Elliot's Update - 7 Months

Hey Everybody!
I'm seven months old today. I'm crawling like crazy and cruising quite comfortably along anything that will hold my weight. Yes it's early to be cruising already, but one good thing about starting so early is that I'm too short to bonk my head on tables when I walk under them and I'm not heavy enough to pull chairs over on myself. I've also been cutting my teeth on letters...no, no, not like that. Mom isn't that much of kook about teaching reading early...I mean literally chewing on some of Gav's letters to help my toofers come through. And really, I would chew on anything, letters just tend to be handy most of the time since that's something Gavin likes to do most of the day.

So we've been experimenting with some various foods since I wasn't really digging the plain Jane veggies mom was cooking up. My favorite way to eat meat is mixed with plenty of avocado--nice and creamy :o). I also like sweet potatoes, finally. Egg yolk is okay, but doesn't taste like much. Other than those, I eat pretty normal baby stuff: squash, peas, rice & oatmeal cereal. I'm almost old enough to try some soft finger foods, but mom made my food just the tiniest bit lumpy today and my ultra sensitive gag reflex kicked in: super big yucky mess.

I'm still not saying too much, but I do like to practice copy mom & dad saying hey and my favorite syllables: oy goy goy goy which I say very easily around my pacifier. :os I've started to wave my fingers, but mom's not sure if that's a howdy doody or the sign for milk. Guess we'll see when/if I start to do some more signs. Of course I still laugh about anything but teething & throwing up.

Oh, fun thing: The Beach - Went to the beach Aug 23. Left home around 4 pm, so we arrived at Surfside at 5 pm. It was perfect timing. We didn't escape the sunscreen slatheration, but nobody got too much sun and it was cooling off nicely. It was also low tide and there was this perfect little section of water for me to play in. It was about ankle deep and protected by a sandbar, so new water came in every now & then but it was nicely protected from breaking waves. So I was able to crawl around all over the place (which was good b/c daddy forgot the blanket) without sand sticking to my hands and mom didn't have to worry about waves breaking over my head. I got a couple splashes in my face from crawling a little to exuberantly, but most of the time I just chased after whatever caught my eye: seaweed, shells, light dancing in the water, etc. What a fun way for a crawling creature to enjoy being outside!! Gavin had his usual hoot of a time scooping wet sand that acts so much like mud and checking out the stuff that washes up on the beach.

Well, better catch a nap.
Later,
Elliot