I feel like this past month – the 6-7 month period – has brought the most change in Zoe. She seems to do different things every day now, and it feels like she’s a much older girl than she was just 30 days ago.

Although she’s not crawling, Zoe is a real mover and shaker. (Actually, it’s more accurate to call her a roller and flipper.) Place her on her back on the floor and within a few minutes she’ll be on her stomach on the opposite end of the room. She moves by rolling and sort of scooting on her side; I’m not sure what you call this mode of transportation, but it’s pretty effective. (One of her most impressive accomplishments to date: rolling several feet to her box of toys, propping herself up with her arms, and plucking a toy off the pile.) Also effective: her way of obtaining far-away toys. She recently learned that if she rolls on her side and stretches, she can extend her arm far enough to reach a desire object. She does that a lot.

Zoe now knows how to prop herself up on her arms (a precursor to crawling, I think), and she most often does it when lying in her crib. A common sight around 6:30 each morning: Zoe’s head bobbing up and down as she plays with a musical toy attached to her crib. (She just recently learned to push the buttons, which prompt the music, on her own.)

Zoe is now able to sit up on her own (see below); fall-overs are pretty rare. Other developments: When placed on your lap, she will jump up and down (sometimes very intensely and often making herself look like a frog). She often lifts up her head when lying on her back – kind of like the beginning of a crunch exercise – in an effort to see what’s going on around her. And her grasp on things is incredibly strong. She actually started to slide a full, tall (heavy) glass of ice water across the table recently; luckily we stopped her before she drenched herself (or us).

Zoe still has an extremely healthy appetite; at this point, she’s dined on most of the biggie fruits and vegetables. She’s fond of almost everything except sweet potatoes and squash – but she doesn’t seem to mind when we sneak them in with other foods. Because of her love for food, she’s continuing to gain weight at a healthy clip; at her last visit she was just about 17 lbs.

Like most babies of this age, Zoe coos and babbles and giggles a lot. One recent night she started laughing for no apparent reason (I was just changing her into pajamas), which was fun to see. As Elena, her babysitter, often comments, “Zoe is always so happy!” And nothing makes me and Q happier that that’s the case!

-M

This entry was posted on Saturday, June 23rd, 2007 at 6:52 am and is filed under 10.Seven to eight months. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.