Hellobee

Panda turned seven months and is desperately trying to become mobile. Luckily for us, he still hasn’t quite figured it out crawling yet, but he is definitely trying! In the last month, he traveled across the country, went to a wedding, visited museums, rode a train and (finally) got baptized! He is still smiling at everyone, and laughs hysterically when Lion plays with him.

Love this sweet face.

Teeth: Still has two teeth! We haven’t seen any movement on this front for the last two months, even though it seems like his top teeth might come in any day.

Eating: Three months into the baby-led weaning process and I think he is finally getting the hang of it. He has his pincer grasp down now and loves to pick up small pieces of food. Unlike Lion, he never figured out how to take small bites out of food, so we now cut everything up into small pieces for him.

We also started giving him water. He doesn’t have an understanding on how to use a straw yet and always tries to bite down repeatedly when we offer him a glass, but we’re still trying.

I did not get a single good individual photo of Panda during his seven month photo shoot! This guy was a wiggle worm, flipping onto his stomach, trying to scoot away at every moment!

Sleeping: I think the trip to Seattle really put a wrench into his sleeping pattern and there have been some adjustments in our return. First, he was exhausted and wanted to sleep all the time. After he caught up on his sleep, he was suddenly waking at 4 in the morning wanting to play. Fingers crossed that he’s finally back on track with going to bed at 7 and waking up at 6 (usually with one of us popping in once or twice to give him a pacifier so he doesn’t wake his brother with his fussing).

The room sharing journey has had its ups and downs over the last six weeks and I will definitely share more on that adventure soon. For now, I’ll just say that whenever Lion wakes up babbling or crying, Panda sleeps through it ninety percent of the time.

He still falls asleep easily and without a pacifier or bottle. We read books, put him in his sleep sack, sing him his goodnight song and put him in his crib. He grabs his lovey and babbles for five or ten minutes before falling asleep.

Favorite activities: He still loves playing with Lion more than anything in the world. Lion is trying to teach Panda how to connect the Thomas the Tank Engine trains, but Panda definitely doesn’t understand and instead tries to eat them. Luckily, Lion is pretty patient. Lion has started being much more rough when he plays with Panda and I am working on not intervening as much because even though I sometimes worry he’s going to hurt his brother, Panda actually enjoys most of it. Panda will squeal with laughter the majority of the time and when he doesn’t like what’s happening, he’s very vocal about it. I’m trying to let Lion and Panda work it out for themselves instead of constantly telling Lion to be gentle.

Brothers!

In addition to playing with Lion, he continues to explore just about everything with his mouth and likes to reach for anything in sight. He has no interest in the jumperoo or being thrown up in the air, like his brother enjoyed at this age.

Milestones: Lion has been sitting independently for a couple of months, but has finally stopped flopping onto his face when he reaches for things in front of him. He knows reaches for objects then will slowly pivot so that he’s on his hands and knees. He has been on his hands and knees a lot recently and I can see the wheels turning as he tries to figure out what the next steps are to crawling.

While he doesn’t crawl yet, he can scoot himself backward and turn himself around, which is good enough for the purpose of moving to where he wants to be in the room. The other day, he was on his play mat and we left for one minute. When we returned, he was halfway across the room, playing with Lion’s basket of trains.

He is also working on taking steps while holding onto either Mr. Dolphin’s hands or mine. He gets a huge grin and starts laughing whenever he practices these steps!

Special Events: Panda got to attend a wedding and we enjoyed dressing him up with a bow tie!

After a long delay, we also finally got Panda baptized. I was worried that the beautiful baptismal gown my mother-in-law made for Lion, who was baptized at seven-weeks-old, wouldn’t fit Panda at six months old, but it surprisingly fit very well! Glad she made it on the larger side so that both boys could wear the same gown.

He was so wiggly during his seven month photo shoot, even Lion was having trouble with him!