E's Seventh Month

Emerson will be 8 months old in a week and I am leaving him overnight for the first time this weekend.  Actually, I will be gone two nights!  It is a little sad.  We've never been away from each other this long!  It will probably be harder for me than him :(  I am having a girls' weekend with my sisters, cousin, and mom.  Luckily, I talked the girls into having our girls' weekend in Fayetteville, so I can at least be close!  It should be lots of fun though!  We will be staying at a nice hotel in town and will do lots of eating out, shopping, pottery painting, and we are going to see the lighting of the square on Saturday night.  I do have to say that it will be marvelous to sleep through the night.

Emerson has had a pretty exciting 7th month of life.  Here are a few things he's been up to:
-He is a strong boy and can pull up on furniture, toys, kitchen chairs, etc.  He even started cruising along the couch this past week.  Slowly but surely.  We definitely still have falls.  A few days ago he even pushed his little walking toy for three steps on his own. 
-He loves books.  He will sit on your lap and look at books for so long.  He likes to help turn the pages and he especially likes lift the flap books (he does the lifting).  We also have a book that has a bear that pops up if you pull a tab, and he loves to pull the tab.
-He still loves to eat.  He likes puffs and can use his little pincers to feed himself.  He also drinks out of a sippy cup.
-Emerson takes pretty decent naps lately.  They usually last 1.5 to 2 hours.  He takes 2 a day.
-We pushed his bedtime back to 8PM and that helps him to sleep past 7 each morning, which is nice.  He still likes to eat in the night.  But it is definitely just a comfort thing, so I think we are going to try to ween him off that after Thanksgiving... wish us luck!
-He is pretty mobile and gets all over.  He doesn't quite crawl on all fours, but he gets around!
-He likes making raspberries, and squealy sounds lately.  Today his favorite sound is the D sound.  He also says the P, B, and G sounds.  Still waiting on that M sound!!
 -Emerson has also turned himself into a tummy sleeper, which I guess I'm OK with.  He seems to sleep really well that way.
-He is also a very smiley boy and I love it.  Sometimes his little grin still makes my heart pitter patter :)

I enjoy the stage he is in right now and I just love Emerson so much!  I am so blessed to call him my little boy.  The holidays will definitely be fun this year.  Anyway, have a good weekend!  And enjoy this gorgeous fall weather!

PS- Check out the new "Meet the Gang" section on the right!  I updated it!