Seven Months

Dear Griffin,

7 months. I have no idea what to say about that – it just doesn’t seem possible that one little person can change as much as you have in the past seven months. Your little head must be overflowing with all the new stuff that you have to shove inside it every day. Talk about a learning curve!

Another month filled with Firsts – your first Easter, (which technically falls into next month, but whatever, I’m in charge here and can put Easter wherever I want), first (and second) airplane trip, first foray to another country, first look at the ocean, the first of many new foods in your ever increasing diet, and your first taste of a little something we like to call “spring.” As much as we love the winter around here (or at least have a good sense of humor about it,) Spring is really the shit. Things come alive under the sunshine, including your Mama, and life gets just a little bit better around here.
In this month’s skill report, your sitting has gone from average to unsurpassed. I can plunk you down on your play mat, and a half an hour later you’re still in the very same place I left you, eating your toys, and blithely fighting off gravity like it’s no big deal at all. The only time you tend to go over is when you’re straining to reach something in front of you, which lands you on your belly, which is all the more better for eating things because you can just shove your face right into the toys then, without bothering with those pesky hands. Kid, you eat EVERYTHING. There is nothing that crosses your path that hasn’t been licked, tasted, or gnawed on by you. Metal chairs, antique couches, aluminum high chair bars, Kleenex boxes, all is fair game. If I hear from one more stranger in the grocery store “Ohhh!! He must be teething!” I’m going to smack them! Sure, he has teeth in head and some day (maybe even some day soon) they may come out, but in the mean time he’s going to EAT EVERYTHING, because he’s a baby, and that’s what BABIES DO!
In other skills, I can see the idea of pulling yourself up to standing forming in your little head, but I’m in no hurry to lower the crib mattress just yet so that can wait. Your rolling has improved, and now not only have you figured out how to roll back and forth from tummy to back at will, you occasionally can even do it in your sleep, and if not, you have been known to fall asleep on your tummy without the world coming to an end. But only occasionally – usually it’s still cause for major middle of the night panic. You’ve started to pull those little knees up under your butt, and I can see motor skills in your near future. The days of plunking you down on the mat and finding you in the same place half an hour later will soon be over!
We have also, sadly, seen the last of the bucket car seat. Gone are the days when you can fall asleep in the seat before we even left the house, all snug as a bug in your hand made car seat cozy. You’d wake up still in the seat in the grocery store, doze off again in the car, stay sleeping while we carry you and the groceries into the house, and then nap for another half hour in the front hallway, still warm and cozy and snuggled in the car seat. Oh no. That’s over. Now, just when you fall into a contented car seat sleep, starting to dream of boobs and teddy bears and whatever else it is that babies dream of, you get ripped out of the seat, forced into the cold, only to be plunked down in a hard grocery cart that offers zero lumbar support, cooed at by strangers for ½ an hour in the grocery store, and then out into the cold again, strapped back into the seat…nodding off into dreamy land…and then 5 minutes later, ripped out of the seat again, back into the cold, into the house, and plunked in your playpen while we unload the car, you dazed and very confused, and still VERY sleepy because it’s DAMN NEAR IMPOSSIBLE to get in a DECENT NAP AROUND THIS PLACE! Dude, I totally feel for you. Welcome to the real world!

It’s been a crazy busy month around here, but you have been particularly enjoyable this month. You’re more fun to play with, more fun to laugh with, and you’re a riot to just sit and watch. You've been a serious trooper though all the insanity that's been going on around here, even coming to "work " with Mama one day. Mama called a lighting focus, you sat around in your stroller being cute and entertaining yourself like the angel that you are. This behavior bodes very well for the future!

Every where we go, you charm the pants off of everyone you meet (not literally, although I'm sure that time will come too.) The ladies particularly dig you, and you seriously dig the ladies! You'll smile for just about anyone you come across, but a pretty lady gets extra special smiles from you. Everyone comments on how happy a baby you are. We usually invite them for a sleepover so they can see the darker side of you, but they politely decline, preferring to stay in a state of Griffin Bliss. And who can blame them.

We totally dig you buddy! You're smart, you're funny, you love to laugh, and it's a hoot watching your personality emerge. And gosh darn are you cute!! And looking more and more like your Daddy every day (which isn't a bad thing.) You seem to have escaped his childhood ears. Lucky guy! You've certainly made our little Life on the Roof here a brighter place!

xoxox
Mama