7 months

Dear Jaynie,

Wow! You have been busy this past month. You are now sitting, eating food, and even have a few teeth!!

Check out those chompers! Two came in at once.

Since I have been home with you all this month, I get to see everything that happens. Your day now consists of waking up for a bottle around 5am, then going back to sleep until 7 or 7:30. Then you wake up and eat breakfast. We play for awhile or go for a long walk, and then it is nap time. You like to sleep 2 hours in the morning! After your nap, we run errands or play more (usually sitting on the living room floor and rolling around to get your toys). In the afternoon, you take another nap. When you wake up, you are always super happy to see that Daddy is home from work. Dinner is around 5:30, and then you like to watch me cook after that. One more play time, and then off to bed with you between 7:30-8. We try to stick to this schedule, but fun stuff keeps coimng up that throw us off, like swimming at Great Grandma Marianne's, roadtrip to Oregon, and birthday parties.

You love eating real food. It took you about a week to get the hang of the whole food on the spoon into your mouth thing, but now you are a pro and eat everything we offer you! Your first food was multi-grain cereal (brown rice/quinoa/oatmeal), and then you moved onto sweet potatoes. Now you eat bananas, apples, plums, green beans, and zucchini. We like to mix a little basil into your veggies too. Mom and Dad are making all your baby food. We shop Saturday morning at the farmer's market for all your goodies. Nonny and Grandpa bought us a really cool high chair that you eat in, but whenever Cleo the cat walks by you are totally distracted and we have to pause eating time!

This month you left California for the first time...and traveled right over the border to Ashland, Oregon to visit Great Aunt Janet, Neal, and cousin Julianna. We stayed in their adorable guest cottage and went on a hike, a picnic, and cooked some great food (which you didn't get to eat...but Great Aunt Janet did give you your first banana!). You were teething on the trip, but still managed to be a happy baby most of the time.

Aunt J, Julianna, and Dad

First swing experience in Ashland!

Swimming is your new summer sport. We go to Great Grandma Marianne's pool, the pool in our townhouse complex, and you even went swimming at Neal's mom Bess' house over the 4th of July. You love showing off your pink strawberry one piece with a skirt and your ruffle butt bikini. You love splashing and "kicking" in the water (although I think your "kick" is more of your excited bouncing motion).

We went out to sushi to celebrate Uncle Jason's birthday and you sat in the restaurant high chair for the first time. You discovered how to throw all your toys on the ground and then watched as Mom and Nonny picked them up again and again. Maybe next time you can actually eat some food!

At Dad's cooking demo at Macy's SF (with celebrity chef Tyler Florence)

You love sitting up, and are very good at it. Strangers at the grocery store even comment that you sit in the cart so well for your age! You are starting to get more curious of everything around you, so now you roll around the living room to get things (like Mom and Dad's shoes).

4th of July baby

I get you all to myself for another month, then I have to go back to work, and you will go to daycare. We already found a place, right near our house...but more about that in month 9 newsletter.

Love,
Mom and Dad