Pebbles turns 7/12

Today Pebbles turned 7 months old. She celebrated by crawling and pulling to a stand all over the Oak Park gymnastics center (where they have "open gym" for tots), trying nectarines for the first time (loved them so much she licked her tray) and staying up until 10:45 p.m. You're now hearing big boo from the parents' secion on that one.

She had a lot of trouble getting down to sleep last night too, and tonight I was all ready to get tough and make her stay in her crib without nursing her back to sleep. But then I remembered that you're not supposed to do any kind of sleep training (ooh, I can't believe I typed that phrase) right when they're making any other transitions, like spending two hours a day in the arms of strangers.

Anyway, at 7 months, Pebbles is moving on from supported standing to wanting to cruise, or, as Epu's uncle calls it, being a "drape ape." She'll be standing holding onto the the kitchen cabinets, then if I am standing near her she'll transfer to holding my legs and if I move away, she'll even take a few little steps to stay attached to me.

She eats: oatmeal, rice cereal, carrots, green beans, squash, sweet potatoes, pears, banana, and now nectarine. She still wants to try everything she sees on the table, which is funny because out of all the things I just named, the only ones she really likes are carrots, cereal and nectarines. We have actually been giving her pear juice with cereal, not pears, and she seems to like that quite well. Which is handy because now I can use juice with cereal and to thin out homemade purees and I don't have to pump any milk.

Pebbles also says "mama," but only in a voice of desperation so deep that it's hard to distinguish from crying. She will hold out her arms and lean toward the person she wants to pick her up. Today she understood when I gestured for her to come across the crib to me, and she crawled over so I could pick her up.

Yep, she's comin' along.