Happiness is...

Doing a bang-up job feeding yourself! Avocado, once it hits the air, makes the remnants of dinner on a baby's face look even a bit more unsanitary than the usual bath of squash or sweet potatoes. Gillian has become belligerent about feeding herself in the past week (though to make sure she doesn't starve to death, and since her manual dexterity leaves a lot to be desired, I still have to strategize spoon feeding her), so finger foods-here we come!

I have to convey the happy developments of the past week, starting with the most magical and delightful- Gillian can sit in a high chair at a restaurant! If you'll recall our unfortunate experience a few weeks ago in the height of teething (Dinner from Hell), you can appreciate the magnificence of her entertaining herself while we each happily ate a two-handed dinner on our Friday after-work date! What's more- she LIKED it! Didn't just tolerate the chair, but excitedly swung her dimpled little legs back and forth like she might explode with general amicability. It worked to give her 20 or so items to systematically toss off the table before we even had to be bothered to retrieve them! Life is just good when we can eat the food we paid good money for before it gets cold.

For us, the 7th month has been a bustling age. Gillian is saying "mamamamamamama", she's clucking her tongue, and what's more, she is making frog noises. Fussela Fussington (G's teething alter ego), has receded to the shadows, and our happy baby monkey is back and as charming as ever. The two teeth have made it through her gums, but are definitely taking their sweet time coming through all the way. As long as she's not in pain, they can take as long as they like.

Friday we noticed that although Gillian can't move forward yet (the lunges and rocking forward are intact, so this may be around the corner), she pushes herself backwards after lunging forward and leaning on her arms. I know that a couple of G's friends also mastered going backward before moving forward, so we'll take progress however it comes.

Two last things, still getting fine-tuned: Gillian is clapping in delight (and sometimes frustration)-this started about the second week of June, but didn't seem to be associated with anything. Now she does it back when you do it to her, or if she is excited. And she makes sound when she claps-even more exciting! And the last happy thing is that she is beginning to try to wave. She watches her hands intently as she opens and closes her fingers, and has begun trying to do that when you wave at her. Mimicking is so fun! Whep, time to start absolving some of our more colorful words and phrases from our vocabulary. (luckily, we don't use a lot of colorful gestures)

Oh, and as an aside-the world is a much more chipper place with weather like today. Beautiful!