Only 7 months old and little man is already a professional crawler! It didn't take long for all that crawling "practice" that started last month to pay off. (It also made for a very interesting 7 month photo shoot. I am not sure who was crawling around more on the floor, Mommy or Bran?!). Brannock is a super happy, easy going, inquisitive, and fun baby. We have to keep a close eye on him because he is also quite ornery now that he can get into things. We try really hard to give him a lot of freedom to learn, discover, and practice his new skills. It is such an adventure now but we wouldn't have it any other way.
Weight: About 20.5 lbs (and the proud owner of his first two teeth!)
Sleeping Pattern: Bran continues to be a great sleeper. We try to keep a regular bedtime routine consisting of a bath, bottle, and bedtime stories before we put him in the crib for the evening. One of our favorite stories we like to read Bran every night is "Goodnight Moon". And on some of the really tiring days, this still happens before he makes it to bed.
Feeding Schedule: Bran is a great eater. He really enjoys his solid foods and is trending towards 3 meals a day. Bran took interest so we added in some finger foods this month and he is getting much better at grabbing them and feeding them to himself the more he practices. He especially loves his puffs. He likes to sit and have a little conversation with us at the dinner table while he is eating. We also like to let him try mashable food off of our own plates (eggs, potatoes, avocado, etc). So far he hasn't been picky about anything. We have started to regularly offer Bran a sippy cup with water at most meals. He is slowly learning how to drink from it himself, but he has a long way to go. We also want to start teaching Bran baby sign language. We have introduced him to signs for "more" and "drink". He doesn't get it yet but maybe one day.
Bran Likes: Crawling and climbing. He loves to explore anything and everything we let him get his hands on. He still really enjoys spending time in the jumper, although he isn't patient to stay put quite as long anymore.
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| Some days you bounce til you drop. |
Bran Dislikes: Diaper and clothing changes (it requires him to sit still). Being told "no".
Changes This Month:
Bran sits up completely unassisted. He easily maneuvers from sitting to crawling and vice versa. He spends a lot more time playing independently on the living room floor.
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| Drool |
Bran is crawling all over the place. He has no fear of the hard tile floors or even being outside in the grass. He loves to explore and makes his way from room to room easily.
Bran has started climbing up onto things. He is also pulling up to his knees and likes to spend a lot of time exploring this new level he can reach. He is really cute because now he will actually crawl over to you and pull up when he wants your attention.
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| This was retired after I caught him doing this and practically flipping the whole thing over. |
Bran also spends a lot of time getting into things he shouldn't. Here are some examples of why we are always close by to intervene when Bran is on the loose (and why we have spent a ton of time baby proofing this month!). I think Brannock's real middle name might be ornery.
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| Opening and closing doors. |
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| Opening the DVD player and playing with the receiver. |
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| Climbing up onto the fireplace. |
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| Playing with the hallway night light. |
Bran is working on his "talking". He makes lots of "baba" and "mama" sounds although I am not sure that he understands the meaning yet. He really tries to repeat sounds when you are talking with him, and sometimes it even sounds like he says "hi".
What We Have Been Up To:
We spent a weekend up in Cleveland visiting family and friends. Grandma Gina babysat so we could go out to dinner with Aunt Renee and Uncle Aaron. She was the first one to put Bran to bed (at night) besides Mom and Dad and he did great. We had to get the baby gate out for the top of the stairs and move items off on the end tables to try to keep Bran out of trouble.
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| This was right before he crawled right up on there and was hanging out like Superman. |
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| Bran loves his Aunt Renee. |
We spent a day in Dayton for our friends, The Siefkers, end of summer party. Bran enjoyed crawling around and playing with new toys. We watched all the big kids play in their lake. Bran will be able to join in next year!
We went to Madeline's first birthday party. Bran had a great time hanging out and especially loved spending time in the baby pool with his friends. He was in the water for well over an hour before we finally made him get out to have dinner.
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| You can see his bottom teeth popping through in this picture. |
Bran really loves the water. We went to the Lude Family reunion and Bran's favorite part was swimming in the big pool with Daddy and Serena.
Daddy came with us to the zoo on his day off. Bran was much more awake this time and enjoyed checking out the big "kitties".
Joe and I celebrated our four year wedding anniversary by going out to dinner at Local Roots with our favorite little man. I was pretty spoiled to have two such handsome dates.
We also celebrated Cooper's third birthday. He had a train themed birthday party and all of the kids were conductors and even had their own trains!
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| Bran was chewing on his train. |
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| Grace is 10 weeks older and obviously the boss in this friendship, even if Bran is as big as her already! |
Photo Ops:
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| He loves the air vents and "guarding" the door with Izzy. |
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| Baby Yoga |
