Previously: Lincoln 7 months, Caroline 7 months, Evan 7 months)

Baby Finnegan is now closer to 1 year old than he is to being born. He’s  way past the lump stage and can no longer be trusted when I put him down – pulling things over onto himself is his new hobby. He also has started trying to pull himself up on stuff, although I’m not allowing that. Nope. He eats anything you put in front of him, but still isn’t sure about bottles or sippy cups. I’m hoping he changes his mind about that pretty soon, since I have plans to go out of town for a few days and his life is going to be SAD if he doesn’t get any milk during that time.

The tentative schedule he started working on a month ago is sticking around. He takes 2 naps most days, a morning and an afternoon. He’s pretty good about letting you know he’s tired, so I don’t spend too much time wondering why he’s being a grump. Mostly he’s super cheerful. Old ladies love him. He’s big enough to put in shopping carts now, so he makes lots of old lady friends when we’re out running errands.

Finn is wearing mostly 12-month clothes and lots of hats. He doesn’t mind hats so I put them on him a lot. He feels strongly about cold feet (he hates them) so he wears more socks than any of my other babies. He’s a perfect rolly polly little chunk. Because he can sit on his own now, I’ve started wearing him on my back, which is much more comfortable for a 20+ lb baby.

He does not sleep through the night. Not even close. But he does sleep in a pack-n-play instead of a swing, which means we can take him on vacation this summer. Hopefully in the next couple weeks we can start cutting back on wake-ups.

Likes include crackers, pears, apples, french fries, snuggles, smiling, being carried around, dogs, cats, goats, other babies, sitting, rolling, his blankie, nursies, naps, the outside, warm feet, water, mama, daddy, music, wiggling and grabbing stuff he shouldn’t have.

Dislikes include being tired, falling on his face, having his nose wiped, having things taken away, and 3 am.

He was very cooperative for photos this month! Such a good photographer’s baby.

7 Month Milestones 

Mastered Skills (most kids can do)
Sits without support – He really likes sitting and will sit for greater than 1 hour on the floor if you give him toys.
Drags objects toward herself – Yes.

Emerging Skills (half of kids can do)
Lunges forward or starts crawling – Definitely lunging. He can do a plank, but not really crawl.
Jabbers or combines syllables – Mostly squealing
Starts to experience stranger anxiety – Nope. Loves everybody.

Advanced Skills (a few kids can do)
Waves goodbye – No waving. I don’t think he has that kind of control.
Stands while holding onto something – Yes, sometimes he refuses to bend his knees.
Bangs objects together – Sure, but maybe not on purpose?
Begins to understand object permanence – I don’t know, let me ask him?

I think 7 months is too many months. I don’t like it.

This morning I started looking at first birthday party ideas and then immediately had a minor breakdown and decided there was NO WAY I was letting Lincoln turn one anytime soon. I realize that’s not really up to me but since he’s still such a nice little baby-ish baby I’m going to just enjoy it while I can and not plan an elaborate party 5 months early.

For the record, Linc is (probably) not my last baby so I might be a little careless when it comes to truly enjoying every baby moment. But he is taking his time a lot more than Caroline did – even though he is fat and huge he still FEELS like a baby when it comes to the amount of care and cuddles and effort required. I don’t mind as much as I thought I would. It helps that nursing was easy peasy this time around. It also helps that he (mostly) sleeps well, so I’m only occassionally exhausted to the point where I feel like dying. So the “hold me all the time, don’t leave the room, carry me around” part isn’t the worst.

Plus also he’s adorable. I love his squishy little face SO MUCH.

I’m not kidding when I said he is fat – at this age Caroline was still in 3-6 month clothes while Linc is busting out of his 9 month stuff. I bought him an 18 month sweater last week because I was afraid he would outgrow the 12 month size before it warms up around here. I’m assuming once he’s really mobile he’ll burn through all the calories he’s been hoarding. At least I hope so, because he already eats every 90 minutes during the day, I can’t imagine him eating more often. Although he seems to be a fan of people food as well as nursies – pretty much anything I hand him he eats.

The big changes in the last month have revolved around sleep – he decided he wants to sleep on his stomach. That doesn’t work in the rock-n-play so we replaced it with the pack-n-play and he’s back to being a mostly good sleeper. He also has finally FINALLY started napping in his crib. I suppose I could have made that happen before if I had pushed it but with the big kids’ schedules it’s really hard to spend an hour fighting with him about it. Now that he’s ready it’s only a 10 minute process. So far. In a week he’ll probably decide he hates the crib and I’ll just throw the whole thing out.

So for RIGHT NOW, likes include white noise, belly sleeping, being warm, hats, nursies, cuddles, being worn, being carried, his sister, his brother, biting things, water, floating, dogs, cats, old people, riding in the cart, toys that make noise, people food, pulling hair, singing, and blowing raspberries on my boob while he’s supposed to be eating.

Dislikes include air blowing on his face, being tired, and this god damn 8th tooth that is taking forever to break through.

#sorrynotsorry for way too many pictures…

7 Month Milestones (Originally from BabyCenter, now from Caroline’s 7 month post – also, if you go look at Caroline’s post you’ll realize just how bald poor little Linc really is)

Mastered Skills (most kids can do)
Sits without support – If he would JUST sit he’d be really good at it. But he thinks he can crawl which leads to a lot of face planting.
Drags objects toward herself – Yes, grabby baby is very grabby.

Emerging Skills (half of kids can do)
Lunges forward or starts crawling – Super close to crawling and monkey-scooting, but not mobile enough that I’ve started babyproofing yet.
Jabbers or combines syllables – He’s very talky, I just have no idea what he’s saying.
Starts to experience stranger anxiety – He gets mad when I leave the room but tried to leap into a nice lady’s arms at the grocery store. My children as a group have no stranger fears.

Advanced Skills (a few kids can do)
Waves goodbye – Uh, no. Not even close to waving.
Stands while holding onto something – Yes, but not reliably.
Bangs objects together – Yes Anything that helps make him louder is good.
Begins to understand object permanence – Is that when they understand peek a boo? Because he totally loves peek a boo.