Baby Love: 31 Weeks / 7 months old!!

Maude turned 7 months old this week. How is it that saying "7 months old" seems like I'm talking about a much, much older baby? For as much reading as I did on child development prior to Maude's birth and in the months following, I somehow wasn't quite prepared for how quickly she was going to grow up, change, learn new skills, become more independent, and begin developing her own little personality. I think I somehow thought that for the entire first year she would still be very much a baby. Not our kid. I'm not sure how, but I swear to you she is stronger than me. If I'm in her way or she doesn't want me doing something to her, she lets me know and moves me out of her way. She's a determined and stubborn little gal. And we love that about her. I could use a little more of the snuggly baby she was in the beginning, but I'm enjoying the little girl she's becoming.

The past few weeks have been as busy as ever. We're still not unpacked and other, more appealing plans seem to surface so they take precedence over hanging out inside, organizing and unpacking our house. We also realize that in a few short months, we're going to have no desire to be outside so I assume our full unpacking will happen then.

We've fully immersed ourselves in the Minnesota experience over the past two weeks. We attended the great Minnesota get together (the State Fair) and Maude got to see lots of animals, large and small. They have a barn with lots of baby animals - some born just that day. That was my favorite part, showing Maude the lambs, piglets, and baby cows (there were twin cows born the morning we were there!).

Over Labor Day weekend, we spent some time at our friends' cabin a few hours north of here. Maude enjoyed all the activity and she made friends with Olivia, who is about 6 months older than her. They even gave each other goodbye kisses when we left. Her favorite part of the weekend was a sunset boat ride on the lake. She even got to drive the boat!

Maude is getting the hang of food. I'm not sure if it was watching Olivia eat real food all weekend or if the apples we were feeding her were just that much more appealing than the veggies she had been eating, but she started gobbling up her food about a week ago. We even got her some little baby crackers that she loves to hold and suck on while we are feeding her whatever the puree of the day is.

Mike and Maude are starting an ECFE (Early Childhood Family Education) class this week. I'm excited (and a little jealous) of all the fun they're going to have together. We went to the open house this week and the teacher seems great, she even told Mike they usually have other dads in the class. A friend of mine from work told me that his wife had a retired NFL player in one of her ECFE classes. I shared that with Mike and I think he's holding out hope that will be the case in his class, too.

That's the quick summary of the past few weeks. Lots of pictures are below - enjoy!!