The theme for this past month has been sleep, specifically a lack of it! An onslaught of big changes in such a little body has meant that Hennie’s previously decent sleeping abilities have been hugely waylaid. Excitement at having so many new skills have made for a very agitated baby in the evenings. Even before this regression it took a combo of bouncing, shushing, and ninja moves to get this kid down, but once she was out we usually reaped the benefits of 5 (ish) uninterrupted hours of sleep. We knew that every phase has it’s day with these babes so we tried to accept that one until it passed but the week before May long weekend we were complete zombies and decided something had to be done. We made a plan with some new rules (for her and for us) and used the long weekend to start. Things were going well for a week or two until Hen figured out exactly what we were doing and altered herself accordingly, becoming completely resistant to naptime and bedtime routines and ramping up her screaming tenfold. Last night we felt like our strong-willed daughter had left us no choice but to let her cry it out. Ugh! Fingers crossed that we can get the whole family into a bit of a routine before the traveling we’re doing later this summer!

Nicknames: Hennie Bear and Bugaloo or just “Boogs” 🙂

Things We Want to Remember About Hennie at Seven Months Old: her twisty wrist motion, it’s the best. How she smiles with her tongue out, how much she loves frozen banana, the way she pumps her arms and legs with excitement when she sees us, how she looks to us for encouragement right after she rolls over, how proud she is when she achieves something new, how much she loves being in water and splashes like crazy, the way she laughed like crazy when she finally got up on all fours and started inching across the floor – it’s like she knew she had just done something so awesome.

New Skills: she has mastered her hand motions to the point where she can (clumsily) wave, high-five, and bring a spoon to her mouth; is sitting up without help, feeds herself red pepper, baked sweet potato, cucumber, and carrot, and finally finally fell asleep in our arms a few times. We had been waiting 7 months for those cuddles and we looked at each other with giddy grins every time she laid her little (big) head on our shoulder. This usually lasts less than a minute before she tries to climb up and over our shoulder to see what adventure awaits behind us. Little monkey!