Blueberry

No, we did not name our daughter "Blueberry". Auntie Tiff nicknamed her "Blueberry Muffin" because of her big blue eyes and we decided we liked it. I'm not a big fan of nicknames, but I do call my husband "honey" and my daughter by many affectionate names, so for the purpose of privacy, she will be hereafter called Blueberry in this blog.

She is nearly seven months old now and she is such a joy in our lives. She greets us every morning with a big smile. Our lives are pretty routine so she knows what to expect throughout the day. She likes standing supported on our laps and being carried around as we do different things around the house. She likes to play with the water from the sprayer when I water the garden and ringing the bell on the front porch. She doesn't care for being on her belly, but will tolerate it when we distract her with a toy.

Blueberry is very good at holding things and will pass toys between her hands and turn them around to look at all sides. She can feed herself teething crackers and likes the munchkin feeders, which we can stuff with all kinds of things. She is eating 3 meals a day of "solids". She is a big fan of peas, yogurt, pears, apples, bananas and prunes. I think she is starting to understand that these things fill her tummy and doesn't fuss to be nursed if we are feeding her solids when she is hungry. She is a light sleeper during the day, but she sleeps 6-8 consecutive hours at night, wakes up to nurse and then returns to sleep for a total of about 10 hours.

She is very attached to Mommy these days. She doesn't like to be away from me. She doesn't like to be held by anyone who is not in her daily life, but I am sure that will change soon, as she becomes more independent. We have a pretty quiet home life, so big family gatherings with lots of loud people make her more clingy, but she is fine as long as I am holding her.

We are starting to teach her Baby Signs and she understands many spoken words. Our pediatrician's nurse commented that she could tell we spoke to her a lot, and we have, since she was born. She babbles in a rhythmic cadence very similar to our speech. She says "Da", "Ga", "Ba", "Wa", "Ma" and will often repeat the same sound several times. She understands "I'm going to change your diaper" and "are you hungry", among other things. She also is starting to sign for "up" when she wants to be picked up.

Right now we are trying to teach her "more", "all done" and "hungry".