7 months old!

Dio turned 7 months old today--and what a lovely way to celebrate that on Thanksgiving. We're visiting Eric's sister for the week. She has five children ages 11 months to 11 years. On the way out, we stopped by to see my younger sister and her new baby girl. Dio definitely looks like a monster compared to his two-week-old cousin.

So what's Dio up to these days? He likes to copycat vocalizations. He grunts, I grunt back, he grunts again (or shrieks, or squeals, or says ah ba ah ba or ah pa ah pa) ad infinitum. He loves waking up Zari in the mornings. He breaks out into a grin the moment he sees her, and he lunges toward her bed to grab and poke her. He's been on a bit of a potty strike. He used to go right away every time, but recently he's been arching his back when I bring him to the potty. Sometimes he'll go if I can distract him enough. Oherwise I put his diaper back on and try again later. His second tooth is just about ready to pop through the skin. I just cut out his third daytime nap, so now he has a shorter morning nap and longer afternoon nap and goes to bed at 7 pm. He's still waking up at night every 2-3 hours to nurse, but sometimes has a 4 hour stretch. I hope that trend continues!

Dio's still nowhere near crawling yet, but he loves to stand up and hold onto things.

He loves taking baths. He's definitely chunkier than his cousin, who is a few weeks shy of 1 year old.

I suppose he has started eating solids. He has gnawed on the occasional apple, pear, banana, broccoli, and cucumber. Do banana peels count?

Yesterday we enjoyed the last sweater weather of the season. I saw snow today--time for winter coats!

One of Dio's cousins calls him "dandelion head." I like that.