Kaden 7 Month Update

 Kaden is 7 months old, and growing by leaps and bounds. He reached several big milestones this month. First of all - he has finally doubled his birth weight! Also, he has learned to sit up, cut his first two teeth, and is very close to learning to crawl. I'm always amazed at his strength. He may be a little small for his age, but he is tough.

Look at those chompers!

This next phase will be interesting now that he's much more mobile. I still remember the first day when I discovered that he was able to move on his own. I set him down on his play mat while I went into the kitchen to grab a snack. I came back a minute or two later, and this is where I found him:

Since then, he's been exploring more and more of the living room. This has driven us to begin baby proofing the apartment. I don't know if you can tell from the photo above, but we've changed the orientation of our modular Asian entertainment center so the TV is up higher, the electronic components are hidden and the ends no longer resemble a staircase. We also moved everything valuable or breakable out of reach. That piece of furniture is still a small child's dream - covered with drawers and sliding compartments and all kinds of knobs and handles. He will be learning the phrase "No touch!" very early on...

He can't crawl yet, but it's amazing how quickly he can make his way around the room. He doesn't really army crawl either. He just sort of barrel rolls to his desired location, then he pops up on his forearms and pivots to face a certain direction. Then he starts sucking on the furniture. haha. He's trying very hard to get his body to move in a forward motion while on his belly, but he can't quite figure it out yet. Mostly he strikes a Superman-like flying pose and screeches in frustration. It's very funny!

 This video shows how he rolls and pivots

Now that he's learning to push up and move around, we need to drop the level of his crib. It is very cute seeing him peering over the edge of his crib at us when he wakes up in the morning, but we don't want him to figure out how to climb out just yet.

I know I'll regret saying this in a few months, but I'm actually looking forward to him being more mobile. I think he'll be much happier and will wear himself out so sleep will come much more easily. Also, I think we're both bored of being cooped up inside so it'll be fun to get outside and explore when the weather warms up. We've gotten pretty good at bundling him up in his various cute warm weather clothes and going for walks, but he's still restrained in his car seat the whole time.

 I am so thankful for the jumperoo we borrowed from our friends. Kaden loves it and it keeps him entertained (and safely immobile) while I get things done around the house. I thought you all would like to see a video of him playing in it. You can how he talks to himself and manipulates the toys. Very cute!

Another daily activity that keeps his entertained are his first "piano lessons". He is clearly musically inclined and so I've had fun introducing him to my keyboard. He loves banging on the keys as I change the different sounds (from grand piano to organ, strings, etc.) It's also adorable because he wants me to play with him. I can't do much while holding him except for some simple one-handed chords and scales. But if I ever stop playing he reaches down, grabs my hand, and guides it back to the keys. ADORABLE!! Below is a video we took of him starting to "play". I'm sure we'll have more next month as he continues exploring the keyboard.

Generally, he is a happy, healthy baby. We love that he's getting more and more interactive and that we get to hear him giggle more frequently. (His daddy is still the best at making him laugh.) He's learning new vowel sounds like B's and L's. We're anxiously awaiting the day he'll be able to say "Dada." But as always, he's teaching us the meaning of patience!

Below are some fun, March-themed photos showing how big our boy is getting! Green shirts for St. Patricks day and a shot showing his support for daddy's silly pilot tradition: Mustache March!

This is one of those shots where I think he looks like my dad

Superman flying pose!