7 Months! (+ 1 day)

 I haven't done a full baby update since Gretchen turned 3 months old, and so much has changed.  Gretchen has accomplished so much in the last few months, here are a few highlights.

The planets mat continues to be one of her favorite toys, and it has been there to help her every step of the way.  The planets mat was there the night that Gretchen sat up by herself for the first time, she held on to one of the supports for a while, then let go and sat up proud and strong.  This photo is from just after her 5 month birthday, check out those big baby blues!

You may remember that Gretchen hates laying on her tummy.  Tummy time was a struggle at best,
so you can imagine her excitement to complete this amazing task:

Step 1

Step 2

Success!

 Gretchen rolled over for the first time a day before her 6-month birthday and she has been non-stop ever since.  With her new found skills, it is near impossible to keep her on her belly, and with that in mind, it took almost a full month for her to roll over the other way.  I imagine that her thought process is something like this: "Roll to my tummy, why on earth would I want to do that?!"  But alas, her desire to reach for toys prevailed and she rolled back to front while we were at a friend's house on September 20th. That being said, I have full faith that she will not crawl for a while yet - we can't keep her on her tummy long enough to give it a shot!  She can stand while holding on to your hands, but she's still very wobbly, so I really have no thoughts that she will be an early crawler or walker.  Hopefully I didn't just jinx myself...

September also brought the beginning of Gretchen's first Hokie football season, much to her Daddy's excitement.  We have plans to visit Blacksburg in October for her first trip to Virginia Tech, where we will certainly pick up some more Hokie gear.  Here she is on the first day of the season, ready to watch the game with Daddy.

Gretchen loves music.  She also loves her exersaucer, so here she is enjoying those two loves simultaneously with Poppa back in August. 

 She is a world-class giggler, and we spend most of our nights trying to figure out new ways to make her laugh.  This one night we discovered that if you take really quick steps toward her while she was in the exersaucer she would laugh hysterically.  Clearly, we did this a zillion times, because nothing is sweeter sounding than her laughter.

 She has always been a good little traveler, but she has specifically enjoyed riding in the Baby Ergo.  here we are with Grammy at Great Falls Park in Virginia, it's hard to see her face while she's in the carrier, but you see her adorable little arm reaching out on the side.

Gretchen continues to love riding in her stroller, and now she has a fancy new jogging stroller to help us weather the bumps and rough terrain that the streets of Buenos Aires have in store for us.  She also loves Captain Calamari, her stroller-friend.  She frequently falls asleep in the stroller while grasping one of the Captains tentacles.

Thanks Grammy and Papa for my new stroller!

And as I mentioned earlier this week, we have started solid food, and so far so good.  She's a good little eater and we have been having fun trying new foods.

What we haven't been so go with this month is sleeping.  Our little amazing-sleeper has decided that we should visit her a few times during the night to replace her pacifier, rock her a bit or just say hello.  She generally doesn't require much during the night, but we were going strong with a few months of 10 -12 hours of unbroken sleep at night, so this has been a bit of a downgrade.  She has been drooling and chewing on things like crazy, so we suspect it has something to do with some teeth trying to make their way to the surface - but we haven't seen any yet, so that theory goes unsubstantiated.  Such is life, she is a charmer during the day, so who can complain?

I know that all parents say this, but I cannot believe it has been 7 months.  She is growing before our very eyes with a new adventure every day.  We are excited to visit the US (again!) in October and show all of our family how much their little girl has accomplished in the few weeks that we've been gone.  What an amazing 7 months, baby girl, you have completely captured our hearts.

Happy 7 month birthday!  May the future bring restful nights and giggle-filled days!