Elijah Updates

So, our little guy is 7 months now and growing so much! He's definitely developed a little personality! He loves to play in his exersaucer, jumper, and bumbo - unless he sees mommy or daddy walking around. Then he definitely wants to be held so that he can be with us or do whatever we're doing! He'll use his baby "babble" to tell us or he'll say "ahhh!" and reach out his arms (he doesn't do a full reach towards us, but he reachs out his arms and/or leans). He also like to sit up by himself - he has gotten really good at that over the past month. And, he has gotten REALLY ACTIVE! Even when you are holding him he is moving around or up to something! He definitely all boy! Changing his diaper/clothes can definitely be a challenge because of that! He is still making boy noises and tries to baby babble. He says a word that sounds like "WOW!" or "OW" and then he says something like "NAA", which I like to try and convince Steve that that is his way of trying to say Mama. :) He isn't crawling yet, but he'll spend time on his belly playing and will scoot/slide backwards lots and will also rock while up on his knees. He usually ends up rolling over to play after a while, though! He would much rather be standing all the time and he loves to "practice taking steps". For the past couple of weeks, we've been going through a teething spell - it's been really rough on him. For about two weeks, he was waking up multiple times at night screaming. :( We felt so bad for him and didn't know what to do. We would try to calm him, pray for him and give him tylenol if he needed it. But, since it had been going on so long, we took him in to the dr just to get him checked out. They said that he might have a little virus too (cause he was congested), but that he was definitely teething (they felt his gums and could tell). They said that some babies get their first teeth almost overnight and have little pain while others experience is dragged out and are in more pain. So, I guess that's our case. He said that we will probably have a couple more weeks of bad sleep. Over the past few nights, he has done A LOT better, though - sleeping straight through the night and getting up at 5 or so wanting to eat (still earlier than it used to be, but better than waking up screaming at 1, 3, 4, etc). :) He continues to do really well with his solid foods. He absolutely LOVES the pre-mixed baby food ones that have meat in them (like chicken/beef vegetable, turkey rice or chicken noodle). You can't spoon those fast enough for him. it explains why I craved meat so much while I was pregnant!

Steve's grandma from El Salvador has been in town this month and has loved seeing her two great-grandsons while she is here. Here are some pictures of her and Elijah. Elijah woke up from his nap to find her here in our house. So he was a little confused (as you can see from his facial expression). :)

We celebrated Steve's mom's bday this past weekend and have his two brothers' bdays this coming weekend. We all love to sing E's favorite song "Salta mi conejito..." (jump my little bunny) because when you start that song, he just GRINS really big! That is definitely his favorite song! Steve's grandma picked up on that one fast too and now she sings the first line to him often to see his face light up. :)