Month 7

Dear Lia,

Happy seven months last Saturday! My, has time flown by. And this last month was a particular whopper. I can't decide on whether to call it "The month you first got sick" or "The month you learned to stand" or most significantly, "The month you stopped sleeping through the night." So many things happened, and your development went in leaps and bounds. You have literally stunned your mommy and daddy, and now we're running just to keep up.



I guess it comes from turning 6 months. When you turned 6 months, you were allowed to do many more things. Like eat everyday. It is now a daily ritual, right before taking your morning bath, that we sit together at the table and I feed you food. With a spoon. Thrilling huh? Oh yes, it's very exciting. For us. For you, I'm sorry to say, it bores you to tears. After the first couple of spoons, you turn your attention to the newspapers on the table, or the magnets on the refrigerator, or the invisible particles on your booster seat tray. All the while, it takes a team of me and Yaya Jenny (sometimes with the help of Lola Cora and Yaya Marissa) of rattling, singing, whistling, clicking, oohing, aahing, and funny-facing to keep you focused on your meal. And even then, you stare at us blankly, refusing to open your mouth. And yet! And yet, despite your apparent disinclination for opening your mouth, we manage to stuff enough food into your mouth so that you do finish your food everyday. I don't know if you're just finnicky or lazy. It's as if you like to eat, you just don't want to put any effort into it. Tito Jojo suggested feeding you a lot of different types of food every meal, to keep you interested. So to date, you have eaten, besides four different kinds of baby cereal, ground apples, papaya, rice, carrots, sayote, and banana. I usually feed you a combination of 3 of the above, but it hasn't cured you from being a food snob. Somehow your favorite food by far is...



The remote control. NOTHING lights up your face like the sight of our remote control. You look at it like it's God's gift to babyhood. As such, it works to keep you from crawling off the bed. When we're playing in bed, and you crawl around, if you reach the edge, all I have to do is call you, Lia! (you know your name already, by the way) and you turn and look at me, and I dangle the remote control and you come speeding back to mommy. At which point I hide the remote under a pillow, effectively making it disappear. You get puzzled for a few seconds and then you go back to rolling around or exploring the bed, or whatever it was you were doing before the interruption.



Your other most favorite activity, which you learned just a couple of weeks ago is standing. One night, you surprised mommy and daddy by suddenly deciding to pull yourself up to standing at your crib. We were so stunned it took us a couple of seconds to spring into action, that is, jump towards the nearest camera. A few days later, you taught yourself to cruise, and now you are doing laps around your cribs, both upstairs and downstairs. In the upstairs crib, you like playing with the turtle your Ninang Michelle got for you in the States, where you can push the buttons which turn on the lights and music. In the downstairs crib, you like to reach for the mobile and try to bring it down. Yaya usually rescues it in time, removing the angels that fly above your head, but you go for the plastic pole it's attached to. It hasn't gone down but you have not given up. You are still at it everytime you get the chance.



Another big change is that, there hasn't been a single night in the past month that you slept through the night. I blame the tooth. The tooth that is now sticking out of your gums, making your smiles a thousand times cuter, and your bite all the more painful. I don't let you chew on my fingers anymore. But thank you baby because thus far, you haven't clamped down and bitten mommy's nipples. Anyway, when the tooth was only about to come out, you couldn't sleep and would wake up crying every two hours. Now even if the tooth is out, you still wake up twice or thrice every night. And nothing would sooth you but a snack of milk from me. Which means your crib is less and less used for sleeping at night, and is more and more for playing. Sometimes you even insist on sleeping in the big bed with mommy and daddy. You would refuse to fall asleep anywhere but there. And boy to you move in your sleep. Turning and twisting and kicking around so we form an H-shape or an A-shape with you as the horizontal bar in the middle. Headbutting daddy and kicking mommy through the night. You've also stopped waking up silently in the morning all smiles at the new day. Now you usually start the day crying. Especially if daddy isn't home, waking up the same time you do. When it's just me, you keep crying until I get up. When daddy is around, you turn to him and hit and tickle him and talk to him until he pays attention and plays with you. You certainly know who the morning person is between your parents. Yes sweetheart, it's not mommy.



The last month has certainly been exciting. Going swimming, having a fever and a rash, growing a tooth, learning things you aren't expected to learn until you're 9 months old. You are so impressive, and lovely and happy. And that is what has made the last month enjoyable. That you laugh everyday, letting us know you are happy, and making us happy as well.

I love you so much, Lia. Sometimes, when you sleep beside me at night, and you toss and turn, your hand finds my face and in that moment, you calm down and settle back into peaceful sleep. In that moment, even if you can't say it yet, you let me know you love me too.

Love, Mommy