I'm 7 months old!

I'm woefully behind on blog updates and rather than try to remember everything, I figured I could let the pictures tell most of the story. Naomi has been doing well. She is seven months old! I didn't realize how much she changed until I started going through our photos for updating the blog.

Look at me! I jump like a pro!

 So here we go...

Naomi recently started eating solid foods! It was a little worrisome for us because we didn't know how her belly would respond. After two days of rice cereal Naomi started to provide plenty of evidence that her belly is working fine. I promised myself to never complain about changing stinky diapers after our time in the NICU and so far I like to tell myself that I have upheld that promise.

Yum! Solids are great. Bottles are not so great.

Naomi's personality continues to develop. For the past month we have been working on a schedule. Naomi typically wakes up around 9 AM and goes to bed around 10 PM, although she occasionally tries to make bed time 11 PM. She takes a couple of naps during the day and plays and jumps and jabbers. Her only complaint seems to be related to eating from bottles. 

For most of her life, Naomi has been a bottle chugging champion, but lately bottles are the worst thing ever. It wouldn't be such a big deal, but we are giving Naomi calcium and elecare because her alkaline-phosphate levels were really high. High levels of alkaline-phosphates can indicate rickets and were related to her problems digesting formula in the NICU. The short story is, her levels have come down close to normal, but Naomi still needs to take some bottles to get extra calcium. The only bad part is Naomi still gets way too many needle pokes to check blood levels.

Anyways, Naomi wasn't taking her bottle well. Having a scientist and a statistician for parents, we tried to methodically determine the source of Naomi's complaint. We tried holding positions, milk temperature, fresh versus frozen milk, with and without calcium, with and without elecare, eating on the changing table, etc. In the end, we started to worry Naomi may have an ear ache so we took her to the doctor. The doctor said Naomi's ears looked great, but she might be developing a case of sassy pants.

I usually play on the floor, but my parents want me to learn to sit.

Naomi has kept up with the usual baby skills. The development lady visited yesterday and Naomi decided to show off. While we were checking reaching and holding and shaking, Naomi decided to roll over! We decided to capture it on film.

Naomi likes to share smiles. She also thinks jumping and gibberish are funny. If you combine jumping with gibberish you get a lot of laughs followed by the hiccups.

Last, a list of what I've been up to the past four months.

• I went on my first trip to visit Great Grandma and Great Grandpa.

• I went on my first trip to Grandma and Grandpa's townhouse in the woods.

• I went for some walks.

• I jump a lot and try to eat everything.

• I started solid food.

• I sit and stand with the help of Mom or Dad.

And finally, as Ana says, Naomi will soon be going public like facebook. IPO's will be offered to grandparents, family, and friends.

First Thanksgiving!

My Mom likes owls.

...and I make owls look good.

Bath time isn't too bad.

The best part is playing peek-a-boo with towels.

Relaxing in my swing.

Grandma and Grandpa came to visit!

Christmas photos!

My first Christmas.

Talking to my cousin Isabella!

Classic family photo.

My Uncle Adam and Aunt Laura came to visit Christmas night.

Snuggle pros.

I'm not always happy.

My pal for when I go to bed.

So far I still like it when Dad plays the banjo.

I'm ready for ski season

I used to be good at napping

I figured out this sitting thing.

Mom makes me where this when it's cold out and for funny photos.

Hanging out with Mom!

Grandma M watches me on Tuesdays.

We nap together a lot.

Working on tummy time.

Our first trip! We visited Great Grandma and Great Grandpa!

Checking out Great Grandpa.

Relaxing with Grandpa M

Practicing tummy time.

I'm a big smiler.

I need to figure out how to chew on this duck.

Photo shoot!

Photo shoot

Close up.

Laughing at the camera man.

Playing on my skip hop play spot play mat

Wearing my fancy sweater from Katherine

Getting my first lesson in kick wax.

Grandma B showing me how to play!

My first walk.

I wasn't as excited as Mom and Dad.

Action photo

Grandpa B just before I added a little burp up on his lap.

I grab Dad, Dad grabs Carly. It's more fun than it looks.

I get so excited at bed time. It's hard to go to sleep.

Putting down my first solids.

So far I eat everything.