Changing..

7 months old already - time is flying by way faster than when Liam was little, I assure you, it is happening. Carolina has changed so much in such a hurry. She always felt like a little baby to me, even up till 5 months... but somewhere in the last few weeks, it seemed like she suddenly grew up. She even got bigger and heavier overnight it seems. She can still wear 3 months pants (although they're short) because her waist is so small, but her tops need to be 6 or 9 month, and her jammies are 12 months - she has a long torso. I've been stocking up on dresses for summer mostly, that way we don't have to worry about things being too short, or too big around. We were supposed to have her 6 month well-child check this week but I rescheduled it. (The doc had actually told me at her 4 month check that I didn't need to come in for the sixer... but I didn't like that, so I made an appointment anyway.) *Sigh* I suppose I should go out and find an actual pediatrician. So until I have growth stats (update: 17 lbs, 27 inches long, 41%ile - much more average from her 2%ile last time), here are the other ways she's changing:

Food - The girl LOVES to eat, well except peas, you saw the gagging of the peas. She eats rice cereal, sweet potatoes, green beans, bananas, pears, mangoes, and prunes. She loves her Baby Mum Mum crackers (rice crackers that sort of dissolve in her mouth) - she's getting really good at eating them, and using her tongue to move big pieces around in her mouth. She also loves this little mesh bag contraption that she can hold on her own - with a chunk of banana in it. The gums it all up - it's quite disgusting by the time she's done with it. Besides the food twice a day, we supplement with a good bit of formula in the evenings now - she was just too hungry. Which is a good place to segue...

Sleep - I think because she's been feeling more full at night, she finally realized she can go 12 hours without eating. I was going to wait until summer to transition her out of this, but she pretty much did it on her own a couple of weeks ago. This makes me happy and sad. I actually miss getting up in the middle of the night to hold her and see her little smile. But, I do feel much more rested the next day. She still goes to bed without a paci at night, but I've found if she wakes up early and I giver her the paci, I can get another hour of sleep out of her :) And she definitely needs the paci at nap. The swaddle is a problem though, she loves it and it puts her right to sleep, but she's still in the habit of waking up in the night and pushes her way out of it... and then she's mad. Sometimes I have had to re-swaddle her 4x.  Transitioning out of the swaddle is going to be out first big summer project, and I can tell it won't be easy. Speaking of...

Mobility - The girl is so strong - I don't know how I can wrap her so tightly in that swaddle and then she's out in 2 minutes. She has literally bruised me with how hard she pinches, plus she pushes away when you hold her now and it can be hard to hang on to her. At any moment that girl is going to figure out how to crawl. She can spin around, and go backwards, but forwards is still a conundrum. She frequently pushes herself up on her hands and knees and rocks back and forth, like she's trying to figure it out. She can even get up on her hands and feet, well even her toes, like she's doing some baby yoga pose. She really is strong, and she's going to be the type that gets into everything -oh man. Also, she is so intent at getting her hands on certain things, my mom told me she actually used her giraffe toy to hook another toy so she could drag it within her reach. We think she's a genius :)

Fun - We are SO lucky that she is really still such an easy, happy baby. She does like people to be in the room with her, but she's good with playing on her own a lot of the time. She loves to be read to, especially the "feely" books, and she totally knows when/how to touch the book to feel it. She loves Ripley, but her favorite is still Liam. He pretty much just has to look at her and she starts laughing. Todd and I have tried to do exactly what Liam is, and she just looks at us like we are weird, then he does whatever and she busts a gut. It's the best. She also loves her jumper, her toys, riding in the stroller, soccer games on TV, and being tickled on the back (well, she might actually hate that, hard to tell).
I promise a Liam update is in the works, he's just harder to get on camera :)