Precious Smile

Kneeling Up

Lately, you've gotten really good at kneeling up. It won't be long before you're standing by yourself, but for now you kneel up and look around.

You also like to chew on your fingers, like you're doing in this picture. You put your fingers in our mouths and feel around, and you also put them in your own mouth and wiggle them against your tongue.

A Rare Moment

You laying on your back not squirming. It was such a rare occurrence I had to take a picture.


Changing your diaper and getting you dressed has become much harder now that you can move. Most of the time I'm chasing you around the room trying to get you dressed. You're too busy to hold still!

Playing with Gabbi

Our friend Gabbi comes over and plays with us on Wednesdays while her Mommy teaches dance. You two are really cute playing together.


Gabbi is good at sharing, and kept trying to give you some of her water to drink. Gabbi is going to make a good big sister some day!

Hanging Out

You like to hang out with daddy and me. Often you'll crawl up to us and bump into our legs until we pick you up.


You like to see what we've doing on the computer:


You LOVE riding on our shoulders. Whenever we put you up there you get the biggest grin on your face.


You're ready to get up in the mornings way before I am, so the first little bit of your day (after a morning feeding and diaper change) consists of me laying on the couch trying to wake up while you play on the floor. Sometimes you want to come up with me, so I'll pull you up there and play with you.

Blowout

Reading

You tend to like to be where the action is. For a couple weeks you went through a phase with our reading. When I tried to read with you sitting on my lap you would fuss and squirm until I put you and the book down on the floor. Then you would sit on the book and poke at the pictures and grab the pages.



You've since realized that you can see better if you're not sitting right on the book.

Bath Time

You LOVE taking baths. Whenever I start to fill up the bathtub you get so excited and happy. During the day you'll crawl into the bathroom, stand up by the tub and starting hitting it, like you're telling me you want a bath.

You love to stand and watch the tub fill up:

In the bathtub you splash around and play with toys. You're so happy there!

One time I took a bath while you played around in the bathroom. You kept crawling over and looking at me, then you would crawl away and keep playing. When I was finished you came over and stood by the bathtub with a big grin on your face. You were so sad and started crying when I took you out of the bathroom and you realized that you wouldn't be getting a bath.

Messy Eater

Convincing you to eat solids has been a little bit tricky. You definitely like to let us know exactly who is in charge. Sometimes you'll eat a ton and other times you refuse to eat anything.


You eat best when you have something else to do at the same time (like watching daddy eat, playing with a spoon). You are also super squirmy and end up spreading food all over your high chair.

First Tooth

This month your first tooth cut through! It was not a fun time for you. You were still very active, but got sad much faster. One thing that helped was letting you chew on a cold pop can.


Now you have a little tooth on the bottom. It's pretty sharp and hurts when you bite us!

Standing

You've learned how to pull yourself up to standing, and do it all the time. You push yourself up with pretty much everything. Boxes, couches, chairs, our legs, the bathtub, etc. It's adorable.

You can now stand up to watch your bath run:


You can get up to say hello to daddy and me while we're sitting up:


And you can get up to reach things you shouldn't be getting into (here's you're reaching for my computer):

You're getting more stable on your legs. You'll be walking in no time.

Crawling EVERYWHERE

Now that you can crawl, you rarely hold still. You love crawling all around and exploring everything you can find.

You've also gotten pretty good at making messes. For example, you like to pull our DVDs off the shelf.
One afternoon I looked up and saw my shirt moving across the floor. You had gotten it over your head and then you started crawling around. When I started laughing you poked your head out of the sleeve to see what was so funny.

You also like to follow daddy and me all around. When I go into another room, you follow after me. Sometimes I'll go into another room and say "Paige, come find me!" and you will! You crawl until you can see me and then you get a big smile on your face.

7 Months Old

You will be 7 months old this week. I can't believe you're that old! We went to the doctor today for a check-up. Here are your stats:

Height: 26.5 in. (75%)

Weight: 16 lbs. 1 oz. (50%)

Head Circum: 17 in. (75%)

You were so wiggly today at the doctor's office. You definitely didn't want to hold still to get measured or checked in anyway. However, you were absolutely delighted by the paper on the exam table. You kicked and crinkled that paper until it was all wrinkled!

You've been hesitant to eat solid foods. I've tried feeding you several different kinds of baby food that I made, but you didn't like it so much. Just recently you've started tolerating rice cereal and squash. I just discovered yesterday that you LOVE pears. You gobble those right up. We'll keep exploring new foods!

We have a few nicknames for you, including Paigers, Pow-Pow, Baby Paige, Princess, Little Girl, Munchkin. We also call you all sorts of endearing names like cupcake, sugar, punkin, etc. We call you all sorts of sweet names.

You can crawl really well, so you're all over the place now grabbing anything you can get your hands on. You particularly like anything electronic (cell phones, computers, remote controls, power cords), chapstick, and things that make noise. You also love sucking on things made out of paper, and can quickly demolish a magazine or something else we leave within reach.

You also make all kinds of sounds. You blow raspberries, scrunch up your face and blow out your nose, babble, and scream in a very high pitched tone. The screaming isn't so fun, but everything else is delightful.

One of the best things about you is that you're pretty easy going, and a very chill baby. You aren't very fussy, and rarely get upset.

We just love having you around!

The Many Faces of Paige

"This looks interesting"

"Whoa! What's up there?"

"pppppbbbbbbbtttttttt"

"What."

"That's delightful!"

"Neat! There's something behind me!"

"I want that in my mouth."

"I'm outta here!"

A Whole New World

Crawling has opened up a whole new world to you. You can now get around and explore anything you want. The other day Daddy and I looked over to find you had crawled under the table to suck on the table leg.

Annapolis

A couple weeks ago Daddy didn't have to work so we took a trip to Annapolis, MD. We didn't spend a ton of time looking around because we wanted to make sure we were in the car so you could nap.

First we went on a touristy harbor cruise. We got on a tour boat and went for a ride around the harbor. We sailed past the Navel Academy and some really pretty coastline. It was such a nice ride! The day was overcast, but the reflection of the sun made it really bright. In most of the pictures you and Daddy are squinting quite a bit (Mommy thought ahead and brought sunglasses!).

Here are some pictures from our boat ride:




After the boat we had a fresh crab lunch. Since Daddy and I grew up in Colorado, we didn't have much experience eating fresh crab. But we had a good time and laughed through most of the meal. You just sat in your stroller playing with toys all through lunch.

Mommy's Little Helper

Hat Hair

I went through your clothes the other day to see what still fits. Your newborn hospital hats still fit and you look so cute in them.


When I took it off you had major hat hair!

Crawling

Around the time you were just over 6.5 months old, you officially figured out how to crawl! You started by kind of dragging yourself along, and eventually figured it out. Now you crawl around chasing us all around the house.

You first started moving like this:



Then you got faster:



Now you crawl like a champ and go right for the toys you want:

Your Happy Place

For some unknown reason, you absolutely LOVE the bathroom. You get a big grin whenever we carry you in there. You love to smile at yourself in the mirror, and look at the sink and up at the lights. It makes you so happy. When you're crying because you've bonked your head, I can always get you to stop crying by taking you into the bathroom.

Mommy and Paige in the mirror:

Visiting the ABA

Last week we went to the ABA to visit Daddy. We rode the metro downtown, went and saw where Daddy works, and then got to ride home with Daddy. We rode home during rush hour so the train was really crowded. But you were really good and made all the people around us smile.

Happy Birthday, Henry!

A lot of your friends have turned one recently. Happy birthday, friends! Last week we went over to the Snow's to celebrate Henry's birthday. We had a fun night with our friends.

Chelsey, Clay and Cohen

Christen, Josh and the birthday boy Henry

Eve, Adam and Alex (who was far too busy to turn around for a picture)

Brian, Michelle and Gabbi
Tristen (Hyrum had to work, and Harrison was asleep)

Mommy and Daddy
You and Gabbi playing

Beatboxing

One thing that ALWAYS makes you smile is Daddy's beatboxing. In this video you get a little distracted by the camera, but it was Daddy that was making you smile.

Reaching

You love to reach out and touch anything you can get your little hands on. In this video, you're going crazy trying to get the camera.

Great Falls

Daddy had an afternoon off, so we went to see Great Falls National Park. It's a gorgeous park that has a huge waterfall.

Daddy thought he was so funny and put "bunny ears" on me in this picture. His face is silly because he knows he's trying to be funny.

Playing in your Bed

Big Girl Stroller

Since you can sit up all by yourself now, we've starting pushing you around facing forward in a stroller. You like this so much more because you can see more while we're moving.