7 Months of Joel!

Our sweet little lovie Joel is 7 months old today! Lots has changed in the past month and we have been loving watching him grow and explore his world. Not only has he mastered crawling, but he has started to really get the hang of pulling up. He does especially well on low things like the edge of the tub, his toy basket and the bakers rack in our kitchen. Joel has always been happy and easily entertained and now that he is mobile he seems like he could just spend hours crawling around the house exploring all the textures, tastes and sights, if he weren't rudely interrupted by his brother so often :). Another big thing Joel is learning is to "talk." He is developing his own little language. His happy, angry, sad, frustrated and sleepy sounds are very distinct. He "complains" when Levi is too rough, makes him do something he doesn't want to do or takes one of his toys. Should be interesting once he can really talk :). I am loving that he is saying Mama, and although Philip is still not 100% convinced, Levi and I know he now knows my name! Sometimes he will crawl across the room to me saying Mama, mamamama and then grin as he pulls up on my leg. It just melts my heart. Levi gets a big kick out of Joel talking and is, as always, his biggest cheerleader!

I'm Momma's favorite interruption when she's cooking :)

oooo...this feels cool, AND makes a fun noise!

I played with this for 30 minutes!

Eating continues to be an adventure with Joel. He does NOT like pureed food, even the yummy homemade sweet potatoes and peas I made that I think are delicious. He does however seem to like very tiny bites of soft table foods and cereal. Cheerios are by far his favorite thing to eat, but he will also go to town on puffs, chex, baked or roasted potatoes and beans. He really enjoys feeding himself, and is getting more and more efficient every day. It is really weirding me out that he won't eat baby food, but Philip thinks it is absolutely an non-issue. So, for now I am going to continue to offer pureed foods on occasion and "chunks" of food at dinner time until he eventuallly gets the hang of eating it all and eating off a spoon.

I love it when my awesome big brother "reads" to me!

what did I miss my mouth with one?

At 7 Months Joel...
LOVES:
his crazy big brother
Penny
Cheerios
crawling
bath time
being tickled especially by Daddy
his Momma :)
his paci at nap time

NO THANKS!
getting strapped into his car seat
having to wait to get upstrapped from his car seat (doesn't mind the ride...ha)
being held still for a diaper change
food off a spoon/pureed or mashed
being held cradled for any reason other than nursing

NEW SKILLS:
crawls very well (usually on one knee and one foot...but on both knees more often now)
pulls up
feeds himself small bits of food
says Mama
sleeps 8+ hours, wakes up to nurse and then sleep another 2-4 hours (once we are getting more solids in him hopefully he will just sleep 11-12 hours with no waking!)
getting good and picking up all kinds of tiny things (and shoving them into his mouth)
shares a room with his brother instead of sleeping in the pack n' play in the spare room

Oh Joel, we love you more and more all the time! God really blessed our family with you!