dear little prince | seven months

dear little prince,

you are seven months old, sweet boy. and you are sweet indeed. you bright such joy and delight and cheer to our home. you are playful and darling and wonderful. you smile constantly and have the best giggle - which you like to reserve for playing with your sister. your sister is pretty much your favorite. at this point, you aren't too keen on other children. and you really don't like too much attention or fuss or folks in your face. but your sister has a free pass. she gets to engage in all of the above and you eat it up.

and speaking of eating. solids are in full swing. we started with avocado and have since moved to banana and sweet potato and butter. and you are definitely a foodie. you eat it by the fistful. grabbing bits and shoving them into your mouth with intensity. and you make such a squishy and smearriffic mess. dinnertime is extra fun now. i still can't get over that you are sitting in your little chair, eating away and chatting along with us. such a big boy. gosh, that happened fast.

aaaaand speaking of fast. crawling. you are all over the place. when the mood strikes, you can really get going. like, across the room in a snap. you have been trading in your specialty downward dog frog hop army crawl hybrid for much faster legit moves. you will still add in some of the weird variations, just to show off your feats of strength. but things are settling into the standard baby crawl now. and it is wild. in other news, your downward dog crawl move has now shifted into a squat to semi-stand. you like to do it right next to the sofa and stare up, daring yourself to pull yourself up and freak us out. you are daring and bold and brave and strong, that's for sure. just as you should be. we are so proud of you and amazed by what you can do. i know you will continue to surprise us (and scare us a little too).

you have the best squeal of delight. you yell a happy hhhhhiiiii! sound when you see your papa. you have thick forearms and big hands. you have a long torso that is starting to lose that baby look and mature into a solid little man. you have the brightest eyes that shift from blue to steel gray to green. i like to think you get that from me. you love to bounce and bop. whether you are seated or standing, you love to get your body grooving. we have decided that you have too much happiness in your being and that's your way of sharing it with everyone. you love to pet puppies and let them lick your cheeks. you love to play with your squishy football. and you are entranced whenever we watch the real sport on television. you nibble on anything you can find, drooling all over the place as you go. you are busy-busy and such a blast. we love everything about you, ridley man.

all our love,

mama + papa + elinor

there are a few more outtakes from our photo session, after the jump. this might be the last time where i can manage a decent shot. someone is a little wiggle-worm.