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29 Jul '12 - 1144 W, 19 I Rafe's 7 Month Birthday

And so the boy is 7 months old (and a bit, but thank god for backdated entries, right?)

*Mouse over pictures for captions

Unbelievably, another month has flown by and Adik is growing and developing so quickly. Last month's rolling and lunging has quickly become a fast-moving commando crawl. The child is mobile! He's happy to just roam around the house. We do have to make sure he doesn't get trampled by Yaya (who of course is oblivious of the fact that she could actually hurt her brother if she steps on him), and it doesn't help that he always wants to follow her around and try to do what she's doing. But it's awfully fun to watch his little personality appear and see the things that catch his attention (and then gets taken away from him by Yaya) and the next thing and so on and so forth. He's getting to the point that he only wants to sit on me when he wants to nurse and/or nap, and all other times he just wants to be free. 

Food-wise, he is still a mostly breast-fed baby. He still gets his 1-2 ounces of formula supplement a day, but of course, the bigger change is that he is now an eater of solids! As with Yaya, we are observing the 4-day rule where he tries a new thing for four days to see if there are any allergic reactions toward the new food. The following is a list of foods that he has tried since his 6-month birthday and his rating of them (thumbs up/thumbs down).

1. Sweet potato puree (thumbs up!)
2. Rice cereal (thumbs down)
3. Nectarine puree (thumbs up!)
4. Plum puree (thumbs up!)
5. Mango puree (thumbs up!)

He gets up multiple times a night to nurse and we do one bottle supplement downstairs a night while Vin and I get our daily dose of "normal" (read - not Nick Jr) television at around 3 or 4 AM and then we segmented sleepers go back up for a second shorter sleep. We seem to have hit a sort of groove if you will.

Rafe is an amazing little boy - so full of fun and ready to participate in everything. He still loves ooo-chak (peekaboo), but he also loves running around the house with us. Adik also loves crawling around and pulling at things. He is getting to the point where he's relaxing on his side very comfortably, propped up on an elbow, without falling over uncontrollably. He will be sitting up on his own before we know it. He can balance sitting up on his own for short periods of time if we help him into a sitting position as well. He also learnt to clap his hands! Go Adik! Also he likes to bang his open palm on surfaces (floors, tables, piano keys, etc.). He is very vocal - loves to just babble on and on, and he loves when Yaya babbles back to him. He's a charmer who smiles and laughs a lot and just seems to enjoy every moment that he can.

Now, on to see how Adik spent his 7-month birthday. It's a bit different as it fell on Day 2 of our drive down to Florida. We drove down to Florida to attend Aunt Mary's funeral, rest her soul. And even though it was Ramadhan, how can we drive 2 days there and 2 days back without going to the beach? We made a bit of a vacation of it as well - and the goal on Day 2 of the drive, to meet up with Becky and Phil at the resort in St Pete Beach. Sadly we spent most of the day driving and there were periods where Adik just cried and cried in his car seat (after being fed and changed and cuddled so he was just screaming because he wanted out of the seat). But there were good times as well. We start off the day in Ringgold, GA at a hotel (about 390 miles from home) and we had to drive all the way to St Pete Beach that day.

I love the expression on his face in the above photo.

Adik wants to roam freely in the room but Papa is loading up the car and getting us ready to set off. I'm trying to pack stuff while not letting Adik fall off the bed. So then Yaya joins in the fray.

Suffice it to say that we set off at about 11 AM and we got to our destination after 9:30 PM. Long drive. Yaya was great, but poor Adik just didn't understand why he was stuck in the carseat for so long. But we got there and Adik recovered right away. Especially since Becky and Phil were waiting for us!

We haul our stuff to our room and take a quick walk on the beach. It was awesome. I forget how much I miss the sea until I get to the coast and smell that salty air. Then Becky and Phil hang out in ouor room with us for a while, just chatting and playing with the kids.

We had an awesome evening, catching up with Phil and Becky (and did I mention that we were at the beach!!??). We put the kids to bed and then toddle off to sleep ourselves. What a long day in the car, but well worth it! Happy 7-month birthday, baby boy! Sorry you had to spend it in the car, but the next few days makes up for all that carseat torture that you had to put up with! We love you, baby! A family photo, taken on the beach that night, closes out the entry:

chris and lil, i have trouble not biting his cheeks every day myself lil: yep so far adik loves his makan and tends to ask for more!

wisard: thank you! he’s our little angel

sila - 25 August '12 - 23:54