Sorry for the posting delay (Grandma T). We’ve been dealing with our first family illness in the Land of McPherson. Really it’s amazing that it’s taken this long – Clare has been a remarkably healthy baby. Not being in daycare helps with that tremendously. My friends who have kids in daycare tell horror stories of multiple rounds of ear infections, pneumonia, bronchitis, etc. It was actually J who brought home a cold last week, then Clare got it, and finally me. It was a pretty mild cold, but it wasn’t fun for any of us. It was particularly traumatic for Clare, since she considers having her nose wiped a form of torture that should be covered by the Geneva Convention.
It was also unfortunate we were sick over the weekend because Papa McPherson was visiting us from Tennessee. Stuffed noses aside, we had a great visit with him. Clare bonded with him immediately. No matter how she felt she always had a smile for Papa. It was particularly cute on his last day here, she was finally feeling better and pretty much sang to him all day.
Our girl is now seven months old. She’s growing faster than I can believe and is starting to lose some of that infant look. She isn’t moving around yet, but it getting progressively more frustrated when toys go out of her reach and more wiggly to go after them. I think our stationary days are numbered since once she figures out how to move she will certainly have the determination to do it. Her eye-hand coordination is frighteningly good these days. She’ll grab my glasses, earrings, a full glass of water off the table, etc. with one quick reach. She’s also exceptionally vocal (really – it’s amazing). She shrieks, sings, growls, razzes, hoots, and babbles all the time. She’ll do a Mamamamamm and Bwabwabwa sometimes but no real words yet.
A big milestone around here is that Clare seems to finally like to eat solid food. After about 6 weeks of trying she will now willingly eat from a spoon and even seems to like it sometimes. Her favorite food is avocado (the girl’s got taste) but she also seems to like/tolerate squash, apple sauce, pears and blueberries. For a while she hated bananas with a passion, but now she’s eating them and is lukewarm on carrots. Little Miss Independent likes to feed herself, so we usually offer her a piece of banana, pear, avocado or other soft food to ‘eat’/mash into the tray while we slip bites in on the spoon. She has yet to eat a full ‘meal’ (ice cub size serving of fruit mixed with cereal) but at least it’s something. We’re now trying a sippy cup of water on occasion, though most of it ends up spilled down her lap. I’m now realizing that my laundry will never be the same 🙂