Max at 7 Months

This post is going up a little bit early – er, at least I think it’s a little bit early.

OK, I’ll level with you: I actually have no idea what Max’s current age is in weeks, just that he was born on the 29th of the month, so he has to be seven months old sometime around about now, right?

So, yeah, it seems that this was the month I finally stopped counting his age in days and weeks, and started just going for months instead. And, before I start feeling too guilty about that, let’s take a look at some of Max’s other July milestones…

At seven months, Max…

… is the proud owner of his first ever passport 

And, I know I’m hopelessly biased here, but if this isn’t the cutest little passport photo EVER, then I don’t know what is:

Seriously, if the people at passport control don’t gasp in awe at the sheer cuteness of this, I’ll be forced to conclude they have no souls.

(My own current passport, meanwhile, contains a photo of my swollen, 8-months-pregnant face. If I don’t get accused of having stolen someone else’s identity, I’ll be mad.)

… and his second tooth.

… started sleeping in his own room at night. 

… had his first taste of solid foods.

He’s still mostly on milk and purees, but we’ve gradually been starting to experiment with some solids, and so far, so good. He’s eaten everything we’ve offered him, and will normally beg for more. Honestly, he’s really started to remind me of Rubin in this respect, and, well, Rubin was a Bichon Frise, so I’m not sure if that’s a good thing or a bad one, really.

… outgrew a ton of his clothes.

This actually crept up on me: because we’ve had such a hot summer, he’s been in romper suits most of the time, so, when the temperature dropped a bit last week, I went to put him in some of the long trousers I’d bought him in anticipation of the usual, chilly Scottish summer, only to discover that he’d outgrown them without even having worn some of them. Word to the wise, folks: don’t buy baby clothes too far in advance if you live in the UK – you just never know what kind of weather you’re going to get!

… became obsessed with “walking”

He obviously can’t do it on his own yet – I mean, he can’t even crawl yet, let alone walk –  but any time he starts grizzling, and it’s not because he’s tired or hungry, it’s normally because he wants to do this:

If you take both of his hands in yours, he immediately pulls himself up to a standing position, and then starts to do this comedic “walk”, where he raises each foot veeeerrry high, shrieking with laughter the whole time. He’s still a long way away from ACTUALLY walking, but, well, I can tell he’s going to be keeping us on our toes when the time comes, let’s put it that way…

This month his favourite things included…

… the wind chimes at my parents’ back door

He has to be held up to see these, and will start to cry when you try to take him away from them. My parents also have an old-fashioned bell in their back garden, which he’s recently learnt to ring: he takes this very, very seriously, and just about bursts with pride when he manages to do it. Attaboy!

… sunglasses, or any other kind of eyewear

I finally gave him the eBay cheapies pictured above, just so he’d stop pulling my own glasses/sunglasses off my face, but, sadly for me, removing someone’s glasses (and then trying to eat them) is just the funniest thing ever, so no deal.

… two plastic coathangers

I mean, OK, not EXACTLY the kind of thing you’d expect a baby to take a shine to, but, well, here’s a short video of Max absolutely cracking up as my mum holds two plastic coathangers in front of him:

A post shared by Max Miaoulis (@maxmiaoulis) on Jul 21, 2018 at 4:18am PDT(Yes, HE IS WEARING GINGHAM PYJAMAS, I CAN’T EVEN.)

I can’t claim he’s like this all the time, obviously, but he IS like this a lot of the time, although particularly when I push him around supermarkets in his pushchair, for some reason. He’ll just squeal with laughter the whole time, and, OK, it’s a little bit embarrassing sometimes, but, then again, it’s a happy, happy baby, and who would begrudge him that?

… anything that isn’t a toy purchased specifically for him.

All of those teething toys and other items we’ve gleefully purchased, thinking, “OMG, he’s going to LOVE this, I can’t wait to see his face!”? SO BORING. That roll of packing tape on Terry’s desk, on the other hand? BRING IT.

As for us, meanwhile, well, our biggest issue this month was SLEEP. Yes, AGAIN – because, after months of sleeping through the night, and not getting up until 8 – 9am, this month Max decided that, actually, 5am was the one for him, and that he’d be getting up, and dining on a nice bottle of milk around about then. After months of him sleeping through the night without any problems, I have to admit, going back to the dreaded night feeds felt like a bit of a step back, but – and I’m actually scared to write this in case I’m just tempting fate – I’m happy to report that this week has been much better so far, and he seems to be back to sleeping through again, so we’re keeping everything crossed that that continues.  And, of course, this face goes a long way to making up for the lack of sleep:

Happy 7 months, Max! Now, if anyone needs me, I’ll be over in the corner, mainlining coffee, while muttering, “It’s all just a phase; it’s all just a phase…” over and over again…