7 months (late again)

On Tuesday (Inauguration Day—yipee!), Nora turned 7 months. [Insert my monthly gripe about the accelerated passage of time here.] This month has been a big one: She's started sleeping in her crib, which is really, really emotional for both of us. I don't have the mental energy to do the topic justice right now, but suffice it to say it involves a lot of crying on both of our parts, followed by really long stretches of sleep. The long stretches (12 hours sometimes! I know I'm going to hate myself for posting that, seeing as how she reads this blog and then resolves to make a liar of me) bolster me to keep on going when the going is tough. Not just because the feeling of more than 45 minutes of consecutive sleep is so glorious, but also because it's clear to me that this is what she needs. I do miss our all-night cuddles, though, and in my more depressed states it's easy to make the leap from putting her in her crib to dropping her off at the dorms. And the crying begins again.

Other highlights of the month:

• She's become much more mobile. She gets up on hands-and-knees, and today (though technically this is a few days past 7 months), she did her first little army crawl. Get this girl some fatigues!
• At her belated 6 month appointment last week, she weighed in at 15 pounds, 14 ounces. The little chunker is evening out. Remember those rollalicious photos from early on? In those days she was in 80th percentile for weight; now she's down to 35th or so. But as you can see from the photos, she's not wanting for padding.
• Her favorite things are still her big brother, her mama, her daddy, and her funny, funny dogs. Oh, and lentil soup. Big hit.

She's such a tremendous joy. Just look at this smoochable little face. Yum.






And the monthly car seat photo: