We have an "M"!

Yep - today Leah started to make an "m" sound. Of course she is making it randomly and not associating her mamamama with me. But now that she can make the sound, I can reinforce it and she'll be calling me in no time! I'm sure once she's doing it I will wish she would stop, but for now I'm loving the possibility.

She has already made "d", "t", "b", "p", "h", and "y" sounds - and all the vowels I think. There may have been a "g" or two and possibly a "c" or "k" - but none of that matters. It's just the "m" I was waiting for.

Happy at the park:
Exploring the grass:
Checking out the scenery:
Showing off her dirty knees after further exploration of the grass:
Naked Leah after the removal of her dress that was covered in dirt from the park:

Apparently Leah will eat green things...if you hide them in fruit

I finally got around to buying an avocado, waiting for it to get soft, and smushing it up to feed it to Leah. It was easier than I expected to cut open, peel, and mash. I'm a novice at avocado prep, so I was relieved.

Anyway, she ate a little on Thursday - made some funny faces and spit a lot of it out - and then after about 3 bites refused to open her mouth anymore. So I tried again on Friday. I thought maybe it was the texture, so I tried using my fingers to mash it up a little more and feed it to her with my fingers instead of the spoon. She ate a few bites...and then we were back to Leah spitting it at me.

So then I took a jar of pears and tried mixing that with the avocado - about a 50/50 mix - and a total of about 5 ounces of food - which is a lot. But Leah loves pears...and it worked. She ate the whole thing without a single complaint. I think next I'll try mixing peas with fruit and see if she will eat those that way too.

No pictures of the avocado eating...but some cute pictures of the last few days:

Almost crawling...

Starting on Sunday I was able to get Leah to stay on all fours and rock back and forth a bit...a precursor to crawling. She'll do it for a minute or so. Doesn't quite seem to get that she could go from there to actually moving forward (or backward for that matter). But I wasn't sure how much it meant since she wasn't getting up on her own - I had to put her on all fours.

But today she pushed herself up onto her hands and knees by herself - twice. So that's some definite progress. Maybe she will be crawling by 8 months (about 2 weeks away)!

Leah is becoming a good eater!

And it may also be positively affecting how long she sleeps at night!

Two nights ago she slept from 7 p.m. until 6:30 a.m., had a 6 ounce bottle, and went back to sleep until 9 a.m. Then yesterday she had a good breakfast - multigrain cereal (2 tablespoons of the dry stuff mixed with formula) and a whole jar of applesauce (2.5 ounces). We followed that with a few Gerber banana puffs, which she is getting good at eating, although she still sort of plays with them and often spits them out for fun. She isn't so interested in putting them in her mouth herself. She picks them up in her fist and drops them. But when I hold one she opens her mouth for it. And then she actually chews (well...gums anyway) it.

So then she napped from 11 to 1 and then had lunch. She ate half of a YoBaby Yogurt (2 ounces) with a half tablespoon of multigrean cereal mixed in. Then we went to the park, where she ate some more Gerber puffs. She wouldn't take an afternoon nap, but she was pretty happy, so we stayed at the park until 5.

She had dinner about 6 - 2 tablespoons of the multigrain cereal and a whole jar of squash. Yep - last time I tried she wouldn't eat the squash, but this time she ate it all up and seemed to like it. Same with the multigrain cereal. A couple days ago I was having trouble getting her to eat it and was having to mix it with the fruit, but yesterday and today she just gobbled it up.

Last night she slept from 7 p.m. to 4 a.m. Then she had a bottle and went back to sleep until almost 7 a.m. and had another bottle and went back to sleep until 9:30 a.m. Not sure why she woke up at 4 a.m. She has been refusing the bottle she used to have before bed. I just figured that meant she was full after her dinner, but when she cried this morning Shafi thought she must be hungry since she only had 3 bottles yesterday and wouldn't take any before bed. Hopefully it won't be a pattern...although I might be willing to keep that up if she keeps sleeping until 9:30!

She had a good breakfast of cereal and pears this morning and a bottle before her nap and a good lunch of yogurt with cereal. So maybe if she'll take another bottle this afternoon and eat a good dinner then she'll get back on track and sleep until 6 a.m. or so again.

We also tried Cheerios after lunch today. First I broke them in half for her since they don't dissolve as easily as the puffs. She seemed to be holding them in her mouth for awhile - taking more half Cheerios while others were still sitting on her tongue. But eventually she "chewed" them all up and swalled them - well, some she spit out - but not because she doesn't like them - she seems to think it's fun to spit while eating and spray puffs or Cheerios all over the highchair tray. So then I tried giving her some whole Cheerios and she took them just fine.

Now I just have to figure out how to get her interested in picking them up herself - they are supposed to be finger food - which should mean her fingers, not mine!

And she sure is awful darn cute:
She enjoyed our playdate with her friend Tyler - he has fun toys:
I think this is a "hmph, I can't quite get this big toy in my mouth" face:
Us hot babes at the park:
And she danced with her friend James at the park...you can see she was singing to him too:

Shafi and Leah both survived their weekend without me

Not that I didn't think they would. I went to Philadelphia to visit my friend Eilisa and her husband Scott and their baby Evie, who is 4.5 months old. I was gone from Saturday morning until Sunday evening. Shafi got to see for himself what it's like to spend a couple days alone with Leah.

They had a good time. And she was pretty good...as usual. But I think they both missed me.

When I got home Leah gave me a big smile and seemed very happy to see me. And of course I was incredibly happy to see her.

And yesterday she was up on hands and knees (almost) and rocking back and forth for the first time.

And today she was just fun and happy:

Hmm...maybe Leah is not ready for finger foods yet

After tonight's dinner we gave Leah some Gerber Graduates banana puffs. They're all the rage with the infant set these days. But apparently Leah is not among its fans.

She did pretty well picking one up off of her tray, but she dropped it on the way to her mouth. So Shafi picked one up and put it in her mouth for her. She immediately made a "yuck" face and shuddered. She continued to shudder as she tried to spit it out. Then she made a sort of gagging face and motion...luckily she did not spew, as she had just eaten 2 tablespoons of rice cereal and an entire jar of sweet potatoes.

She then didn't seem so interested in picking up any more. We gave her a couple more to see if she'd get used to the taste and texture. She didn't. Same reaction each time. I'm guessing it was more the texture than the taste that bothered her. But maybe in a couple days we'll try out the apple cinnamon variety and see. And next week I think we'll try a Cheerio. And maybe soon a teething biscuit.

I'm sure she won't eat only purees forever...so no real rush...but it is kind of fun to try new things with her.

Hmm...they look interesting:

I'm going to try to pick one up:
Ewwwww:
I think I'd rather spit it out than swallow it:
Hmmm...I know there's another one on my tray...but I think I'll leave it there:

Nice long family weekend

After being away for almost 2 weeks Shafi took a couple extra days off. We didn't do anything special, but I got to take some extra time for myself to get a hair cut and a pedicure. And we got some extra family time.

On Friday he came along to Babies n Beer. On Saturday we had brunch with friends in Park Slope. And then in the afternoon we lowered Leah's crib mattress. She's not pulling up yet...but better to lower it before she has the opportunity to fall out. On Sunday we walked to the Lower East Side for some delicious lox and bagels at Russ & Daughters, knishes at Yonah Shimmels, and pickles from Guss'. And today he joined us for the picnic in Dumbo.

I'm sure Leah liked the extra time with her Baba too.

Oh - and I should also mention that Leah turned 7 months on Sunday! She's getting so old!


Here's what she thinks of being 7 months old:
She was looking very serious at the bar with Baba...maybe she was mad he wouldn't buy her a beer:Here's what she usually thinks of sitting on Baba's lap:
She loved playing with Baba's friend Joel:
And she always loves cuddling with Mom:

Leah's first trip to Washington DC

Since Shafi was out of town for work for almost 2 weeks, including over Labor Day weekend, I decided to take Leah and go visit family in DC. My uncle Howard lives in the district with his partner Charlie, and my brother Alan lives in Alexandria with his wife Rachel.

We had a nice visit. We took the train down Thursday afternoon. No problems traveling on Amtrak alone with Leah. I was able to board the train before the track number was listed so that I had time to get the stroller folded and my bag put up and get 2 seats together to put Leah (in her car seat) on the seat next to me. I took a big backpack (the one I used to backpack in Europe 8 years ago) with all of our stuff so that I'd be able to push the stroller and carry our stuff. I thought it would be a bit too hard to push the stroller and a wheeled suitcase. It worked out well, although it was awfully heavy!

We stayed at Alan's for 2 nights. Friday we walked around Old Town, which is just a few minutes walk from his house. It's a nice area. And Saturday we made the switch over to Howard's house and just spent time hanging out. We also met up with an old roommate of mine from college, Mike Dolan, for brunch. It was nice to catch up with him and show Leah off.

Sunday the weather was beautiful, so we went to the zoo. Leah was more interested in watching the other people than in the animals, but we all had a good time anyway. Monday we just hung out and relaxed and Tuesday we took the train back home. I was again able to get on early and get situated before others started boarding.

Between my camera, Alan's camera, and Howard's camera we took an awful lot of pictures. But here are a few favorites:

Leah's first train ride:
Leah's first shopping cart ride:
Leah's first time to "pet" a cat (thanks for being such a good sport Simba):
Leah hanging out with Uncle Alan:
Leah playing with Aunt Rachel at brunch: