Seven Months!

Alice is 7 months old today! Wow! Has it really been seven months already? Time flies when you're having fun, and oh what fun have we had. Of course, the older she gets the more and more fun we can have. Our fun it limited to what is "safe" and within reason for her age, but oh the fun things we will get to do!

No new milestones were hit this past month. I *think* she has been signing milk the past few days, but I'm still not completely sure. I only see her do it while we are nursing, so perhaps she is. Alice got an awful lot better at crawling...I swear I feel like I'm in slow motion when I'm trying to get her. She is a pro at pulling herself up to standing. In fact, she can now stand even when there is nothing to pull at, i.e. the wall! Yes, her new favorite "toy" seems to be the wall. She crawls over there. Bumps her head and face in to it, and laughs! Then she rubs her hand all over it, smacks it to hear that lovely sound, and then stands up...and starts rubbing her face and head over it! I told Sean that we shouldn't get her any toys or anything. Just a few bags (like gift bags-not plastic from the store), an empty box, and a few pots and pans (with a spoon for banging!). I believe she would be the happiest baby ever! Truthfully, she already is though. Almost always full of smiles!

Oh, I got off on a tangent. The other thing that Alice is working on perfecting is standing alone. She was only doing a few seconds, but I am pleased to report she can now (sometimes) stand for up to two minutes on her own. She can also take a few steps if you hold her hands. Geez, this kid will be walking before I know it. Which makes me wonder, why am I trying to promote this "walking" thing? I'm only kidding (sort of). Life with a crawler sure is more trying than life with a baby that just lays there.

For the first time (well technically it wasn't the first time-but the first times didn't count because she was only days/weeks old), Alice got to go outside and see what was going on. I put her in her stroller, and we rolled out to check on the animals. Now, Alice has seen dogs. Oh, does she love dogs! She has not seen any other animals...until yesterday. First up were the rabbits. Oh my goodness...she squealed with delight and leaned so far forward in her stroller that I thought she may fall out. I didn't let her pet any of the rabbits (only one is really nice enough to let you pet her anyway). Next, I opened the barn door and out came the two cats (we had 5 but living in the country you learn that sometimes animals run away or get beaten by nature). The mommy cat (Jinx) saw Alice and ran off, but Minx (the son) was intrigued. He had never seen a stroller before! So began the most interesting part of our excursion. Minx was interested in the stroller and Alice, and Alice was F-R-E-A-K-I-N-G out about the kitty. I have never heard her babble, squeal, or scream as loud as she was. At one point, I picked up Minx so Alice could pet him and boy, oh boy, was she tickled. Finally, we strolled around to see the chickens. The rooster was crowing and the look on Alice's face was priceless. Never had she heard anything like that. She looked at the rooster, then to me, back to the rooster, then to me. I told her it was a rooster (and pointed out the hens as well), but I didn't have a sign for it. Remind me to see if I can find the signs for "rabbit", "cat", and "chicken".

Unfortunately, I do not have pictures of our first outing at our house, but I will bring the camera today when we go and try to recreate the situation. I need to cut this short...apparently my father wants to stop by with relatives that haven't seen Alice yet, and my house is a mess. Argh! Whatever happened to the 24 hour notice? I don't usually clean the house until Saturday afternoons or Sunday.