Dear Edie,

You are 7 months old today. You hardly seem like a baby any more and while I often get nostalgic looking back at old videos when I see how TINY you were when we first brought you home, I will say that you are more fun than ever these days. This has been a big month for you in many ways.

In the last few weeks you've started babbling with consonants. The most common sounds are "babababa" and "dadada". Your favorite move is to listen carefully to me say "Mamamama" and repeat back "Dadadada". BURN. While driving, you sit in your car seat babbling babababa and then transition seamlessly into a giant raspberry blow. It's pretty funny.

After a three month hiatus from rolling you suddenly cannot be contained. I will leave you laying face up on your quilt to go brush my teeth across the hall and when I come back you will be 2 feet from where I left you, facing in the opposite direction and on your belly. We were starting to think that maybe you'd just skip rolling and move right to crawling so it's fun for us to be proven wrong and get to see you rolling around. As of this week, you can scooch yourself backwards when on your belly, but there hasn't been any forward movement yet, mostly you like to pivot yourself in a full circle looking at everything around you. Sitting used to be your favorite position, but now when we put you down to sit, you immediately bend over to the side and roll onto your belly so that you can move around more. You also love grabbing my pointer fingers and pulling yourself up to stand with them. I fear it won't be long before we have to lower the crib mattress.

Another major development this month has been the beginning of sleep training. I don't want to hurt your feelings but WOW were you the worst sleeper ever. Seriously Edie. Worst ever. Your Dad and I just couldn't keep up with you anymore so we had to make a change. We also instituted a more regimented bedtime routine that starts around 7:15 or 7:30 with naked-roll around-time, pajamas, bottle, book and then bed by 8pm. All of this happens to the tune of our Radiohead Rockabye CD. The first week of sleep training was hard but you now consistently sleep much better than you have in ages. Most nights these days you go down in your crib awake but tired and either don't cry at all or cry for a few minutes and then drop abruptly off to sleep. We've had some wonderful nights in which you then sleep soundly until 6:30am but sometimes you will wake once or twice in the night and cry for a few minutes before falling back asleep.

You seem much happier in the mornings now that we're all getting better sleep. In fact, a few mornings I've come in to find you awake and playing happily (and silently) with your little Taggies lovie that we let you sleep with. Which reminds me - this is the month we started letting you sleep unswaddled. We went cold turkey with the Velcro swaddle blanket and replaced it with your tiny Taggie square and every time I peek in your crib at night, you are soundly asleep and clutching your Taggie with one or both hands. It's ridiculously adorable.

You had your first cold this month. The cold manifested itself in a runny nose that lasted about a week. You seemed completely unaffected by it with no other symptoms, so this was a great relief to us.

You went through a funny phase this month where holding toys (or anything really) over your head was just about the coolest thing ever. Every time we'd hand you something you would very seriously hold it above your head and look at us like, "BEHOLD, I am now dangling this toy over my head."

Another big step this month was that we started feeding you solid foods. Sadly you hated them all. Apples, sweet potatoes, mashed potatoes, bananas, quinoa, yogurt, peas, mangoes - hated them all. I haven't wanted to wrestle with you over the issue, so I try three bites and after being rejected most of those times, I give up for the night. You did recently take to avocados, so we're hoping that's a new trend. I should point out that by "take to" I mean that you ate 3-4 bites two nights in a row without me having to trick you into opening your mouth. All in good time I suppose. Your Dad keeps reminding me that I won't have to send you off to college with a box of bottles and I suppose he's right.

Oh! And your two bottom teeth came in this month! They both appeared on the same day and can be seen when you giggle now. It didn't seem to bother you much when they broke through so we're really hoping that bodes well for future teeth. Speaking of giggling - you do it ALL the time. You are such a funny baby and you think Dad and I are HILARIOUS (I am documenting this here so that I can remind myself that there was a time when you thought so). Today I had you laughing so hard in Target that strangers walking by had to laugh with us. And you pretty much always give yourself the hiccups when you giggle.

Your Grandma Culver had an astrologer read your chart for us this week and we learned many things about your possible future. Your chart indicates that you will have a strong connection with nature and animals and that you may end up in a healing profession such as counseling or medicine. She also indicated that you would show a passion for the classics - probably in literature, dance or music. More than just about any other chart she'd seen, she saw that the planets had aligned at the exact moment of your birth to indicate that you have luck on your side; guardians are watching over you she said. She also said that you might end up the lead singer of a progressive rock band that repurposes classical instruments, so who knows! The sky is the limit Eedster.

Love,

Mom