7 Months already

Boy, time does fly. It has been a month already and no updates on the blog! Sorry for those who have been eagerly awaiting my updates. So, Anika is 7 months now. At her 6 month checkup she was 13lbs and 13oz - which put her in the 10th% for weight. Interestingly enough, she was in the 75th% for height, so we may just be raising a supermodel after all. The doctor said not to be too concerned though. Most babies grow tall, and then fatten up and then get taller, and then fatten up, etc. so she thought that if we brought her back in after a few weeks she would probably have evened out those numbers a bit.

No news on the teeth front. She still just has those same two bottom teeth she got in January. Those top ones are definitely working on growing, you can see them under the gums, but none of them have broken free yet.

Anika is now tall enough to sit in her jumperoo without standing on an enormous Bible. She can actually reach the floor! I guess it is better to not have a child jumping all over a Holy book, but it was fun to say she is standing upon the word of God. Alright, so no one thought that was clever but me, but it was still fun for me.
:)

The job/phd search continues. No acceptances yet for Michael to Phd programs, no interviews lined up for jobs for me. We are just hanging out in a holding pattern. We are hoping to spend most of the summer at my parent's house in North Carolina, and we talked to our landlord about that yesterday. He seemed to only be ok with us leaving early if we could find someone else to take our places. We haven't yet asked him if we are allowed to sublease the apartment if that becomes necessary. So if anyone is in the market for an apartment in the fan....

Anika is working toward crawling, but not quite there yet. She can roll, and she can reach for things on her tummy, so if she really wants something she does a combination roll and reach in an attempt to get there. It actually works sometimes, but it sure takes a lot longer than crawling would. She spends a lot of time now on her knees, reaching for things, so it is only a matter of time before she starts figuring out how to use those knees more effectively.

Anika has now started solid foods - She can eat rice cereal (which makes her constipated when eaten alone) and pears. I made my first homemade baby food pears, and they are actually pretty tasty. I also made baby food peas, but she hates them so far. So we will save the rest in the freezer and try again another week. She took several bites of peas, and eventually started gagging because she didn't like them. So now, whenever I feed her pears, she gags on the first bite, just in case I am sneaking peas into the mix. Once she figures out that it is pears, she shovels the rest down just fine. So I have a little stinker on my hands already.

She talks all the time - mostly incoherent babbling, but it would be complete sentences if she was able to achive words. She can say "Da-dee" and "Mamama" and sometimes looks really convincing, like she knows what she is saying. But we are pretty sure she doesn't quite know yet. But hey, we'll take what we can get. She is also pretty fond of screaming with joy - especially when her favorite doggy enters the room.

Monty is doing quite well. He has not had any seizures since the baby was born, and is adjusting to being "a dog" now, instead of the baby of the family. We had a big snow last week - even VCU had a snow day - and Monty LOVED it. Anika didn't seem to notice really, but Monty treated it like manna from heaven. He claimed every tree in the neighborhood for Monty land.

So that is the scoop. Until next time, stay smiling.