7 months (+some)

Mia turned 7 months on 27 October! At this writing, she's 7.5 months.

In her 7th month, she experienced her first Hurricane, her 2nd power outage, and her first Halloween! She had her 2nd horrible diaper rash and her first bad virus complete with high (>104 degree) fever.

She is growing up before our eyes. She continues to adore her big sister and watches everything Emma does. They continue to play off each other and have giggle fests. It brightens our day to hear them laughing together! Today, Emma had fun pushing her monster truck and letting Mia crawl after it.

Mia goes through spurts of being vocal and being quiet. Some days are quieter than others and other days, she talks and grunts and yells. She still says dada and mama indiscriminately but it's music to my ears when she babbles mama. :) We can tell that Mia does understand language. She probably knows who Mom and Dad are, but definitely knows Emma. We'll ask where Emma is and she will look around for her immediately. We can tell her 'No,' and she will stop what she is doing and look at us expectantly. We ask if she's hungry and she replies with grunts or crawls to us quickly and throws herself into our laps. She might understand the word bath because she seems to perk up at it. She is a little water baby and loves bathtime!

This past week, Mia had a virus for about 3 days. She spiked a high fever at 10pm on Monday night. On Tuesday, I took her to the doctor who assured us that her ears, throat and chest were clear and since her fever was responding to medication, she just had to ride it out. The doctor said it might be roseola, but Mia never developed the rash after the 3 day fever. Mia was a trooper during it all. She played hard and continued to eat like a champ. Unless you held her to feel her body radiating heat, you almost wouldn't have noticed she was ill. She slept a bit more than normal and although I wished she wasn't sick, I did enjoy snuggle time with her the days we were home together.

Mia is getting stronger and stronger. She can pull herself up on almost anything. She is attempting to figure out how to stand by herself and how to get to standing by pushing herself up off the floor. She is incredibly frustrated that she can't climb the steps.

When we put Mia in bed, we cover her with a small blanket. She reaches down, grabs it, pulls it up and rolls on her side. It's adorable! 

On Thursday this past week, Kurt and the girls were in the basement when I came home after work. Emma ran up to see me; Mia protested loudly when she heard my voice but couldn't climb the steps herself. 

Today, I was laid down on the floor to play with Mia. When she saw me, she smiled, crawled to me, put her hands on my cheeks, then leaned forward to give me a baby kiss (i.e. open mouthed complete with tongue.) Kinda gross but too cute!

Mia loves her food. She eats oatmeal twice a day and either a fruit or veggie once a day (plus sometimes a bit extra at dinner). We've given her cheerios several times but she's not a fan once they are in her mouth. She does enjoy playing with them though! Just today, she figured out how to pick up her sippy cup and get water into her own mouth. Prior to today, she would gladly drink it if someone else held it. Today, she had a piece of crusty bread at Panera, and LOVED it! She also had some real banana bites and banana mush. She liked both and really liked trying to feed herself with the spoon. We also gave her a Gerber Arrowroot biscuit and she loved it! She kept giving us big smiles the entire time she had it in her little hand and all over her face!

Mia still doesn't sleep through the night. She started making progress before she got sick and was only waking up one time, around 2 and then again around 530, but since she was sick, she's back to every 2 or so hours. Earlier this week, she was inconsolable during the night and Kurt ended up feeding her oatmeal a couple times. So in addition to being sick, she might be growing. She might also be teething because, a couple times she refused to nurse, but would gladly drink a cold bottle interspersing sips with gnawing on the nipple.

We've had a rough few days, but Mia is a trooper and continues to be a joy to all of us! It's fun to watch her develop before our eyes!