Have had so little time lately, Setri is hardly sleeping any longer than we are, and is very very mobile when awake, requiring constant vigilance. Have left post in point form because I have no time to edit. Just had to get this thing up before he is no longer 7 months old!
- Seems to have settled on 'the worm' rather than proper crawling as his favoured way to get speedily from one place to another. When he isn't in a hurry to get somewhere he will crawl properly, kind of ambling, but when he has a real goal in mind, he does this horribly uncomfortable-looking cross between a caterpillar movement and a bellyflop.
- Has determined that Gam is 'dada' and calls out to him that way (if Gam fails to notice, then it's 'DaDAAAA!!!!'). In the last week or so, with encouragement from Gam (and me, of course!) he has started calling out to me as 'mama'.
- Now crawls from the bed into his cot to do a poo nearly every morning, before calling out to me to wake me up so I can bathe him. If he needs to poo and he's not in his cot, he will crawl away to a secluded location and do his business there. I really hope he doesn't have hang-ups about pooing already. Still haven't got around to buying him a potty.
- By the first week of 7 months' age he had not really expanded his vocabulary of babbling sounds much. In the 3rd week he is making all sorts of babbling sounds, the most unusual being a click noise that he makes with his tongue.
- In the first week after turning 7 months old he could cruise furniture for about a metre, still mostly only pulling himself up to standing in the cot. In the third week, he can cruise around the entire lounge area, including moving between individual pieces of furniture. He has also mastered sitting down after pulling himself to standing, something that caused him a little bit of concern from time to time.
- We've lowered the floor of the cot so as to lessen the risk he'll plunge over the railing. I know you're not supposed to use a co-sleeper cot once the baby can stand up in it, but we generally still only use it as a baby prison/playpen (and Setri uses it as a toilet). I thought that the floor of the cot being so much lower than the bed might make Setri reluctant to get in there, but no- he carefully lowers himself in about half the time, and just half leaps, half falls in there the rest of the time. It's high enough that he can climb out fairly easily, but low enough that he sometimes forgets that he can.
- Can jump up and down (getting 'air' with his feet off the surface!) while hanging onto the back of the couch or cot. Likes also to jump on the bed while holding onto our hands.
- Likes to turn on the sound of a musical toy and then beat his hands in time to the music.
- Likes to unpack containers.
- Likes to play 'roll the ball', where he and I take turns rolling the ball to one another. Setri still hasn't quite mastered the rolling part (mostly he just drops the ball and it rolls by itself), but he definitely gets into the spirit of the game... for about 30 seconds or so!
- Thinks that 'clap' means to smack his hand onto my hand (or Gam's hand)... I've been trying so hard to teach him to clap and haven't got far!
- Likes to 'help' turn the light on and off, but only gets a big smile on his face and sense of achievement when he turns the light on.
- Has introduced footwork into his repertoire of dance moves.
- Regularly lets go with one hand while standing- can hold an object to chew while holding on with the other hand, without leaning his body against whatever he is holding onto.
- Has developed a weird kind of separation anxiety. He will throw a 'devo' (kind of like a sad tantrum, with a heavy dose of abandonment guilt) if Gam or I leave the room, even if one of us is holding him at the time! If it's only one of us in the room and we have to duck out and leave him for a second, it will often precipitate a devo that involves Setri sobbing and desperately crawling after us.
- Is an insane baby daredevil. The game of 'drop', which used to involve him sitting on the bed and falling backwards onto the mattress, has morphed into this crazy game where Gam or I hold Setri at chest height at the foot of the bed, as often as not screeching "Nononono! Not yet!" and trying desperately to hold him upright as Setri, with a demented glint in his eye and a massive grin on his face, attempts to hurl himself backward from that height to land with a big 'flop' onto the mattress. He does still wait for the 'drop' command about half the time. I can see Setri hurling himself off a bridge with a bungee cord around his ankles as soon as he's old enough. He's a little baby thrillseeker. I'm not sure I approve.
- He's improving, socially. I still haven't got around to taking him to playgroup (I did get as far as phoning for information, but no-one picked up, and things have been so hectic since I haven't thought about it). We had a nice outing a couple of weeks ago to Bec and Matt's place, where Setri seemed to have a great time and interacted really well with Xander. I would like to say he played with Xander, but I think that would be a bit advanced for Setri! He did, however, return Xander's kisses, which was really cute. I couldn't help thinking afterwards how amazing it was that as advanced as Xander is compared with Setri (he understands pretty much everything that is said to him, has a couple of words and walks as if he's been doing it his whole life and not just a few months), in a few years they'll be at school and there will be similar age gaps between kids in the same class, and it there will hardly be a noticeable difference between them.
By the time we left Bec and Matt's, Setri had had a cuddle from Bec without giving her sadface and was waving enthusiastically to Matt (he is still reeeeally inconsistent with his waving, however). Setri seems to be much more comfortable being held by other people than he used to be. He has since had cuddles from our friend Erin, for the first time not giving her his sadface (it always puzzled me that he could give Erin sadface at all- she is a smiley, bubbly person, one who works in childcare, no less!), his Uncle Semefa, Semefa's girlfriend (Auntie Dibs) and maybe one or two other people, with no problems at all. It does seem to take Setri a couple of hours to get really comfortable with someone, though.
- Setri has finally met Gam's brother, his Uncle Semefa, and got a bonus for waiting so long- meeting Semefa's lovely girlfriend, Auntie Dibs, as well. If those two ever have kids, Setri might well have cousins even cuter than he is... I think my head might explode! Not sure of Dibs' ancestry, she's Singaporean and muslim, living in Oman. Stunning, regardless. Setri seemed comfortable with Semefa in the same way he is with my cousin Rachelle, I think there are enough familial similarities that it puts him more at ease than with other people (could be an age thing as well, as Setri freaked out a little at first when my parents visited at 5 months). Dibs is a 'baby person', really engaging with him, so Setri seems to love her as well.
