Seven Months

At 7 months, Luca: 

• Weighs closer to 16 pounds, I’m guessing, I’m hoping?
• Eats 3 "meals" a day: oatmeal in the morning, fruit at lunch and veggies at dinner. With all the usual bottles, too.
• Hates rice and lentils. We've found the food he won't eat—it gets spit out and then he basically refuses to open his mouth again. 
• Has been sleeping well in the crib, wrapped in his sleep sack. He still isn’t rolling from back to front, but he has started sleeping on his side. It’s the cutest.
• Looks like he may be starting to want to crawl? He sticks his butt in the air and face plants, then inch worms just the slightest bit.
• Makes a “bye bye” move with his hand 
• Definitely knows his name
• Is still quick to smile
• But at the same time, does this thing where he’ll put his head down and into your shoulder as if he’s acting shy
• Went on the swings at the park across the street for the first time a couple of weeks ago. It really makes me look forward to the summer. 
• Went to his first wedding, when my brother got married over Memorial Day weekend. He hung with the groomsmen while they got ready, was dressed up in a bow tie and dress pants (that he spit up all over two seconds after I changed him), and was a total ham when we were introduced at the reception. At 9pm he fell asleep in his stroller. And here I was worried that the DJ would be too loud. 
• Spent his first—and second—nights with my parents. The first was after my brother's wedding and the second was this past weekend when we had another cousin’s wedding. 

At 7 months, I: 

• Am going with jars. Sure, I can puree some avocados, but the rest are coming from Earth’s Best and you know what? I am totally ok with this. Our lifestyle right now is busy, on the go, always something. And this fits.
• My brother’s wedding was amazing, so fun. We danced and cried and laughed and it was just the best weekend. Sometimes it’s hard to write about these things: they're obviously fun and the words become trite, but oh it was good.
• Am so lucky that my parents are up for watching Luca overnight. At my brother’s wedding they kept him in their room so that John and I could go to the after party. (We bowed out of the after, after party though), and then they watched him again when we went to our cousin Juliet’s wedding this past weekend. It was good to sleep in—even if it was just till 8—and hang out with friends. 
• Was on vacation the entire last week of May. Between all the stuff going on, plus family from Canada and Italy in, it was the best decision ever. I was finally able to reorganize Luca's closet, hang with him on the grass, go for walks, but then also walk around Madison Square Park with my cousin, go out to dinners, have people over and do some shopping.
• Am learning, though, on the flip side, that even if I do well when I'm busy, I really need some down time too. I used to be able to run around for hours, going from store to store, place to place and I just can't anymore. I have to make decisions faster and smarter, and sometimes that’ll mean spending a little more for convenience's sake and other time’s it’ll mean not getting the exact thing I want, and I have to keep telling myself that that's ok.
• Realizing that sometimes the things you read are oddly accurate. I was never really worried that my relationship with John would change after we had a baby, even though that's what all the books say. And I'm still not worried that it's changed for the worse—if anything, honestly, there are times when it's better than before. But it has changed and it definitely takes more effort to keep things on track and more thinking ahead to remember that hey, we need time for us too. Sometimes I feel like these realizations are so obvious, so everyone-has-them. Maybe they do. And maybe it's just fine to have them in your own time and in your own experience.