Big Guy

I know. I know. It's been forever since I posted an update on the only thing anyone really cares about around here: Bunkey! So, in an attempt to redeem myself, I thought I'd try to play catch up a bit...

Whelp, Bunkey is officially seven and a half months old today! I have no idea where the time has gone! He is really growing into his little personality and it's so much fun to see what new discoveries he'll make each day. I know Hubs has really loved being home two-plus weeks while on Christmas break. He went back to class last week and poor little guy misses his playmate...

As for seven-month stats, we don't have another well-baby check up until the nine-month mark, so I don't have weight/height to report. Bunkey registers right around 18 pounds on our bathroom scale, so he's still long and lean... But he's doing great! Still no teeth, but we think he's close....he was really snotty, but not acting sick, the week of Christmas, and he's constantly pressing anything against his gums as the pressure must feel good on the tender spots. He's an eating machine, having tasted avocado, sweet potato, butternut squash, pumpkin, rice, oatmeal, banana, pear, apple, apricot, sweet pea, honeydew, zucchini, carrots, and this week, green beans! And we're about to incorporate fruits and veggies during at least one meal a day and go from there.

Other milestones include smiling and giggling spontaneously, big huge "belly laughs" when we tickle him or turn him upside down or put him high in the air like an airplane, rolling over both ways, grasping an object and switching it from one hand to another, reaching for a preferred toy, sitting alone, and crawling! That's right....Bunkey inched forward a tiny bit on Christmas Eve (Mom's birthday) while we were Skyping with her, and then he really moved two days after Christmas while he and Hubs were playing and I was putting away laundry. I missed the whole thing, but later that night he did it again for me so I got to see. Now he's really moving with gusto, tand just started straying from the room we're in to explore. Needless to say, the baby gate is up and installed, complete with the requisite drama and trip back to the store to get a new gate since we bought one two and a half inches short despite repeated measuring.  Bunkey has discovered the Play Station and the stereo we don't use and likes to crawl over to them to investigate. This week we started trying to teach what "no" means and hopefully he'll get the hint soon, but I'm not holding my breath. He's also starting to pull up on things, and already getting on his knees while his hands are busy reaching for something higher. He's crawled onto the shelf on the bottom of the coffee table. The last awesome thing he's doing now is putting himself to sleep. I used to read Bunkey a story and then rock him until he was totally out. But now he'll let me rock him for about five minutes (sometimes less) after a story and then he's wiggling in my lap trying to get comfy. At that point I just put him in the crib and he'll wiggle around and "sing" until he curls up with his favorite bunny and falls asleep!

Lastly, Little Man is wearing shoes now!  As soon as he started crawling my mom was on my case to start getting him used to shoes.  It makes sense, so I figured I'd look for something cute and inexpensive with soft soles.  Lo and behold, I was at the mall having lunch with some gal pals during the last day of Hubs's Christmas Break, and made a stop at Macy's while I was there.  They had a rack of infant shoes with both the soft-soled (crawling stage) and hard-soled (walking stage), complete with the white Stride Rite style many of us wore 20+ years ago.  I didn't really want white shoes, so I found some similar in style, but more current, and definitely boyish looking!  I chose two sizes since I wasn't quite sure what Bunkey would need, and with a price tag of $17.98, I was hoping one would be too small and I could return it.  If the smaller size fit, I'd just keep the larger and let him grow into them.  Imagine my surprise when I got to the counter and they were marked down to $4.76 each!  Yes, 75% off!  Score!  As luck would have it, the smaller size was just perfect for now, so I am set for a while for shoes for the little guy!

Beyond that, I'll leave you with some pictures!