7 months old!

I finally figured out how to make my pics lusciously large! And speaking of large, look who is getting to be so big (well, relatively speaking)! These months seem to fly by. Several people have told me that your 30's go by so quickly, most likely because these are the baby rearing years for many, and time just seems to swoosh away. I am trying to hold on to her tininess while looking forward to, and celebrating each milestone, evidence that she is growing up. When I took June Apple to get her 7 month vaccinations, she weighed in at a whopping 14 pounds, 10 ounces, gaining almost a pound this month. In other news, I have lost several more pounds this month. They have, most likely, just transferred into Juju.

This past month June has enjoyed moving around by a variety of rolls and scoots, so that now our house is carpeted with blankets, which protect her noggin' while she throws her self to and fro. I told Amos the other day June's major motivation for moving, and what undoubtedly will propel her to crawl and eventually walk, is her desire to get to Rosco and Juliette. To say that she adores them is a gross understatement. She finds them fascinating and hilarious, often bursting into a fit of giggles and squeals whenever they come near. They are both extremely tolerant and allow her to pull one their tails and grab their whiskers. Although she has gotten a few scratches along the way, nothing deters her from expressing her deepest love for them both. It makes me wonder if she is destined to be a vet or an animal communicator, or an animal hoarder. Only time will tell.

While at the doc's office, I mentioned to the nurse that June isn't sitting up on her own quite yet. They had asked me about this at her 6 month visit, and now, a month later, she still hasn't quite got the hang of it. Now, I am not too worried about it, as she has hit all of her other milestones on schedule, and it seems like only a matter of weeks before she starts crawling, as she loves to pull her knows up under her and grunt her way, commando style to try and terrorize Juliette Binoche on a daily basis. The nurse at the doc's office said she would mention it to the doc and call me if there were any concerns. The next day I got a call. "Dr. Guelda feels like June Apple should really be sitting up by now." Now comes a familiar territory of My Instincts vs The Doctor's Shoulds. I feel, and know, that development is on a continuum, and not every baby hits every milestone at exactly the same time. Personally, I think June Apple finds sitting to be too boring. She would much rather move than stay still and sitting is for the birds and the buddhas. When I try and sit her up, she lunges forward onto her belly and starts squirming (we call he our Squirmy Wormy) to move forward. The doc referred us to a program called First Steps, which assesses and provides support for babies and children who have developmental delays. Amos and I happen to have a friend who is an occupational therapist for First Steps and she offered to come over and do a mini assessment of June Apple to see what she thought. She came over and basically decided that June is almost sitting and that by the time First Steps gets around to visiting us, she will probably be caught up. Which only confirmed my feelings that June Apple is doing her own thing, in her own time.

With so many books, doctors, internet sources, friends and family members giving advice and information, it can sometime be hard to weed out the information that isn't true or right for my family. I decided during my pregnancy, that I would try and keep my pregnancy and child rearing resources down to a minimum, so that I don't get bogged down and overwhelmed by conflicting information. I sought out books, blogs and even doctors by asking for recommendations from other parents who I viewed as raising their children in a manner that I deemed sensible and in line with my parenting and life-style. I try really hard not to compare June Apple's development to other babies her age (unless of course, she is obviously superior). I only take advice from friends and family who have good track records themselves (and even then, I only go with what seems right for us). While I have the advantage of working many years as a child whisperer in one form or another, which taught me many things about how to and how NOT to parent, the best thing I can do is choose my sources wisely. And follow and trust my instincts. And look to June Apple to tell me what she needs. And when all that fails, I guess we'll just have to go with good ol' trial and error.