Griffin at Seven Months

Griffin turned seven months during a hectic time in the summer--we had swim lessons, friends visiting, and then were heading off on a nearly-three-week road trip, so my sweet baby's blog post got bumped. Here are some photos and notes from the month. (I didn't even take "official" baby pix. Poor sweet baby..)

We started off Griffin's seventh month by getting rained out of a climbing day. Here he his hanging out with Dada in the driver's seat. 

Auggie and Eland still had fun

"Look what I can do, Mom!"
Griffin reaching into his toy basket.

Practicing sitting

Kaboom!

Hanging out

Brothers and Mama

It took a LOT of work, but we managed to get Griffin to fall asleep outside so that I could belay Dan up a route. Naturally Auggie and Eland woke Griffin up a mere 10 minutes later. ;)

Camper Dan

Waking up in the camper with Auggie

Father's Day 2015 

Dan and his line-up of male progeny

More playtime

Eating learning his colors!

Like all my boys, Griffin is a super drooler. He soaks his shirts in seconds. After lamenting countless times about how his plastic bibs were too big or too ugly, a friend recommended that I look at bandana drool bibs on Etsy. I took a peek and decided that I could totally make better bibs than Etsy was selling, so after a quick tutorial search on Pinterest away I sewed. I used old cloth diapers on the back to make them waterproof. Pretty cute, huh?

I even bought a plastic snap machine, so they go on easy!

I had to save Griffin several times from getting stuck under the couch, hehe..

Griffin and his buddy Ruthie. They're exactly three months apart.
Sadness, Ruthie and her three big brothers have moved to Ohio. :(

Auggie and Eland working with Ruthie's brothers Dominic, Isaiah, and Oen.

The brother love just doesn't stop!

Mmm mmm!

We camped up in Pagosa Springs, CO where it's colder at night. Even with a heater it's hard to keep Griffin warm, so he slept next to me in bed. What a sweetie!

Hanging out next to napping Grif Grif

Dada and Grif

Camping trip aftermath aka "Where's Griffin?"

Men in red

"Look Mom! He's in CRAWLING position!!"

Mister Seven Months!
(And Mister Six-and-a-Half in the background)

MONTHLY  NOTES
06.11 - Griffin took his first bath in the bathtub tonight and hated it. He typically showers with Dan, so this was the first since he was a newborn. Perhaps the sound of water coming out of the faucet frightened him? Probably. Either way, he cried the whole time.

06.13 - He's very mobile and he knows it.  :)

06.14 - First time at the pool.

06.15 - I gave Griffin another bath tonight and he did much better--but I also eased him into it gradually whereas before I put him in the tub right away and expected him to be okay. He was very relaxed and I think he even enjoyed it. :)

Griffin is getting very good at practicing sitting up. He'll still face plant or become a beached whale if I'm not with him, but either in front of him or behind and he is getting strong!

06.17 - G wore his last size 2 diaper today! Moving on up! :) I am thinking I need to pull out the cloth diapes sooner than later, especially if they'll need elastic repairs.

06.18 - Dan put Griffin to bed for the second time ever last night, and the first time in three or four months. I was out climbing with the ladies at the gym. I guess he went down great, but then woke after 20min and cried for awhile. :( Oh well. He'll be okay. The interesting part, however, is that when I came in to nurse Griffin around 9:30p, he was asleep on this stomach--this is a first! I wondered if it was because he was only in a onesie and not his full sleepsack. (It's been in the upper 90s.) Apparent not! I put the sleepsack on him, nursed him, and put him back down on his back. This morning I came in to nurse him at 5:25a, and there he was again on his stomach! Go figure! Around this age I started putting Auggie down on his stomach to sleep, and he liked it, Eland, on the other hand, refused and is still generally a back sleeper, so I wasn't going to bother trying with Grif. And low and behold, he does it on his own! My amazing baby!! :)

06.22 - Griffin has been super fussy today. Maybe he's upset that the longest day of the year has passed. :( More likely, I suspect his teeth are really starting to hurt. Poor baby.

06.24 - Griffin and I have been driving the big boys to VBS at Calvary in the mornings this week and I'm amazed at how well he's doing with the car trips. He's not falling asleep and ruining his naps like I expected. Maybe it's because I sing him silly songs in the car on our way home, but I also suspect he's just really into his two-naps-a-day rhythm. This gives me hope for the upcoming school year. :)

Griffin also LOVES the pool! It took some getting used to, but this kid is now a pro! He pats and splashes the water with his hands, and he doesn't get upset when his brothers splash water in his face by doing cannonballs in front of him.

06.25 - Two short naps in two days, and lots of waking a last night (although I only got up once.) I'm not a big fan of teething.

Griffin eats food from a pouch--he's too impatient to wait for me to spoon-feed him. Hehe..

1:41pm - Griffin raised his cute little bum into the air! What?! He did it later on a few times, too. Whoa. This one will be crawling very soon!

He ate cantaloupe through a mesh feeder tonight and thoroughly enjoyed it.

While both big boys adore their little bro, Eland has been laying on the floor making silly faces and doing baby-talk to Griffin a lot recently. His voice gets very high and soft, it's super sweet. :) Eland calls Griffin "Grif-Grof" while Auggie calls him "Griffles". While the boys do adore hanging out and playing with Griffin, we are often telling them to be gentler and more careful. ;)

06.26 - "ah-baa" "daa" "ttt"

06.28 - "kk" sound.. Yesterday while I was nursing Griffin outdoors on a climbing day trip Griffin started grabbing his hair with his left hand and pulling it with his iron grip away from his head. He kept doing it over and over again until I stopped, afraid that he might give himself a bald spot. He has tried doing it several times since, and as I nurse him now his left hand is very busy: stroking his giraffe blanket, rubbing his head--but not pulling his hair!--and fingering the clasp or strap on my nursing bra. His arm is so busy, but his eyes are closed! And, done. :) He's asleep now.

06.29 - I am wondering if Griffin might be a lefty. When nursing on my left side with his right arm tucked away his left hand is very busy, but his right hand is less so when we're nursing on the other side. He also sucks his first two fingers on his right hand which frees up his left hand to explore. Interesting. Time will tell.

06.30 - Griffin swung on the swing for the first time today and he loved it! :)

07.01-04 - Camping trip in Pagosa Springs, CO. Griffin co-slept successfully to keep him warm during cold nights.

07.04 - came home from our trip, put G down a couple of feet from his toy basket, and he more or less crawled there! Kicking with his legs and pulling with his arms, he is THIS CLOSE to crawling!! :)

07.05 - 4:19am - We are back to NOT sleeping through the night again. Several weeks of twice-nightly wakings. Trying to find my optimism. :)

07.09 - Griffin is almost doing a real crawl. His torso is up in the air for the most part, although he keeps his back legs straight and will roll to get to something, too. So close!!

07.10 - Grif Grif remains fidgety with his hands while nursing. He thankfully no longer squeezes me, but he strokes his giraffe blanket, my shirt, squeezes my fingers, flails around.. Super busy!