but her favorite is the seahorse.

Still not much progress on the potty, but she tries often and has success occasionally.

No one can believe it, but yes I’m 6 months old already! When mom said “Happy half-birthday” to me this morning, Maddy insisted that we put on these hats and have cake (”one cake for mommy, one cake for daddy, one cake for Maddy and one cake for Hayden”).

We got a negatory on the cake, but luckily mom had never put away the stuff from Maddy’s birthday party in September, so we got to wear birthday hats.

For my half-birthday present, my mom finally gave me an A on my sleep-training report card It was a long 3.5 weeks, but I’m finally learning to appreciate the joy of 11 straight hours of sleep. I kind of alternate between 2-nap days and 3-nap days depending on my mood, but either way I really love my naps now and always take pretty long ones.

Oh, and here’s some completely unrelated documentation of how much I love my bathtimes (this video is actually me being the most still ever in a bath):

- Hayden

P.S. While we’re celebrating, I have to say a happy actual BIRTH day to my brand new cousin, Ezra Noble Carman, who was born this morning. We’re going to be best friends, I can’t wait to meet him.

P.P.S. When I went to the doctor’s office, I weighed in at 13 lbs 9 oz (10th percentile), at 24.75 inches long (10-25th percentile), with a head circumference of 40 cm (we think they measured wrong, b/c that puts my head below the 5th percentile).