7 months

Samantha is growing up so fast I can't believe it. She is crawling already (well army-crawling) and won't stay still for more than 2 seconds (see the video below). It's a mini-battle every time I change her diaper just to keep her on the table! But she's so cute about it. She rolls over, gets up on her knees and rocks back and forth before trying to launch herself over the side of the table. Yes, I'm very afraid she will succeed at this someday, but I keep a hand and arm in the way at all times, or else lock her down with the strap. She's also babbling a lot more and is starting to make syllable sounds, although no mama or dada yet. Her sleeping has been getting better, too, except for when she was sick (see below). For the past few days she's been waking a few times at night, but is putting herself back to sleep fairly quickly and sleeping a total of about 12 hours. I REALLY hope that continues for awhile...

She and Lawrence both came down with a cold shortly after I returned from my trip to Vegas and are just now getting back to health. I of course got sick a few days after them and am still recovering a bit. So we've been spending a LOT of time at home together over the past few weeks. Aside from the heartbreak of seeing her sick and the pain of having to take care of her when I was sick myself, it was pretty nice to spend all that extra time with her. She was in fairly good spirits the whole time considering how she was probably feeling. The sick time really slowed down her weight gain (she had only gained 4 ounces in the month between her 6 month checkup and the doctor visit for the cold). She was barely drinking half the milk she was before she got sick. However, her appetite for solid foods continues to grow. She loves sweet potatoes, squash and oatmeal, but is not too fond of peas, green beans and pears. I need to find a green veggie or fruit that she does like...hmmm. She also likes bananas and apples and can tolerate carrots. Next up to try are peaches and spinach.

I'm starting to plan for bonding leave which I will be taking sometime between early April and mid-June, hopefully with Lawrence as well. In California each of us can take up to 12 weeks of bonding leave in the first year with up to 6 weeks paid at 55% of normal wages. We will probably only take the 6 weeks off. We're thinking we will take a 2 week trip to Indiana to visit family and friends, and maybe visit our Alma mater, Indiana University, which we haven't seen since we graduated 8 years ago. We'd also like to take a week trip to Hawaii to see my mom and also be in Hawaii :) Other than that, we haven't figured out what we'll do, but hanging out with Samantha will most likely be fun enough!