7 month-olds are Exhausting!

I know this post will make all you moms out there laugh at me, because I know it only get worse. But being a mom to a 7 month-old baby is a lot of work! Liam is just SO full of energy and determination. Today I was endlessly retrieving him from various "dangerous" spots in the apartment. During his short morning nap, I did a little more to baby-proof our place. But now that he can pull himself up to stand, he as to try out every object to see if it is suitable for the task of standing...the speaker, the futon, the recliner, mommy's arm, the other speaker, the playpen, his crib, his fabric tunnel, the empty box of baby wipes, the rocking chair, mommy's leg, the ottoman, the book shelf...you get the idea! Because he was standing up so much in his crib I also lowered the mattress to the lowest setting. Liam gets grumpy if you interrupt him while he's trying to stand. As you can see from the pictures that he's elated every time he pulls himself up!

I did get a brief respite from chasing him at lunch time. I put him in his walker and filed the tray with banana slices and cheerios. He had a ball mushing them around and trying to pick them up. He can pick up the cheerios, but has a hard time eating them. While the bananas are easy to eat, they are hard to pick up. So after he played for a while, I fed him the banana slices.

The weather was like mid-June today. I had actually planned on going to the NINO meeting with him this morning, but when I stepped outside I decided the weather was too good to miss and it would be better to go for a walk. So we took a stroll down to the Scott Woods and walked all the way to an adjoining park called Hawk Island. We watched the mallards in the lake. We took a second walk after daddy came home. This time we drove to Hawk Island and then walked around the lake. We had hoped to fly our kites too, but last night's thunderstorm had completely soaked the grass and it was too wet. I tried my best to be a responsible parent and put sunglasses and a hat on Liam while we were out in the sun. Unfortunately, Liam thought they were much better suited for chewing than wearing.