We’ve been continuing to introduce you to new foods, and we haven’t found one that you won’t eat. You’ve had these foods, introduced in this order: rice cereal (your least favorite), banana, avocado, sweet potato, pear, zucchini, yellow squash. We introduced the yellow squash tonight, and again, you gobbled it all up. When we first start feeding you, you pucker your lips and want us to put a little dab on there for you to try. You often make a funny face as you experience the taste, but you usually you’re your mouth wide and ask for more. Sometimes, and usually in the middle of a feeding, you’ll make a funny face, like you’ve been given something really sour, and then just as quickly as the face appears, it disappears, you swallow down the food, and you open your mouth up for more. We keep trying to capture this on video, but we haven’t yet succeeded.

On our drive home today we drove through Rocky Mountain National Park, stopping at the high point to feed you, take in the scenery, and snap a few photos of us on top of the world. You smiled and giggled when I held you up to look at the amazing views, and you and your brothers attracted plenty of attention from all of the tourists. We bought a year pass to the park, so we’ll go back either later this fall or next summer to hike with you.

This evening we watched the Broncos’ first game. Although we didn’t let you watch it, we had you all decked out in your Broncos’ shirt. Throughout the game your dad would shout or yell reactions to whatever was transpiring on TV, and you’d look up at him curiously wondering what was going on. Ever since we found out we were pregnant, he’s been working on not being so vocal or emotional when watching games on TV so that he wouldn’t frighten you. He’s gotten a lot better! Someday, when you’re bigger and a true Broncos’ fan, you’ll understand what all of the yelling’s about.

We’re up in Winter Park for the weekend, and today decided to explore the area. We drove to Grand Lake and had a good time hanging out by the lake and wandering around town. The dogs had lots of fun playing in the lake and fetching sticks, and you were happy just watching all the craziness around you. We also went on a little hike, and saw our first moose!

We’re staying in a hotel in Winter Park, and so it’s one of the first times we’ve all stayed in the same room again since you transitioned to sleeping in your room about a month ago. You are on a great pattern of going to bed between 7 and 8 at night. With us all in one room this means that when we put you down we also settle and relax for the night, turning the lights off and trying to be quiet so as not to disturb you. Although limiting on our ability to do much, it’s a special time with our whole family in one room again together. And it forces us to slow down, read and relax, and get to sleep early, something that we never seem to do enough.

Today you really got more efficient at your little belly crawl, and you’re able to quickly cover a good amount of distance. I tried on a couple of occasions to take a video of you in motion, but I seemed to always start recording after you were a tired out. I’ve found that right after you awake from a nap and eat you are at your most active. I place you on your belly, you look all around you and hone in on something, and off you go. You pull yourself closer and closer, pausing to catch your breath, until you reach the object. Then you grab on, and roll to your back to examine it. This must be a tremendous workout for you, and you’ve been both eating and sleeping great since you’ve become so much more mobile. Your dad and I are having so much fun watching you, but also realizing we need to baby proof and be really vigilant whenever you are on the ground.

This afternoon we headed up to Winter Park for the weekend. Usually we use cloth diapers, but we opted for disposables this weekend for convenience while we’re out of town. At dinner tonight I picked you up and was helping you stand in my lap for a bit, when I looked down and realized your pants had fallen off! They are sized for 3 to 6 month, and usually they fit you, but I guess without the added bulk of the cloth diapers they just slide right off your tiny frame. Your dad and I kept putting them on you, trying to roll them over to get them to stay, but after they fell off the third or fourth time, we finally gave up and you finished dinner without any pants on.

Your papa got back in town today – he’s been in Tahoe helping Uncle Kyle on his new house – and he and nana came over tonight. They kept an eye on you while your dad and I were at soccer, and they loved seeing you move across the floor. Your papa said he thought you were strongly favoring your right arm to pull you along, and proclaimed that you are right-handed. We’ll see!

But the most exciting part of today was after you went to bed. We Skyped with Brett, Jen and Kyle and together presented nana and papa with their anniversary present. Their 49th wedding anniversary is tomorrow, and so we celebrated a little early. We presented them with a few travel books, some papers to renew their passports, and a message that we’re all going to take them on a big family adventure to Europe next fall for their 50th anniversary. I am so excited for this trip, and think it is such a unique and perfect way to honor their amazing commitment to each other and our family. I can’t wait for all the fun we’ll have!

Today your nanny found you standing in the crib! We’ve never before seen you pull yourself up to a standing position, and neither had she, so she was quite surprised to find you like this. Needless to say, we spent the evening lowering your crib to its lowest level. But it’s obvious that this is the latest move you’re working to conquer. You spent almost all of bath time moving from a reclined position, to seated, then leaning forward and grabbing the end of the tub and trying to lift your little body to a standing position. You’d breathe heavily from the intense work of trying to stand, and we’d have our hands on your ready to catch you should you fall. You never did get yourself to fully standing, but I can only imagine how much harder it’d be in a slippery, odd shaped tub. Also tonight, you kept trying to stand up by pulling yourself up on the edge of the piano. It kept slipping away from you on the carpet, and so I eventually moved you over to the couch and tried to show you how to pull yourself up on the end of the couch. Perhaps I shouldn’t be showing you these things, but I figured it’d be better to have you pull yourself up using something that is soft and stable, than something that moves and slides. But I still can’t believe you’re already working on standing.

You turned seven months old today, and this evening your dad and I were reminiscing how seven months ago we were spending our first night with you. We were exhausted from the long labor, but we were also savoring our first quiet, nighttime moments with you. The visitors had left, the doctors had stopped popping in, and aside from a nurse coming in to check on us every couple of hours, it was just the three of us. We even took our first family stroll that night. At the urging of friends who had previously had c-sections, as well as the nurses, we went for a walk around the hospital wing. This was no easy feat, as I had tubes connecting me to machines that I had to wheel around. In addition, this was our first ever experience of carefully holding you while walking around, an art form that is now second nature, but at the time seemed quite daunting. It’s amazing to think back to that first night – when you weren’t able to nurse, when I was in so much pain every time I moved, when merely handling and holding you tested my nerves, when we were exhausted and thought we’d never get a good night’s sleep again – to now.

It is shocking how much you have changed. You sleep through the night almost every night, sometimes sleeping for 12 hours straight. You are happy and giggly, curious and engaged at all times. You are an exceedingly proficient eater, gobbling up all solid foods we offer, and drinking more than we ever thought possible. You are an expert wiggler and roller, able to move anywhere you want via this method. You’re also rapidly perfecting sitting, and you can go from sitting, down to your belly, and back up with ease. While sitting, you are still a little wobbly and will plop over every once in awhile. I cannot even imagine what a workout it must be developing those abdominal muscles. And you’re starting to crawl. Every day you get closer and closer to crawling, better and more efficient at moving your tiny arms and legs to propel you across the floor. It is so fun to watch you learn this. But your preferred form of motion is still rolling: rolling from front to back, then folding in your arms and legs to sort of turn your body, then rolling to your belly to reassess your proximity to your item of desire, over and over until you reach it. As you’re in the early phases of crawling, you insert a long streeeeetch on your belly as you try to reach the item with your hands, then you move your legs and arms to try and get you there. Although sometimes you lift up your middle into ‘crawl’ position, you haven’t yet combined the lifting with the moving of the arms/legs, and so your beginner crawl is very much a belly crawl. It’s like you’re doing freestyle on the carpet.

As you’re learning this new skill, we often try to challenge and entice you to crawl by moving objects just out of your reach, and sometimes even dragging them away as you get closer. You generally just keep on trying to get to it, a repeating cycle of rolling, wiggling, stretching, reaching. Very rarely do you get frustrated at this seemingly never-ending process, and you cry out. At that we give you the object, scoop you up and shower you in congratulatory kisses. We’re so proud of your determination and hard work to get what you’re after and to hone this new skill.

We wandered around downtown Breckenridge today, walking through an art festival, eating, and popping into a few shops. You seemed to enjoy being out and about, though we’re discovering that you get antsy pretty quickly at restaurants. I think you’d rather be moving around and exploring, and you’re tempted by all of the items on the table just begging for you to play with and taste. You love to pound whatever we give you onto the table, than throw it to the floor. We’re learning that we need to carry some string to tie the toys to the highchair!

This afternoon we took you swimming for only your second time, and again, you really seemed to enjoy it. We stayed in the water a bit longer than last time, and you were content the whole time. We’ve signed you up for swim classes and they start next week. I’m so excited to see what you think of them and what we learn.

Today you experienced two ‘firsts’: your first near run-in with a bear, and your first gondola ride. The first was scary enough to drive me to tears, while the latter was perfect. We walked downtown to grab some breakfast, and our walk home we were cutting through the woods and entering a developed area when someone in one of the houses informed us that there was a bear on the other side of the house! I wasn’t sure what to do, and wanted to turn around, but if we wanted to get home we really need to keep going forward. Your dad reassured me that we would be ok, and we kept walking but headed in the opposite direction of where the man indicated the bear was. We made it home without even sighting the bear, but I was certainly on edge.

This afternoon we took the gondola up to the ski area to meet up with Lia and her husband. I haven’t been to the ski area in the summer since I was a little girl; your papa and nana used to take me there to ride on the alpine slide. Well the area sure has changed and been developed; now there’s putt putt golf, biking, horseback riding, and other activities in addition to the slide. You appeared to be taking in the views from the gondola, busy looking around as we passed through the trees. I was so looking forward to taking you on your first gondola ride, and it’s neat to think that this if the first of many fun adventures we’ll have on the mountains together, in both summer- and winter-time. You seem so at ease and right at home outdoors. We’re so glad, because we plan to spend a lot of our time with you outside.

We headed up to Breckenridge today for the long weekend. You loved crawling around the living room, and especially loved to head over to the TV stand, where you enjoyed rearranging all of the videos on the shelf. You’d knock some over, push some backwards, and pull some out. The ones that you did get out you’d wrangle with your arms and legs until you had them perched above you, where you would then stick them in your mouth for a good tasting. Although you’ve never yet seen a movie, you sure did enjoy the wide array of movies on the shelf!