7 Months Old!

Happy 7 months, Jesper (in early November - a little behind on these posts)! I'm not sure exactly how much he weighed at the 7 month mark, but I imagine it was a little over a pound more than he weighed at 6 months. He hit a MONSTER growth spurt in mid-October. I felt like I couldn't feed him enough! He was eating 3 full meals a day (2-3 Tbsp of ceral and 3-4 Tbsp of fruit/veggies per serving) plus 5-6 6oz. bottles. He also jumped from 6 mo. clothes to 12 mo. clothes in two months. Wow! So much for making sure I had enough 9 mo. clothes - he literally only wore that size for a few weeks.

 

 

7 Months

His bedtime routine is similar - goes down at 7:30, sleeps until 6:30, with one small (3 oz. bottle) at about 9pm. During his growth spurt, I think he really needed the 9pm bottle since he would drain the whole thing. Now it might have become just a habit. He rarely drinks over 3 oz. and we have decided to let him cry it out and not feed him at that time of night within the next couple weeks.

 

He was also sleeping a lot more when he was growing so fast. He would often take a 1-2 hour nap in the morning and a 2-3 hour nap in the afternoon. Now those naps seem to be getting a little shorter.

   

We had such a warm day in early November so we let him outside to play

 

Developmentally, I feel like he hasn't reached any new milestones this month. He was concentrating on growing and sleeping! However, he is a very good sitter and still very much prefers that over being on his stomach.

 

I've noticed just the first stirrings of separation anxiety. He doesn't have a meltdown, but he certainly seems to notice (and gives just a little fuss) when I leave the room. He also wants to be held much more than in the past.

 

After a bath - happy baby!

 

Halloween!

Jesper celebrated his first Halloween the entire week prior to the actual holiday. My office had a Halloween party for all the kids on Wednesday. I got to pick Jesper up from daycare and spend the afternoon with him at my office, showing him off to all my coworkers.

Jesper and I at my office party

Little Monkey in my cube

Halloween photo booth

Halloween photo booth

Jesper with my manager, Jessa

 On Saturday night, we had Joe and Becky Pitzl and Nick and Amanda Wilson over for dinner and pumpkin carving. Linden (Nick and Amanda's little boy) and Jesper dressed up and we took a few pictures of them. Joe and Becky are expecting their first, so they will be able to participate in the costumed fun next year. :)

Pumpkin Boy and his mom

Jesper the pumpkin

Nick, Linden, Jesper and I

Pumpkins!

Scary!

Halloween drinks

Finally, on Monday, the actual holiday, Jesper took his costume to school and his teacher took several pictures of him. Monkeys were apparantly a very popular costume - of the 12 kids in his class, 5 of them were dressed as monkeys this year. :) Josh picked him up early and brought him to his office because they were doing a Halloween event for the office kids as well.  

We didn't do the actual trick or treating this year. We will probably head out next year when he can actually sample a piece or two of the candy. :)

Playing

Jesper is so fun! I've had a few days off recently to just hang out with him and they are definitely my favorite days of the week. His new favorite games include rolling the ball, hitting blocks together, playing peekaboo, and of course, watching Sabi. :)

Ripping paper = Hours of fun

Jesper and I did an art project together recently. I thought it would be fairly easy (his teacher does art projects with the kids every week). Turns out she's a very talented lady.

I undressed Jesper to his diaper, printed off some "Happy Halloween" pictures, and used baby food (beets) as the paint. He looked like this in less than 5 minutes. And ripping the paper was way more fun than painting it. But I think he enjoyed himself. :)

Gopher Hockey

Jesper went to his first Gopher hockey game on Friday, October 21 against Vermont. He loved it! So many sights and sounds. Gophers won, 5-0!

Going to a game with a squirmy little boy, however, is a lot of work! I think we'll all enjoy the games a little more from the comfort of our living room this year. We tried to feed  him dinner in between periods, but there was WAY too much going on for that to be successful. He was too busy charming the people around us to worry about eating. :)

Gourmet Group

Josh and I hosted our Gourmet Group on Saturday, October 15.

Menu:
Appetizer - Stuffed Mushrooms, Crackers and Olives
First Course - Butternut Squash Soup
Main Course - Pork Tenderloin with Apples and Apple-Brandy Cream Sauce, Asparagus, Bread
Dessert - Cherry Parfait

The meal turned out very well. Jesper cooperated and napped for a couple hours on Saturday afternoon and Josh and I worked hard to get as much prepared ahead of time as possible. As a result, we only had to bake the mushrooms, and cook the asparagus and pork once the guests arrived.

It's always so fun to hang out with our friends, but the gathering have certainly changed over the years now that we have two babies in the group with a 3rd on the way. :)

6 Months!

Jesper is 6 months old! At his 6-month appointment he was 19 lbs. 8.5 oz. and 27.5 inches tall. Both of those measurements put him in the 75-90th percentile. He's growing perfectly!

He slowed down on his milk a little and is only eating about 4-5 oz. per bottle. But he is really loving his food. He will often eat 4-5 oz. but be fussy 15-20 min. later and want to eat a full meal. He's taking about 5-6 bottles a day and we are just starting to move him to 3 small meals a day. We are also giving him a little water with dinner in a cup. He gets so excited when we bring him the cup - it's a messy process but he's getting the hang of it!

6 month checkup

He typically goes to bed around 7:30pm and sleeps until 6:30 or 7:00am with one bottle at about 9pm. He's excellent at putting himself to sleep initially, but has just a little trouble putting himself back to sleep in the middle of the night if he wakes up. We rarely feed him at night anymore though. 

6 Months!

                                             
He is getting very good at sitting (he can sit for a couple minutes by himself, although we usually put the boppy pillow around him for safety). However, he still has no interest in rolling over. He scoots backwards and in a circle when he's on tummy time, but is definitely not "mobile" yet. Let's hope that stage holds off for a little while yet. :)

Jesper at school

Hat Season

Jesper is also incredibly social. He is fascinated by other babies and hasn't shown any fear of other people yet. His teachers say that he giggles at the other kids. He is generally a very happy baby. We're so lucky to be his parents!!

Some of my new favorites:
 - He gets excited when I pull out the last book we read every night (Moo, Baa, La La La by Sandra Boynton). Thanks, John and Stacie - he loves that book!
 - Kisses! He grabs our faces and pulls us to him for a big, sloppy, wet kiss on the cheek. It's the cutest thing ever, but I haven't been able to catch it on film yet!! Still trying....
 - He giggles so hard when we make noises that he thinks are funny (Josh - "What sound does a chicken make? Bok, bok, bok". Jesper - "hahahahaha")

Aunt Jodi Comes to Visit

Jodi came to visit over Columbus Day weekend. She arrived on Thursday and stayed until Tuesday morning. We had such a good time over the weekend! On Thursday night we ordered pizza and hung out. Friday was spent playing with the living room furniture arrangement and shopping. Friday was also the Gopher hockey season opener. Josh and Jesper got dressed up in their Gopher gear and watched the game together (Jesper only watched the puck drop and a couple minutes of the game before he had to head up to bed).

Dad and Jesper in Gopher gear

Watching the first Gopher hockey game

Sisters

Jesper and Aunt Jodi

On Saturday, we headed over to an apple orchard by Stillwater and took the required "baby in a pumpkin patch" fall pictures. Afterwards, we decided to head into the town of Stillwater. Surprise - they were having a pumpkin festival! We arrived just in time to watch the "pumpkin regatta". That's right - some brave souls raced each other down the river in giant carved-out squash. Only in Minnesota.



What is this stuff?!

Baby in a Pumpkin Patch

Heading to the Stillwater "Pumpkin Festival". Jesper loved  his sunglasses!

Pumpkin Regatta

 Later that night we made a new Mediterranean dish called lamb kapama. It was delicious! Definitely a keeper. Jodi and I watched Bridesmaids. I thought it was the funniest movie I'd seen in a long time!

Sunday night we got a babysitter and headed downtown for a meal at Bar La Grassa. Jodi had eaten there in the past and recommended it. It was Josh and my first visit, but it won't be our last. Most of the menu is pasta dishes, but this is not your typical Italian joint. We tried several dishes and decided the foie gras and ahi tuna entrees were our favorites. After the meal we went to Seven's rooftop patio for a nightcap. It was the first weekend in October but a gorgeous, 65-degree evening. What a treat! A babysitter meant a deadline, though, so we headed home by 10pm. Jodi and weren't ready for the night to end so we had a glass of wine on the patio. I was reminded again how much I like my sisters. It's amazing how fun it is to get to know your siblings as adults rather than the children you grew up with.

                                      

Josh and I had a couple appointments on Monday morning (Jesper's 6-month checkup) and hung out with Jodi in the afternoon. We needed to find a recipe for our upcoming Gourmet Group dinner so Jodi and I found a pork tenderloin with apples and apple-brandy cream sauce recipe to try out. It was a success! Now we only had to decide what to serve it with.

Thanks for a fun weekend, Jodi! Already looking forward to the next one!