7 months? Already?

I cannot even begin to figure out where the last 7 months have gone.  I look at the pictures from 2 months and hardly remember when he was that small and cuddly.  I miss the days of him falling asleep on me and just wanting to cuddle (he rarely wants to just cuddle unless he's not feeling great) but I absolutely love the grins and belly laughs and the fact that I have to put him in the Exersaucer just to be able to go to the bathroom because he is moving around so much.

I couldn't have done better if I'd done it on purpose - the exact same picture 3 months apart!

Colin has finally taken to some solids.  He is quite a fan of purees but if you put any amount of texture in there, it's a no go.  Thankfully he is eating the peaches I made him;  I got all bummed because he wasn't interested in the sweet potatoes I had made after the first time or two and I thought he would never eat anything I made for him (yes, I know, dramatic all or nothing)... but when we ran out of peaches from the store, which appear to be his favorite along with pears and mango, I thawed out some of my own peaches and luckily he ate them.  He ate all the sweet potatoes from the store, too, so I'm going to try my own again to see what he thinks.  And there are studies showing that children have a taste for whatever mom ate while she was pregnant... maybe that's why Colin will eat yogurt all day every day given the chance.

I really have no idea when babies are supposed to start being mobile, but I feel like Colin is working on it a little early.  And it has seriously all started in just the last week.  He was rocking, then started scooting here and there, but he is on to full fledged combat crawling.  He can make it from one side of the living room to the opposite side of the dining room in no time flat (hmm... maybe I should time it).  I walked in to get him up from a nap last week and he was sitting up in his bed, a first for doing it without help from me (the next day he finally demonstrated his skills so I could see how he did it).  He proceeded to use the rails of the crib to start pulling himself up.  Luckily he didn't actually make it standing but I don't think it's long; he was doing pretty well.  One perk to the combat crawl - his belly does a great job of getting the dirt off the floors!

Sleep continues to be hit or miss.  I feel very thankful that Colin started putting himself to sleep in the crib from about 5 weeks old (that's not to say I always put him down when he was awake but he was capable of it at that point).  We fought with night time sleeping for quite a while and now we are fighting with naps.  Somewhere around 6 months and a week or so, after letting him fuss through his "habit times" of waking up, he started sleeping 10-12 hours at night.  He can only stay awake for 1.5-2 hours at a time during the day with maybe a little longer if we are out of the house.  I have gotten very good at his cues and put him down as soon as he seems sleepy and he will usually go right to sleep but it's the staying asleep that's a problem.  One a rare good day, he will nap 2-2.5 hours but many days it's anywhere from 45 minutes to just over an hour.

And in case you wondered - the best way to show love of something is to attempt to bite it with your toothless gums (or maybe he just can't go 5 seconds without shoving something in his mouth... even during a photo session).