Dear Jo Jo,
Today you are seven months old, and you have spent almost six of those months with me as your mom. I can’t believe how much you change each month. You started off small for your age, and now you are bigger than almost all babies your age. You skipped 6 months size clothing, pretty much, and hopped right into 6-9 or 9 month size. I get a little sad every time I pack away one of your little pajamas, thinking of all the cuddles I had with my snuggly baby wearing them. I think I will save some of your most worn jammies and outfits and make myself a quilt so that I can always have you to snuggle with, even when you’re grown.
You are so active. Your little hands are always reaching out, grabbing at anything in reach. You want to push and pull and rattle and bang and turn every object in sight. Your favorite things to play with are cords, computer mice, and computer keyboards! Are you going to be a techie when you grow up? You don’t put many things in your mouth, though, not the way most babies do. If I hold something up to your mouth for you, you will always give it a try. You have two front teeth and you seem to like gnawing on cloth with them. You also gnawed on a crunchy biscuit and fed it to yourself- the first time I’ve seen you feed yourself! You have always preferred me to feed you with a spoon, refusing to put food in your hands into your mouth yet.
The big news in food, besides feeding yourself the biscuit (and later, a crunchy wafer cookie), is that you have starting offering me a taste! You shrug your shoulder and hold your soggy, chewed on cookie to me to have a nibble. This makes you so happy! Otherwise, it’s sort of hit and miss how much solids you will eat. You have polished off a whole can of green beans before, and eaten solid canned green beans on top of it, but other times you don’t seem interested at all.
What really makes you laugh is splashing. You splash and splash yourself (and me) in the bath, and then you laugh like crazy. I recorded it like five times, it’s just so adorable. Other things that have made you laugh was your cousin Audrey dancing or splashing you, and your mommy giving you belly kisses and tickling your face with my hair. You can jump in your jenny-jump-up for long stretches of time, and you never seem to tire of bouncing!
I’m so excited to see what you do this month. You are in crawling position now, but you still end up flopping on your belly. You haven’t figured out how to propel forward yet, but I know it’s going to be soon! Maybe by next month I’ll have baby-proofed and gated up the house. You can stand up holding on to objects by yourself now, so your crib had to be lowered into the “big baby” position. You tried on your kitty cat costume, and I can’t wait to take Halloween photos of you!
I love you so much, more than I can say, and more and more with every day. You are everything anyone could ever want in a child, and I have been blessed by each moment with you. I can’t wait to get home from work to see you again, and I never get tired of spending every moment with you on my days off. You are my favorite person in the whole world.
Mother of All Things 