Baby Kate is 7 months old (a week ago, haha)! 🥳

We just got home from lunch and a visit to our local outdoor mall. They set up a Christmas market this year, but unfortunately it closed right before we got there. We’ll try again next weekend! They’ve got a booth for pictures with Santa set up, so my guess is we’ll be hitting that up soon. 🎅🏻

David’s doing chores around the house and Kate’s in the middle of her afternoon nap, so I’m trying to get this post scheduled before she wakes up and it’s time for dinner! Now that she’s eating with us the evening routine is wild. Dinner, clean up, bath time, and then bedtime makes for a crazy hour and a half! 🤪

She’s so stinkin’ cute I can’t take it! And I have to say... this age has been our favorite so far. 👼🏻

We’re starting to see a bit of her personality poke through, and it’s been so much fun. She’s independent, but loves to be held, too. The perfect mix!

She always wants to be part of the conversation, is frequently babbling, and loves to laugh. 😊 Lots of ba-ba’s and da-da’s. I think we might have a talkative, sassy (but sweet) little girl on our hands. 🕺🏻 Which should make for a fun adolescence! 🤪

The biggest adjustment this month was introducing solid foods. It was a pretty steep learning curve for this first time mom! Watching her eat made dad a little nervous (he’s a little helicopter-y 😂), but by the end of the month he found it easier because of how quickly Kate improved. She took to it really well!

I continue to be amazed at how quickly her eating skills improved. She’s already got her palmar grasp, and I can tell the pincer grasp isn’t far behind.

The only food she’s tried that she didn’t seem to enjoy so far is salmon. However, I’m going to introduce it to her again soon since I’m told babies sometimes need to try things a few different times before they like something. Her favorite thing so far was a meal of rotisserie chicken coated in pesto with butternut squash ravioli and cinnamon apples. 👩🏻‍🍳 She’s quite the gourmand!

And with all this eating, I thought an avocado costume was fitting for her very first Halloween.

Last month I mentioned that I couldn’t wait until she could hold the bottle by herself. Good news! My friend Chelsea told me about this product that slides onto the bottle, and it’s been a game changer. Now that we’ve got this thing, she’s much better at handling the bottle on her own.

She’s also gotten SO good at holding the sippy cup. She LOVES to drink water! We actually have to take it away from her because she’ll drink from it all day long if we let her.

Her hair continues to grow slowly and STRAIGHT up (all these pictures really capture it 🙌🏻) and it is my absolute favorite thing. 😍 Now that I’m looking back at pictures from earlier in the month, I can definitely tell it’s growing though! At it’s own pace, but it’s growing. 😅 Give it another month or two, and I’m sure it will laying flat. Maybe by Christmas?

And because I’m me, we did more than one costume for her first Halloween. Next up is Wonder Woman!

In the photo above, Wonder Woman is hangin’ with her wonder women! My aunt and grandmother drove up from Houston this month to babysit with my mom while David and I snuck away to New York City. The timing worked out perfectly where they were able to join us for Halloween night. We sat out on the front porch and passed out candy to trick or treaters. 🍬

She’s not crawling yet, but she’s rolling all over the place! We’ve always got to have an eye on her. 👀

Above she’s eating pizza. 🍕 Which I never said I’d give her before she was a year old, but well… here we are. 🙈 She obviously loved it!

And she’s still so happy waking up in the morning. 😇

One fail on our part this month was not realizing we were supposed to have been brushing her teeth since they started sprouting up last month. 🙊OOPS! 🙃 We definitely didn’t realize that! Of course as soon as we realized our mistake, we’ve been diligent ever since. 👍🏻

Pretty soon I can tell I’m going to have to invest in some new toys. She seems to be getting a little bored with her current selection! Lucky for us, Christmas is right around the corner.

Despite what you see above, she actually loves eggs - haha. She was just a little confused at first. That’s understandable though, as everything is a new experience for her!

Here’s some more photos of Kate eating all the things. 🍳🥦🍌

We’re especially excited to experience the holiday season with her. She’s a little too young to start traditions, but we’ll definitely be starting our own with her next year. 🎄

During nap time she swats at and flirts with the camera... to the point where I swear she knows we can see her on the monitor (see the picture above). 🎭 Regardless of her crib shenanigans, she’s still a great sleeper. Even on the road! She’s a great traveler, and joined us on two road trips this month (to San Antonio and Houston).