7 Months Old

At seven months old, Maverick is a curious explorer.  Now that he's able to crawl he is everywhere checking everything out.  Most of it ends up in his mouth....

so we have to be extra careful that our floors are clean of little pieces.  The living room floor is covered with many baby friendly toys ...

  but somehow he manages to crawl on this determined mission...

and find the cord to the Playstation game, or the controllers, or the remote control, or the DVDs, or the water bottle lying on the floor.  For some reason the things that he should NOT be messing with are the things he wants most!

We have to keep a constant eye on this little boy of ours; he is a mess.  I tried to work on the computer for a few minutes.  Normally I hold him in my lap, but I can't even do that anymore because he has made hash out of my desk, ripping up all my neatly organized papers with important e-mail addresses and passwords on it.  I decided to strap him in his seat right next to me.  I let him have a little, blue starfish to play with.  In no time he was doing a hand stand...his upper body strength held him up or else he would have been on the floor.  He was was determined to get that starfish that he dropped.

Maverick just loves Rocco; he laughs at him often for no apparent reason.  He just thinks Rocco is funny.  Here they are watching TV, Power Rangers, together. Just look at that cute, little head peeking at me. 

 This month Maverick was finally big enough to sit in a high chair.  He first sat in one at Bovine's, a restaurant we went to during our fall vacation in Myrtle Beach.  Later in the month, Jason had to bring Rocco's old high chair down to our kitchen from storage.  It was time to use it again!  Here's daddy feeding him in that chair for the first time.

He's also gone through some changes in the way of food this month.  He's moved onto Gerber stage 2 foods, which means there is more to eat in the jar and it is just a tad thicker in its texture.  He also has oatmeal in the morning mixed with my milk.  He continues to eat rice cereal with my milk, too.  Most of his nutrition still comes from nursing though.  We sign "milk" to him.  When he's hungry this makes him smile.  

Maverick is so strong.  He has the tightest grip, and he loves to hold onto our faces or hair.  He did a job on granddaddy's face the other day and scratched it.  If Nana Carolyn is not careful he will grab her glasses right off of her face.  His little pinch actually hurts; he doesn't know his own strength.  And speaking of how strong he is, this month he learned how to sit up straight without falling over.  This makes bath time a little easier.

He is coming along with his little personality, too.  He loves to be tickled.  Jason and I bury our heads in his upper chest near his neck and he is all smiles and giggles.  He can also get upset, too.  He does NOT like being strapped in his car seat. Most of the time when we go somewhere it is a challenge just to get him situated in it because he bows his back up and pitches a fit.  Most of the time he is very pleasant; he's just a happy baby.  We know when he gets tired, because that's one of the few times when he is cranky.  He just rubs his nose and face with his fists.  It's really sweet.

Earlier this month we took him to the doctor for a checkup. Thank the Lord his clogged tear duct opened up on its own.  No probes needed!   He was in the 98th percentile for his height.  He is 29 inches long, about as long as a one year old.  Jason was 29  1/2 in long when he was 12 months old. He weighs over 19 pounds; we had to move him into size 3 diapers.