Seven Month Letter

Dear Gabriel,

Today you are 7 months old! More than half a year!

This past month has included many firsts for you:

On Christmas Eve, Aunt Jordan helped us out by giving you your first haircut. We trimmed off the long baby curls and this older little boy emerged. The transformation was so simple, yet fairly profound. And boy do you look like your dad without that mop on your head. Of course, it’s now 3 weeks later and your hair is all poofy again, so I suppose it’s time for another trim.

You celebrated your first Christmas…by sleeping through present-opening time. But that’s ok. You were cozy in Grammaw’s arms and with so many people around you, I think you’d gotten a bit over-stimulated. A nap was just the thing.  Next year, you’ll be able to rip into presents yourself, and we’ll get lots of cute pictures of you and your cousins running around.

You spent your first nights away from our house when we slept at Grammaw’s on two different occasions. The first was when dad went to Vegas, and the second was Christmas Eve. You did fairly well being in a different place. As you get older, we’ll probably end up staying at Grammaw’s more, so hopefully you’ll adjust to that smoothly. Hopefully you’ll be able to do it smoothly this weekend when you spend your first night at Grammaw’s without mom or dad. Yikes! My first night away from my baby!!

You’ve been moved out of the infant carrier into your big boy car seat. Because of its size, you are no longer in the middle of the back seat. The first time you rode in the new car seat, you were mesmerized by the world going by outside your window. You still get that way sometimes. It’s pretty cute. You also had your first ride in a shopping cart as a big boy and you’ve used restaurant high chairs a couple of times. And all of this is because you are sitting up on your own now!! Almost overnight, you suddenly were able to hold yourself up. You still topple backward occasionally, so we throw some pillows behind you when we set you down. But watching you learn new things is so fun!

I would be painting a skewed picture if I didn’t also mention that you had your first tumble off of the couch…dad and I looked away for just a second, and you rolled right off. You don’t roll all that much, even on the ground, but you chose just that moment to try it out…and down you went. No damage!

Speaking of rolling, you’ve started rolling over onto your tummy in your crib. Then you wake up and get frustrated about it and I have to come turn you back over. You actually can roll from tummy to back, but I think you’re just confused in the middle of the night.

Your sleep schedule has been a little bit wonky lately…you got another ear infection a couple of weeks ago, so you weren’t sleeping well. And since you weren’t eating well during the day, you needed to eat overnight. Now we have to break that habit again. But I also find that, as much as I really want to sleep in my bed, I sometimes just want to pick you up and hold you. There is something comforting about holding you close while we sleep.

I’ll end this letter with a funny story. A couple of weeks ago, you started grabbing my face and pulling it close to you. Sometimes you pull my hair like reins, sometimes you grab my ear or jaw. During the day, you’ll usually give me open mouth kisses wherever your mouth lands when you pull me close. At night, you often suck on my chin. It doesn’t really bother me, and seems to calm you, so I let you do it. Last night, your dad told me that I had a red spot on my chin…then he said I actually had two of them. I couldn’t figure out what had caused them…they didn’t hurt or itch, they weren’t bumps or scratches…and then I realized…they are hickies. I have two little hickies on my chin from letting you calm yourself to sleep last night. At least they’re not on my neck.

I love you, little man. You’re my favorite.

Love, mama