So today marks month 7 for munkey. He is growing by leaps and bounds, amazing me every day at the things he does. Since Ali normally does the update, I thought I would add a few notes while I had a chance.

-- Munkey now sits in a big boy car seat, and loves it. He has the ability to look out the window, and see mom and dad while going down the road. He does not seem to get as fussy when we are stopped in traffic, which is a great thing.

-- He is now sitting up on his own, for as long as 45 minutes at a stretch. It seems that if he has something to occupy his time, he does not focus on the fact that he is sitting up, and can maintain his balance better.

-- Crawling is still not happening, but he has mastered the fact that he can roll around and get where he needs to get.

-- He really loves his doggies, and will often babble at them. They love him too, and its amazing to watch them go nuts outside if he starts crying. They want to make sure he is safe.

-- He has progressed to stage 2 babyfood, and still seems to enjoy all that we give him, except green beans. He has also started to enjoy things like pizza crust, crackers, and bread.

-- The most exciting on the list is his first word. He seems to put a lot of sounds together, but has figured out that Da-Da is me, and will make a point of looking towards me when he says it.

-- Nathan

Yay Nathan for another entry :)

Yes, before you discount the fact that Michael is in fact saying actual words, it's true. He's been putting sounds together for a couple of months now, and they just so happen to sometimes make words (his favorite in this category is ABBA...who knew he'd be a disco fan!), but on the 14th he started actually associating "dada" with Nathan. He looks at him and says it, and won't say it to anything or anyone else. He also pats him or reaches for him when he says it. So there.

His first Christmas went over very well. He figured out how to unwrap presents, dug on eating the tissue paper and ribbons, and actually played with some of his toys. See the pictures at Snapfish for proof. Of course, later on on Christmas Day, Nathan started what turned out to be a vicious case of both the flu and strep throat at the same time. Which led to me and Mikey both coming down with horrible colds that both of us still have. That's the joy of living somewhere where the weather changes at the drop of a hat, I guess...

Also on Christmas Eve, his first tooth decided to emerge finally! I was on the phone with Jill while holding him and rubbing his gums trying to make them feel better. All of a sudden, I felt the tooth. It was a great Christmas present! Tooth #2 emerged on 1/3.

With the emergence of the teeth, he can finally start eating "real" food. As Nathan mentioned, he eats crackers and pizza crust. But so far his favorites are French fries and bread from Outback Steakhouse. At least he's not picky yet!

No, he's not crawling yet, but I like to point out that not every baby has to crawl, as it's not a necessary developmental step. As LaVern loves to point out, I didn't crawl, nor did Jill or my mom. So there.

He CAN somewhat crawl, though, when it comes to the dogs. When he and Wrigley are on equal level with each other, he scoots his way along the floor doing what Nathan refers to as "the Marine crawl" to get to him. And when he and Mojo are laying on the bed together, he HAS figured out how to grab handfuls of Mojo's skin and hair, and use those to propel himself OVER Mojo. Thank God Mojo is one of those dogs that genuinely seems to love being manhandled by the baby.

For the most part he's sleeping through the night again now that the worst of the teething seems to be over (for now). He's still not sleeping in his own room yet, because we're still a bit too paranoid to try that. We'll get around to it someday....

He's officially almost too big for 6 - 9 month clothing now. The clothes from Baby Old Navy and Baby Gap are sized 6 - 12 months, and seem to be sized better than other clothes, so luckily we have a few of those laying around for him to wear. Mammoth baby, I swear...really! He's well over 18 lbs now (when we went to the doctor two weeks ago, he was 18 lb, 9 oz), and growing more every day.

Don't forget to check out the newest pictures up at Snapfish, and don't forget to let me know if you know of better photo archiving sites for free that we could use...

-- Ali