Seven Months with Lyla

Lyla Rose is 7 months old!

What a joy it was to celebrate this little lady's first Christmas.  We spent the holiday down in Southern Oregon with my parents and younger sister. My grandma also lives there and was finally in town for Christmas, as were my aunt and cousins who were visiting from Southern California and got to meet Lyla for the first time--it was a family affair!  We didn't go too crazy on gifts for Lyla (after all, the girl doesn't have a clue that it's Christmas!).  She received a few toys and lots of books (the gifts that keep on giving) from her grandparents and aunts and uncles.  Jake and I got her one of those stand and learn tables, in hopes that she would pull herself up on that instead of our living room furniture that is more prone to head bonks.  This has sort of worked, sort of not.  Regardless, she loves that thing and we pretty much just keep it on the music setting, as it's clearly her favorite (we already have many of those damn annoying songs memorized. Ugh.).  She enjoyed being ogled by everyone and rather than experiencing any stranger danger, we had a serious case of "I-don't-want-to-sleep-and-miss-out-on-all-the-fun" going on.  I am STILL tired from all of our missed sleep last week.  But the girl was a dream, even with a cold and less sleep than usual.  She really is a good-natured baby (we know they may not all be this easygoing!).

Lyla is still just sporting her (super cute) bottom 2 teeth.  I keep thinking we've got more coming in by the way she acts, but I have a feeling that teething is just going to be a lengthy, drawn out process until she has them all.  We've been busy exposing her to more new foods--lately, pumpkin, sweet potatoes and yogurt with a wee bit of maple syrup are the big faves.  I'm still nursing and, in recent news, Lyla has actually started taking breastmilk from a bottle while I'm at work.  Say what?!  It's like a Christmas miracle.  I might actually be able  to stay at the office all day each work day (I've been stopping at home at 1:30 everyday).  This has me both saddened and relieved all at the same time (like so many aspects of motherhood). 

For those of you who know just how busy our baby is, no, Lyla has not yet started to walk.  She's busy testing all the boundaries though, sometimes successfully, sometimes not so much.  We haven't had any terribly dramatic spills just yet (thank goodness!).  She also just learned how to clap and it might be about the cutest thing I ever did see.  There have been a few instances now where it appears as though she has intentionally waved to say hi, but it's still hard to tell if it was just pure coincidence or not.  She is babbling away in her little baby language and particularly likes the 'g' sound.  Jake and I are constantly saying "mama" and "papa" to her, to which she looks at us with a big grin and says "guh!". Hahaha.  All in good time.

Here are some photos of our sweet pea girl from the past month.  Enjoy and Happy New Year!