SEVEN MONTHS!!!!!!!!! I know I say this every month but holy buckets time seems to be set on warp speed… a few short months ago you were like a little noodle who couldn’t make a deliberate move and now you are sitting and grabbing, SO very mobile for one who doesn’t crawl and definitely a girl who knows what she wants. You will roll your way to it with determination and it is a wonder to see. You are also VERY vocal and really in to exploring your range… the high notes especially. Your dad still doesn’t dig the nick name “little squeak” but I have to tell you, you earn it more and more each day. This month “we” have settled in to a routine at long last (read “I”). First “we” had to adjust to you (and you to us) all while I was healing from surgery, then I went through the trauma of returning to work and found myself a bundle of raw as I dealt with the daily heartbreak of leaving your side for most of my days, but now I have slowly un-clenched from that agony and each day is easier so we are finally settling in. I leave you with a full bottle in your dad’s arms in the morning, and Face Time you throughout the days (my favorite thing each day when we’re apart) and in the evenings when I get home I rush in and scoop you up from your Dad or Grandma Connie, cuddle you, feed you and we get ready for the next day. You tried solid food for the first time this month… your first meal was a steamed, puréed sweet potato. You’re not sold on the need for solid food yet. You take in each spoonful as I give it, and then push it out of your mouth by sticking out your tongue. You like bananas & plums ok but looked at me crazy when i attempted to give you squash and avocado. You also took your first photo with the Easter bunny this month. We dressed you up in frilly pinkness and carted you up to The Grove unsure how you’d take it. After giving him a slow, ice cold once over and sitting stoically for the first couple of shots, you finally gave up a slight smile and the photos are cute so... worth it!! You went on your first hike (really more of a nature walk) at Franklin Canyon, sleeping through most of it, and went to your first ladies brunch (plus baby Grayson). I guess it was a pretty action packed month, and you are taking it all in stride. You’re 7 months old & the physical reminders that you were once a part of me are dissipating. My linea nigra, that dark line that marked my center as my belly swelled and grew darker as you grew stronger and bigger inside me, is fading. The scar where they cut you out of me, raised, red and raw a few short months ago, is healing to a flattened, hard line, numb to the touch. Rushing in their place are physical signs that you are a fully formed being outside of me... the tiny crescent marks your nails leave in my skin when you squeeze my arm as you feed, the strained tendons in my wrist from holding you and the new click in my hip from balancing your weight, because up is where you wanna be. It’s physically harder than I ever thought, and more glorious than I ever imagined. I wouldn’t change a thing.