7 months old! First 2 teeth FINALLY

Laney turned 7 months on Friday and her first lower front tooth poked through the same day! Then Monday morning she woke up with the other front lower tooth poking through. I'm hoping they just keep coming and we get the whole thing over with. She is handling it pretty well, just a few cries here and there. She really loves her dogs...her and Sadie play tug of war and Laney just cracks up! It's so cute, the harder Sadie tugs on the toys the harder Laney laughs...her laugh is so contagious! By the end of their play session I'm not sure who had laughed harder, Laney or me. She wore some tennis shoes for the first time this week. We were heading to take in the local farm auction and thought shoes would be nice...she couldn't stop playing with them. Glad they were hand-me-downs, they are so pointless at this stage!

Clap Clap Clap, "mom"

Last week Laney was hinting at saying "mama", this week she totally said it and meant it! Her daddy was holding her and I came in the room, she reached for me and said "mmmom!" Scott is actually saying that it should be her first word :) She also started clapping. It is so funny how she just wakes up and does something new. Just like that. She has been clapping her toys together, but yesterday just opens her hands and clap, clap, clap :) She is very close to crawling too! She contorts her body in all sorts of different ways, slinging a leg here and there, balancing on one knee and her two hands, but hasn't figured out how to get it all moving together. She is laughing at so much more. When she gets something in her hands, she'll investigate it and chuckle at herself, it's so funny. Can't wait to see what she has to show us each day.

Motorboating

Laney this week has gotten pretty mobile! Not crawling yet, but she gets around anyway very well. She rolls all over, she creeps on her back by digging her heels in and pushing off, and she takes dives from a sitting position towards toys. She also rolls with toys in her hand and rolls to get toys, then brings them along on her rolling journey. She is also starting to adjust her hand to the size of the toys when she goes to pick them up anticipating the shape and size of things. When it's a stuffed toy she opens her hands wide and grabs them and hugs them to her face as she bites them with love :) Then she will go for a block with her hand open with her fingers slightly bent as if she is predicting the shape of the block. Then when she goes to pick up a spoon she has a slightly open fist as she goes for it and just closes her fist around it. She still loves playing with her lips, and now she can make them sound like a motorboat without touching her fingers to her mouth. She has also learned that when she does flap her lips with her fingers, her voice can alter the sound. She starts off kind of quiet, and then gets really loud, then back to quiet. It's really amazing seeing her comprehension skills develop. I'm also shocked at what she seems to understand and how quickly she understands and reacts to things. One example is the potty. Solid foods has just changed her schedule a bit, and sometimes she gets frustrated pushing and nothing happens :) When she gets frustrated she gets sort of anxious and stiff and makes little fists in an attempt to move the process along, but the other day she was doing this and hugged me while on the potty all frustrated, and I told her that it was ok, just take a deep breath and relax...and no kidding she just took a deep breath and sighed on my shoulder...nothing moved any quicker but she relaxed when I told her too. She is also getting very sensitive to me leaving her anywhere, or being put down when she wants held, or taking something from her that she has in her hands. She loves to hold and touch and investigate everything! Everything still ends up heading to her mouth, but she is starting to listen better when I stop her from things going to the mouth. The other day she was looking at a catalog on the potty, shaking it by the pages, wrinkling and ripping the paper until she had little bits in her hands. She picked at those pieces in her hands and chuckles at herself (which is hilarious) then starts to put them in her mouth. I just calmly said "no honey, that's icky, don't put that in your mouth", she looked at me, listened, then just kept investigating them...but didn't put them in her mouth. Think that will work with candy?

Social butterfly

Is there some sort of award for the most social baby?? Laney would win it I'm sure! She loves being the center of attention and soaks it up like a champ everytime. She saw Great Aunt Cathy, met Great Uncle Richard and 2nd Cousin Annie and her friend Amy, saw Great Grandma Margaret, and spent 2 days with Mor Mor and Grandpa Tim, with not a single meltdown. In fact she postponed bedtime twice or three times just to not miss a beat of the party! She now is really trying to say "mamama". It comes out sometimes, but her first official word is definitely "dadada". She now says it mostly when Daddy is around and touches him on the face when she does...then she works really hard on mamama, she knows I'm "mama" she'll smile when I say mamama, dadada just flows out a lot easier. She loves going on walks in her stroller and rides on our "buggie" the 4-Wheeler Ranger, and loves napping on daddy while farming in the big tractors. Anything that vibrates and is loud seems to help her nod right off. She has started to try and say "poooooop" in a breathy sound while she is on the potty after she has gone #1 and usually within a few minutes she goes #2. She is pretty amazing. Constantly doing things that amaze us. She is so happy all the time. Everyone who meets her comments on how calm and content she is and how happy she is. We just love her!