7 months old

Our little Luke-ee is now 7 months old! He is such a cutie, when he smiles he just melts your heart! He's now starting to launch himself forward when he's sitting down, falling down 100% of the time but it's definitely the first step to crawling- eek! We're working with him on night sleep, attempting to sooth him down in the crib when he wakes up instead of immediately picking him up and walking him around. It's actually starting to work, it's slowing turning into just a few minutes of patting and shushing instead of 15 minutes of pacing. We still swaddle up his arms to get him to sleep, we've been doing for as long as I can remember. It's his sleepy cue- he knows it's time to sleep when we swaddle his arms!

I've also been very consistent lately in using some sign language, and I think he understands "nurse" now. I use the sign for "milk," and he's already at the point where if I sign it without saying a word, he'll toss his head to the side and start rooting around. It's pretty funny, and I'm so excited that he's already understanding this sign! I need to be more consistent about our other signs. "Eat" and "More" were some of Beth's first signs, but since Luke still isn't eating on a regular basis it might take a little longer for him to understand those signs.

He isn't excited about solid food like Beth was, but I guess I just haven't given him the right stuff yet. I don't know if Luke doesn't like the high chair, the spoons, or the food, but he just isn't excited about eating solid food. When he sees the spoon coming, he closes his mouth very tightly and shakes his head around, making every attempt to keep the food out! He hates pureed baby food from the jar and rice cereal from the box, but two nights ago he devoured some pot roast I had been cooking in the crock pot all day. It was very bland pot roast- one of my worst recipes ever- but I guess it was perfect for Luke because he couldn't get enough! He also ate cantaloupe that night, I squished it up in my fingers before giving it to him. Tonight I gave him some "puffs" finger foods, he really liked those too! I guess this all means I need to stop being lazy and start making my own baby food. I get the impression he'll enjoy the chunkier foods- so does anyone have any good baby cookbook recommendations?

These photos were taken a couple of days ago when they were playing nicely in Luke's room.