7 Months

Stats
At her very first sick appointment at the doctor last week (summer cold), Maleah weighed 15 pounds 14 ounces and was 26 inches long (up from 15 lbs 1 oz at 6 months). I can tell those ounces have landed in her belly & thighs. :) And, for the record, she had her first official cold. She has had congestion and she has had fevers post-shots, but never both together. She was sickly for about five days, then the fever went away, and then the congestion lasted another 5-7 days. Thankfully it wasn't TOO bad... except for one night when her fever spiked and she woke up every hour from 11:15-4am. :) And I still went to work the next day!!!

Schedule 
We had another month of transition since Maleah started a new daycare class, but we're finally settling back into a routine. She is now only going to daycare three days a week so we've been trying to figure out what those days will be like so we can keep a similar routine on the days she's home. Lately her days have been something like this:

6:45/7 - solids & bottle
9:45-11 - nap
11:15/11:30 - solids & bottle
12:45-2 - nap
3:15/3:30 - bottle
4-6 - somewhere in there she takes a 30-45 minute nap 
6 - solids & some water
7/7:15 - bath, bottle, bed-time!
7:30 - nighty night!

Eating/Solids
Maleah now takes 7 ounces in her bottles and eats 1-1.5 containers of store-bought baby-food or 4 cubes of the homemade stuff. Some of the new things she's tried over the past month: strawberries, blueberries, plums, mango, and potatoes. I have learned what I feel comfortable making and what I do not - mostly I stick to making squash, zucchini, apricots, plums, pears, avocado, carrots, and sweet potato. I buy the rest! I also learned to buy unsweetened applesauce instead of the baby-food variety - lots cheaper and just as good! She still loves rice crackers and from time to time I'll give her a piece of produce to gnaw on, as well. We still haven't tried meat because the thought of pureed meat still just totally grosses me out. But we might try it next month. Okay, we probably won't! Oh, and the holding-her-own-bottle was a fleeting thing because now she practically refuses (okay with me!). 

Activity
Those of you who follow my Facebook feed already know Maleah is crawling! We are pretty shocked with this because I didn't think it'd happen for another few weeks. She had been getting up on all fours for a couple of weeks, but she'd just rock back and forth. Then, last week, she'd take a couple of moves and then collapse. And on Saturday, she just went for it! She is still very methodical and robotic when she crawls which is just the funniest thing to watch. But I'm impressed that she wants to move so much! I think she's impressed with herself, too, because she likes to practice A LOT! 

She has also been "talking" a lot and has a fancy for "Ma-ma-ma-ma-ma". I think she understands what she's saying, of course science and Blake tells us she probably doesn't. But, who knows? She certainly says it a lot when I'm around! 

Personality
Maleah is a fun-loving little girl, but it's easy to see that she is a little timid and cautious. It's so funny to be with her at home and hear her squeal and yelp and laugh, but then to be "shy" in front of others. She does get warmed up though - she was partyin' it up with our Sunday School class this past weekend! I wonder how this will play out as she gets older - will she be bashful or will she be more outgoing? Who knows. I like her just the way she is!

Note: Please ignore any formatting issues on this post. I really don't care to go back in and fix them!!!