7 Months

(I know this is a bad picture of Zander, but in most of the other pictures he is grabbing the sign)

My little boy turned 7 months old today. I can't believe it was 7 months ago that he was born and then whisked away from us to the special care nursery. I am so thankful he was okay and only had to spend 31 hours away from us in the special care nursery.

Zander, you are growing so fast. I treasure every moment with you. This is what you have been doing in the last month:

• You now have 2 teeth in the bottom. They are still growing in, but I just love them, they are so cute.
• You still love to eat your hands and sometimes your feet.
• You love to roll all over the place. We put you down in one place and before you know it you are across the room with all your rolling and army crawling.
• You haven't quite mastered crawling yet, but you sure are trying hard. I remember your first attempt to crawl was on your mommy's birthday, September 30th. We were at Grandma's house. You would pick up your right knee and move it forward, and then you would pick up your left knee and then lose your balance and fall over.
• You move backward more than you move forward in your attempt to crawl, and just the other day you did an army crawl.
• You still love the jumpy toy that goes in the doorway.
• You have graduated from your swing and bouncer. You have not used your swing in a long time.
• In the last few days you decided you finally like your exersaucer, at least for 15 minutes or so.
• You love to smile and laugh, and think it is really funny when Grandma Wiersema blows her nose.
• You learned to clap. Well, you taught yourself to clap.
• You eat baby food now. You started one week before your 6 month birthday. You have tried sweet peas, green beans, sweet potatoes, squash, carrots, pears, and bananas (in that order). I think your favorite is sweet potatoes and carrots. You are still trying to get used to fruit. Oh how I hope you love fruits and vegetables as you get older. Your mommy sure does.
• You sit up very well on your own. And only fall over sometimes.
• You love putting everything in your mouth.
• Last time you were weighed at the doctor's office you weighed 18 lbs 1/2 oz. and you are 28.5 inches long.
• You are still wearing size 2 diapers.
• You wear mostly 6 to 9 months clothes, but mommy puts you in 12 month clothes because you have more of those and they are cute. Surprisingly, the 12 month pants are too long.
• You want to sit up so badly, and when you try it looks like you are doing sit ups. You bring your head, neck and part of your chest off the ground and at the same time you bring your feet and legs off the ground. You have sat up a few times from a laying position when I was holding your feet. You are going to have abs of steel, hard as a rock.
  
• You are the love of your mommy and daddy's lives.
  

Zander, Happy 7 month old birthday!

The outtakes (there were many more) . Zander was usually trying to grab the sign or eat it.