Paxton is 7 months Old!

It seems like I just did Paxton's 6 month old post and now another month has gone by!  So without further ado, here's your update.

At 7 months, Paxton:

- is gaining on Brock in clothing size.  Kelly brought some hand-me-downs for Paxton last week.  I put some pj's on him that Kinsey bought for Brock at Christmas (he was 10 1/2 months old at Christmas) and they're not really that much too big!  What a big boy I have.  Hopefully a plateau is in sight.

- can sit unassisted now.  He's usually pretty happy to sit on the floor and play with some toys, but he does still lean a little too far and will fall over and bonk his head.  We're trying not to rush over, pick him up and fuss over him too much 'cuz we don't want him to cry over every little bump when he gets older.  I think this is one of those things that's a lot easier when it's someone else's kid.  Right up there with just letting them cry themselves to sleep.

- may not ever crawl.  I think he might have given upon crawling, but he may have figured something else out.  I was watching him on the floor yesterday and he fell over onto his back (on purpose I think 'cuz he didn't cry), then bent his knees and put his feet on the floor.  He then pushed himself up in the air so that he had his weight on his feet and shoulders and then pushed enough that his shoulders gave way so his back went back to the floor.  Sort of like an upside-down inchworm.  I'm not sure how practical this form of movement is, but it seems to be working out for him.  Paxton managed to worm his way over to one of the dogs' bones while we weren't looking the other day and started chewing on it.  I now make a sweep of the room for any dog stuff before putting him on the floor.  Gross.

- has 2 teeth ... sort of.  He definitely has 1.  His bottom right front tooth finally poked through on June 22nd.  And the bottom left front tooth started making an appearance right around July 1st.  It's poking through a bit, but it's definitely not the whole way out yet.

- is eating solids.  He gets cereal twice a day: once in the morning and then for supper.  We've branched out from plain rice cereal and have now tried oatmeal cereal with apples, wheat cereal with pears and next up is rice cereal with raspberries.  Paxton is pretty good with the cereal, but he's not too sure about the baby food.  He really likes sweet potatoes and squash, but was none too impressed with carrots the first time around.  I bought some more so I'm hoping he likes these ones better.  We've also tried apples, pears and bananas.  We persevered through the whole jar of bananas, but I think I'm giving up on them for a while.  He liked them even less than carrots.  We'll be trying out green vegetables like peas and beans later this month as well as some peaches.

- is not cooperative at meal times.  When we first started with solid food, he was the best baby I'd ever fed.  He would sit up straight, give me all his attention and open his mouth when I brought the spoon in.  The biggest complaint I had was that he would start "eating" his bib if I took too long between spoonfuls.  However this baby went somewhere when the teeth showed up.  Paxton has decided he wants to "help" feed himself so he constantly tries to grab the bowl.  Then, if I hold onto the bowl so he can't get it he flails his arms around so that he usually knocks the spoon out of the way and the food goes everywhere.  So I will grab his hands to avoid this occurance.  But then he refuses to open his mouth.  Arrrrgh!  And the teeth are not helping.  I used to be able to sort of "muscle" the spoon between his lips if Paxton wouldn't open up, but now the teeth are in the way so that doesn't work.  The joys of motherhood.  Hopefully once this tooth comes in completely his appetite will come back and he'll be more interested in eating instead of playing.

- is changing up his napping schedule.  I'm having a hard time adjusting because I'm used to him napping every 2 1/2 to 3 hours for ususally an hour or 2 at a time.  So far this week he seems to be stretching it out to being awake for 3 to 4 hours between naps and only napping for an hour if I'm lucky!  I really miss when he used to sleep for like 4 to 5 hours at a time during the day ...

- can hold his own bottle/sippy cup.  He hasn't quite figured out how to tilt it back so he can get the liquid, but that won't be long now.

- has been swimming and liked it.  We took him to Nicholas Sheran pool with our friend Kaity and her little girl Lainey on the 24th.  Both of the babies pretty much just sat in the floaty fish things (see picture below) and were really nonchalant about the milestone.  At least they didn't cry the whole time!

Playing with Auntie Kizzy's spoon at Grammy's birthday/Father's Day dinner.  Shortly after this picture was taken, spoon privileges were lost as Paxton tried to stab himself in the eye with the end of the spoon.

Not Paxton, but still funny.  Mom was cutting the cake and suddenly Jay says "Why are you cutting your ownbirthday cake?"  Apparently this is not allowable.  So Mom stopped cutting the cake so that I could take over.  Just funny where the knife ended up.

Snoozin' with Roseanne after a long day of visiting family for Father's Day.

Playin' with Mo (no Paxton did not play with Mo's rope toy, although it was nice of Mo to share)

All ready to go swimming!

At the pool with Lainey

Eating toes in the play pen

"Jean" Huggies that Grandma Daryl bought for Paxton.  Yes, he poos in blue, and even when it's a number 2 he looks like number 1.