7 months!

Steven turned 7 months this past weekend. He's getting bigger all the time. In fact, in three weeks he gained two whole pounds! He had been steadily dropping in weight percentiles and was down to the 10th percentile (for age) at 6 months (we later learned by checking a chart ourselves that he would have been below the 2nd percentile in weight--off the chart low--for his length at the time!), so the MD suggested we start offering him a bottle after each nursing session. Well, he took to that well--too well. He pretty much started weaning himself within a week. He could have weaned himself completely by now if I'd let him, but we're going slowly for the sake of my body and to hopefully give him at least some benefits of breastmilk for a little while longer. We're down to two mommy feedings a day and the rest formula by bottle. I was a bit discouraged at first, but it's not worth stressing about.

In any case, after his gain of two pounds in three weeks he's back up to the 25%, and it's still another week or so until he goes back to the MD for an official weight check. I think she'll be pleased. The funny thing is that he looks just a LITTLE bit chubbier in places, but overall not much of a change. I think that means he's gained more length!

Steven is go go go all day long. He still enjoys playing in his exersaucer, but now his main interest seems to be rolling all around the floor of the family room. He isn't crawling yet and we have a suspicion that he might skip crawling completely and go right from rolling to walking. He gets everywhere he wants to go pretty quickly by rolling, so he doesn't have much incentive to crawl. His other favorite activity remains standing and walking with help from us, but he's down to needing to hold only one finger most often. He can also pull to a stand if the object he's pulling on is at the right height. The edge of the laundry basket must be the perfect height because I put a full laundry basket next to him the other day while he was sitting on our bed and he reached out and stood up in one fluid motion. It took me by surprise! Most of the time he tries to use things much too low to the ground (usually his toys) and ends up in a downward-dog type of position, with his rear in the air.


The other day he rolled into his exersaucer, and became very frustrated when he couldn't roll out due to the curved bottom. He gave up and played underneath it for a while, and then figured out that he could scoot backwards out of it.

He's also a champ at sitting up on his own, and so we've moved from the car seat to high chairs at restaurants.

Not much else new, especially since Mike posted some recent photos in a post a few days ago. Steven did get to experience democracy in action when he came with me to vote on November 6. Due to poor planning on the part of whoever was in charge of the voting in our precinct we had to wait 50 minutes, but fortunately Steven stayed in a good mood throughout.