Dear Beatrice,
When you grow up and you read this, you may be tempted to ask me why I am always so late with your letters. The answer, my dear, is you! You are so much fun in the daytime that I don’t often take time away from you to write, and by the time you go to sleep you’ve worn me out. Don’t worry, though–we have a lot of fun, and I make notes of new things I notice that you’re doing.
At 7 months, you have finally learned to enjoy being on your tummy, especially if I put a toy in front of you that has a label on it. You are absolutely obsessed with labels; you turn toys around to find them, and you stare at them and touch them, completely fascinated. You still haven’t shown any signs of crawling, but since you don’t mind being on your tummy now, maybe that will happen soon. But when you are on a blanket that can slip around on the floor you do really annoy yourself by moving yourself and the blanket backward by pushing with your arms.
You have started expanding your diet (along with your number of teeth: currently 3), and you now eat everything babies can eat. I froze a batch of chicken curry, and you LOVE it, along with a cod/butternut squash/cheese dish. However, you often prefer to have whatever I’ve got on *my* plate–if you are being reluctant to eat, all I need to do is to put your food on my plate and pretend to eat it myself. You have also got to grips with a sippy cup; quite a lot of liquid still goes down your front, but you pick it up yourself and drink without my assistance.
You are very social and still really enjoy meeting new people, but you are also good at playing by yourself (which you are doing right now, as I write this). You sit with your toys around you, inspecting their labels, shaking your head, playing peekaboo, and chattering. Your favorite syllable is “ba” and you are good at saying it! You are also good at smacking my open palm with yours if I prompt you to clap, but you don’t yet clap your own hands together.
When we got back from the USA I used that opportunity to put you on a different sleeping schedule. You were previously going to bed at 7pm and waking sometime between 6 and 7am. You now go to bed at 8pm and wake sometime between 7-8am. That’s the theory, anyway–it worked until we got our new puppy, Daisy, who seemed to wake you earlier (at least until she got settled in). You and Daisy are already very fond of each other, and I think you are going to be best friends. (You’d love to be Anya the cat’s best friend, but she is less keen.)
It is enormous fun watching you grow up, but it is also very odd: from moment to moment nothing seems different, but when I think of how you were just two months ago, so much has changed.
I love you,
Mommy
Circle Circle, Dot Dot 