Seven Months of Sensational

Lucy's first bike ride. After much debate on how to safely
put her in the cart, we plopped her in in her car seat and
she was sleep before we even left!

Writing about Lucy from memory and not in the present moment is quite difficult. I have found that I am acutely focused on each minute I spend with her and have a hard time remembering every little detail. I love having photos of her, but I have attempted to put the camera down and tune in. It seems like startling was never an issue for us, although I can read this blog and know it was a major concern for many months. Surely we never had to support her head, right? And breastfeeding was second nature from the very first moment...no weird positioning or tearing up trying to figure out what to wear in public so feeding was easy and comfortable. Now she is doing an astounding number of new movements, vocalizations, interactions and habits that I, once again, have no idea where to being. I will never be able to tell her the exact moment she scooted forward for the first time or exact day she sat up independently. I will never be able to hand her a baby book filled with facts, but the three of us will always have lives filled joy and sweetness, gratefulness and love.

Since Lucy is so super advanced (she is even an advanced pooper, burper and spitter upper in her parents eyes :-), I do want to take note of some of the amazing things she has been up to and some of her newest nicknames.

• She is blowing raspberries like it is her job. And it is adorable. She used to really work hard at it, watching the finest movements of our mouths as she tried to imitate us. Now she blows bubbles when she is falling asleep, when she is eating, when she is happy, when she is playing. Oh, the things that have come to amaze this mama.

• Luey Baby (said with thick Long Island accent) is not sitting up independently. It is neat to look at her six month picture where Jim is supporting her and her seven month picture where she is trying to make a break for it and could have if I would have allowed it. She isn't a big fan of falling over, but is trying to transition from sitting to her back or belly. We try to be casual about the falling part, as she has a tendency to burst into tears when this happens, bottom lip out and all.We have play mats everywhere and try to ensure she falls onto a soft surface. She would really like to be able to sit up from a laying position, but that move is still in the development phase. 

• Suzle has been scooting her backwards in a caterpillar like motion for a while now, but, unbeknownst to me, Jim has been coaching in moving forward and I'll be darned if she didn't start moving forward a few days ago. This makes her much happier, as she can get closer to thing (or mommy) that she is after versus further away. Carpet is still a difficult surface, but she'll be there in no time at all. 

• We broke down and bought her a jumperoo after LuLu found her legs. All of a sudden a couple days after we arrived she started pushing up on the and even bouncing and hasn't been able to stop since. The thing is enormous, cumbersome and a pain in the tuckus to move around the house, but she gets a big kick out of it and seemed developmentally ready to be upright "on her own."

• Playing with Lucy is getting more and more fun. Yesterday I was gently tossing a stuffed block on her belly while she laid on her back and she was (occasionally) catching it in both hands and impulsively stuffing it into her face. Then we rolled the block from her feet to her hands and she found this absolutely delightful. All of a sudden she gets the "you stack it, I wreck it" concept and even tries to put cups and blocks back into a tower after she knocks it down. She has really gotten books and gets so excited any time you get them out. We recently discovered on a visit to We Rock the Spectrum indoor play space that she loves swinging (and that she can sleep in a swing for an hour+ while screaming children everywhere. Ordered one for the patio that evening). She is a definite nuzzler so I threw together a rough quilt with 16 different types of material as the squares. Sometimes she even uses the quilt as a pulling mechanism to bring a toy closer to her. We are trying to make the transition from toys that are simply fun to devour and toys that have cause and effect elements. 

• Now that we live in Berkeley there is an amazing number of things to do with Lucy. There are indoor play spaces, swim lessons at the YMCA and classes at Gymboree. I have decided to soak up every single minute with this awesome little babe before I start school in August and we are doing it all. So far she loves everything we have done. She has started to get a little clingy to Mommy and I am hoping getting her out and about with other kids and parents will help with the transition to childcare in the fall, but let's not go down that painful road just yet. 

• LuBear loves food. I mean, LOVES food. She gets upset if we eat in front of her and don't share. She likes all sorts of things...salmon, egg yolk, sweet potatoes are her favorite, peas, green beans and whole fruits to suck on, like peaches and plums. She isn't big on lentils and really hates bananas (WHAT?!), but it has been really fun to prepare food for her. I spent some yesterday freezing some food now that she has a variety that she can have. We will continue to introduce a new food every three days and have increased her meals to two a day. She would like about seven meals a day, but we have to pace her little internal system. So far I have prepared all of her food at home. Hopefully that lasts as school starts this fall.  

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