Lilah at 7 Months

I can’t believe I haven’t posted a Lilah update since 4 months! Whoops, that definitely wasn’t intentional.

Well, better late than never!

Milestones

• Her baptism

• First vacation / plane ride

• Starting solid foods

• Half birthday
• Sleeping through the night

• Scooting / rolling everywhere

Personality

A lot has changed in the last three months, but Lilah remains a super sweet baby who loves to snuggle and be held.

She is pretty much always content if she is sitting in my lap in the backyard or watching James play.

I try to encourage her to play independently as much as possible, but she really likes to be held (so different than James when he was a baby!)

I call her my little barnacle baby, because she really likes to be attached to me. This makes cooking dinner pretty challenging!

Lilah has gotten a lot friendlier / more accepting of other people recently though. We went on a trip to Glacier National Park with my parents and sister in July, and I think it helped her really get to know my family, which was wonderful!

Apart from being held, Lilah loves reading books, listening to music, watching James play with Legos, playing in the pool / tub, and generally exploring. She also really loves being outside.

Development

Lilah is a big baby! She was 91st percentile in height and 68th percentile in weight at her six month appointment.

Lilah now rolls very easily both ways and has started scooting and army crawling a little bit. She doesn’t do it all of the time, but when she’s determined to get something (mostly James’s Legos), she can scoot right over to it.

It has been fun to watch her start to choose toys for herself off of the shelf or to scoot over to a basket of baby toys I keep in the living room and explore them.

Per the Montessori philosophy, I’m waiting for her to learn to sit up on her own, rather than propping her up, so she doesn’t sit up yet unless she is in my lap.

She babbles constantly and loves to chat back and forth.

She is getting much better at using her fingers and is super motivated by trying to pick up pieces of food.

Sleep

Lilah now sleeps through the night, usually from about 7 PM to 6 AM, though sometimes she wakes up earlier.

She takes two naps a day, usually from around 9-10 AM and 1:30-3 PM.

Around 6 months old, she started waking up at night and did not seem interested in eating. She seemed to want to play instead and did not go back to sleep easily.

We decided to do some gentle sleep training and it took one night and she’s slept through the night since. I guess she was ready!

Food

We introduced solids to Lilah at 6 months and she LOVED food right away.

We’re loosely using a baby led weaning approach, but also use spoons for foods like oatmeal and yogurt. I put the food on the spoon for her and hand her the spoon if she wants to hold it.

We are using a little shot glass for water, which she is still figuring out, but loves.

Montessori uses real glasses for babies and toddlers so that they can learn to be careful. The idea is that if they use a spill-proof cup, they don’t learn to handle things carefully to avoid spills.

Lilah’s first food was sweet potatoes and she has also tried avocado, salmon, chicken, eggs, cheese, cherries, kiwi, green beans, melon, sourdough bread, peaches, raspberries, strawberries, yogurt, peanut butter, broccoli, lentils, and many other things I’m forgetting.

I think her favorite might be peaches, but the only things she has not really liked so far have been lentils and raspberries. I think the raspberries she tried were a little too tart.

Routine

Now that Lilah is down to two naps a day, our routine is much more predictable, which this type-A mama loves!

On a typical day, Lilah wakes up between 6-6:30 and naps around 9:00 AM. We generally go somewhere after she wakes up from this first nap.

We go to music class once a week, and usually have one day for errands like the grocery store or Target. Other places we frequent are the library, Wildflower Center, splash pad, and various parks (although it’s been hot lately!) We also usually have one play date with another family once a week.

Lilah usually naps again around 1:30 or 2:00, which overlaps with my toddler’s nap, which is great!

We almost always stay home in the afternoons and just play in the backyard and read books until it’s time to make dinner. I imagine that when the weather cools down, we’ll have some afternoon park trips as well.

As James approaches 3 years old, he’s showing a strong interest in letters and numbers. I’d like to do some slightly more formal homeschooling with him (I have no idea if we’ll homeschool in the long run), so I need to figure out how to change our routine to make time for that.

Lilah is a lot needier in the afternoon than the morning, so this may mean more mornings at home.

My favorite part of the last few months has been watching Lilah and James grow closer. She is downright obsessed with him, and he seems to be really fond of her now too.

He gives her the sweetest hugs and has started talking to her like she’s his little buddy. I’m hoping this won’t change too much when she becomes truly mobile and inevitably starts messing with his stuff more, but who knows!

I really love this age for babies and am hoping the next few months don’t pass by as quickly!

Has your summer flown by?

Any tips for avoiding sibling toy disputes?

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