7 Months!

Rather than a belated weekly post (...again) we thought we would bundle all of the latest happenings into one celebratory post about Wren being 7 whole months old today!  Just in time for upcoming Mother's Day Wren decided to expand her syllables to: (drum roll please......

Be still my heart!  That sure makes a Mama feel extra special!  A few days after we started hearing the mmm sounds Wren is now making "pa pa" sounds.  She wakes in the morning practicing her little words and chats up a storm on occasion in her car seat and stroller.  

Wren is becoming more adventurous when sitting up and will reach and reach for items around her.  A few times we have found her laying on her belly after we have set her down with toys and making slight turns and movements around to get what she wants.  

The exersaucer got bumped up a notch for our tall gal.

Over the weekend Wren repeatedly put both arms in the air and leaned her head to her arm....a sort of stretch?  It was very cute and interesting and I am not sure what the purpose was.  

today at daycare I attempted to get Wren to nap before I headed back to work from my lunch break and as she laid in the pack-n-play she kept lifting her blanket over her face and putting it back down. What a silly goose!  

We are getting more and more giggles for silly things.  Little dances, sudden movements and silly noises get a good laugh and my favorite is to nibble her arms like little corn cobs - works like a charm!

We are working on using the sippy cup and tried this morning to give Wren some milk from a regular cup.  It was a bit messy but a good start!  

Sleeping times were getting pretty rough and the last week brought some nights/early mornings of excessive wakings.  With a few suggestions and little bits from the stack of baby sleep books we've checked out we have actually had three good nights in a row this week.  For us "good" doesn't mean sleeping all night - it means waking up two or three times - but believe me when I tell you that this is a h.u.g.e. improvement over where we've been.  I had 4 days off over last weekend and committed myself to making some headway on the short naps we get.  Sleep literature tells me that her 20 minute naps are completely insufficient and she might just be "chronically sleep deprived".  I trialed some ideas on Friday and Saturday and was super stoked on Sunday when I got a one hour nap from Wren exactly 3 hours after waking.   I thought this was a miracle and tried to replicate the results for the following nap with a pretty good outcome, but the afternoon nap did not follow the pattern.  Monday didn't follow this pattern and we wound up with 4 short naps, 20-30 minutes each.  Regardless, the one day victory and subsequent nights of better sleep have rejuvenated me quite a bit and we have renewed hope for a good sleeper in the future.  It's tough to then return to the work week and leave your sleep-challenged little one to be someone else's project but we will get back to the drawing board on Saturday.

Wren and I hit the grocery store on Sunday for her first ride in a shopping cart.  She did a great job and really liked looking around.  In the future I picture us strolling the aisles singing little songs together - so fun!  

The weather is turning absolutely gorgeous around here so we have hit the park for some hang out sessions on the grass.  Our yard is undergoing a major transformation - blog post upcoming - so we are making sure to get Shep out and about as much as we can so he doesn't go nutso from being inside so much.  

Still no teeth!  

Jay is in the thick of his student teaching for a middle school in town and is enjoying the students.  It's also pretty nice that he gets home earlier in the afternoon than he used to and we get to have some very quality family times in the evening.