Merrick at 7 Months

Merrick continues to be a source of joy for our entire family. We all adore him (including his sisters) and he has been changing a lot more this month. He has perfected the art of sitting (unless acted upon by outside forces, i.e., Karamea and/or Kaylee.)

 

He really loved the train at our local park as we took advantage of the last few days before it closed on Labor Day. (The picture wasn't better because I was holding him and trying to take the photo with my phone without dropping it)

Merrick is happy almost all the time, but when he does cry, he somehow manages to roll his cry (much like rolling the r's in Spanish) I took a very brief video clip to capture it for posterity:

He started eating solid foods, first with rice cereal (below), then squash, sweet potato, and green beans. He was really ready and wanted to take an active role in eating. Even before we started him on solids, we could tell he was eager because he would grab at our food and drinks if we were holding him. Merrick likes eating so much, that he actually starts fussing if we aren't serving it up quickly enough!

He enjoys splashing in the water at his swimming lessons and taking baths

Merrick has started napping more consistently for a couple hours in the afternoon, but still wakes 1-2 times at night. I did get 6 hours of uninterrupted sleep one night, which felt just heavenly! At least we are now able to lay him in his crib while he's still awake and he does well falling asleep on his own. 

He is a boy who is almost on the move! Even though Merrick is not crawling yet, he never stays in the same position in his crib. Every time we check on him, he has either turned himself perpendicular or even 180 degrees from when we laid him down. He is very content hanging out and playing on the living room floor, either sitting or rolling around. In this picture, he is intent on pulling some of Bear's hair. (We have a VERY tolerant dog!)

It has been another great month watching Merrick grow and explore his world! Check back next month for another update. I hope to blog again before then, but life has been crazy busy and it looks like it will stay that way for a while, so no guarantees...

Happy Fall!