Ephram at Seven Months

Since my baby boy will be eight months old as of tomorrow, I think it's time for me to post some information about how he was on his seven month birthday!  Between six and seven months old, Ephram became a mover.  By his seven month birthday his army crawl was perfected and he was even up on all fours rocking back and forth a lot!  Everyone keeps telling me that this is their favorite stage for babies.  I have started to wonder if any stage will not feel like a favorite stage to me.  While I am adjusting to chasing a baby around and have started to teach him what "No!" means, I am thoroughly enjoying my growing little boy.

The Stats:
There is no seven month well-baby check-up, but as usual I tried to capture some things on my own.
Height - he wouldn't stay still enough to even think about measuring this, so I have nothing to share!
Weight - 19 lbs, 8 oz

At six months he was 18 lbs, 11 oz, so he is up 13 oz in one month.  I am ready for his growth to slow down.  This kid is getting heavy!!!

Milestones:
First finger food (Cheerios) - 26 weeks
First attempt at sippy cup - 26 weeks
Army crawl! - 27 weeks
Sit without support - 28 weeks

As you can see - it was a busy month for Ephram.  Since the time he was born, I kept telling myself, "I can't wait until he can put some food, any food, in his mouth by himself!"  Actually, I'm pretty sure I said that to several other people as well.  I was so happy when he figured out how to put those cheerios in his mouth on his first try!

Teeth:
Ephram had six teeth on his seven month birthday.  Four on top, and two on bottom...  he's been a busy little teether!

Food:
Everything he was eating before, plus...
Cheerios
Sweet Potatoes
Carrots
Oatmeal
Green Beans
Bananas

Ephram's favorite food by far was the sweet potatoes.  He would eat them non stop.  His least favorite was what I was most excited to give him... bananas.  He spit them back out!  After several more tries, he finally will tolerate them now... but I suspect he still doesn't care for them too much.

Favorites:
Itsy bitsy spider (song)... Singing to Ephram works like a charm.  Any time he is upset, a song will turn his mood around!
Peek-a-who (book)
Jumperoo (activity center)
Truck with peek-a-boo blocks (toy)

Ephram's favorites haven't changed much since last month!

Nicknames:
Bug, Little Bug, Buggy
Boo-boo
Remy

Here are some pictures from his seven month birthday!

Ephram's Pal Scout

Watching Ephram play these past two months has been so much fun for me.  He is really developing his personality, and it is coming out in the way he interacts with his toys.  I think these pictures show it all...

Fun Play Date!

At the end of July, my friends Carleigh and Candice came over with their kids for a fun play date.  It had been far too long since we'd had just a play date with all of our kids together.  We had so much fun... at least, I had so much fun catching up with my friends, and I think the kids had fun too.  They were also very cute, so I got a lot of good pictures.  Charlie was there too - he just was refusing to pose for my camera.  :)

Our play date was a few days before Carleigh's birthday, so we had to have cupcakes to celebrate.  All of the kids enjoyed them, except for Ephram of course.  The adults enjoyed them too.  They were yummy!

Caleb getting ready to eat a cupcake!

Candice and Tanna singing "Happy Birthday" to Carleigh

Here's Ephram watching everyone eat the cupcakes and probably wondering what they taste like.

Tanna hiding behind her mom during lunch

Jacob playing with Charlie's Mickey Mouse plane

Every time Tanna comes over, she gravitates toward this easel and the chalk in it!

Caleb liked these soft blocks almost as much as Ephram does!

Candice playing with Ephram

We had a lot of fun with the Stutzmans and the Zaniewski's.  Hopefully another play date will happen soon!

Up Close

I am in love with this little man.  I took some close-up photos of him at 29 weeks.  I love seeing the light behind his eyes.

I love it when he is obviously deep in thought.  What can a six month old be so consumed with?

Often he looks like he's ready to talk.  I can't wait to hear all the things he'll say to me someday...

I love it when he gets the giggles... he can laugh and laugh and laugh.

Seeing how much he has changed in six months makes me wonder what the next six months will bring.  And how much more I will fall in love with him on the way.   I can't wait.

New Wheels

This past July we said goodbye to our trusty CRV....

And hello to our brand new Odyssey

I will miss my green CRV.  It was a good car.  But it was cramped, crowded, and I was getting tired of hitting my head when I loaded and unloaded the kids from the car.  We rented a minivan during our trip to California so that we could try it out.  When we came back, we knew it was time to upgrade.  This was not an impulse decision, we talked it over for nearly a year before we bought... but once we made up our minds, we had our new car within a couple of days!

We love, love, love the new minivan.  Ephram loves that he can see out the windows better now, and that Mom can get him in and out of the car more quickly.  He also loves the built in screen on his window to help block out that pesky sun.

Charlie loves that his seat isn't squeezed in super close to Ephram's.  He loves sitting in a booster seat, because the seat belt isn't covered by all of the car seats anymore, and being able to buckle his own belt.  But most of all?  He loves the built in entertainment system with headphones so that he can watch movies while we're on the go.

And what do Andy and I love?  Having extra space, not needing to bend over to load the kids, being able to keep the kids cooler during the summer because they have their own climate control.  And yes, I love the fact that I can listen to my own music up front while Charlie is happy watching a movie.  Oh yeah - I also love the fact that I was able to keep my navigation... I have truly become dependent on the car telling me how to get around!

I'm so glad that we were able to upgrade to the minivan.  Life has really been easier.  I also love that we got an awesome deal.  If you're local and interested in a Honda, I have a great place to refer you!

GI Joe Style

A few days into our California trip, Ephram decided to develop a brand new skill...  the army crawl.  He's been creeping and scooting for months, but mostly on his back.  Then, during our second visit to Grandpa Kovar's he started doing his little army crawl.  At first he would only move a few inches at a time and then roll over in exhaustion.  Within a few days, he could move across a room.  By the time we got home, he could move quickly enough that I had to run over to pull him away from things.  About a week after we got home, he started getting up on his hands and knees.  A month later, Ephram still prefers moving by army crawl.  We have seen him get up on all fours and wobble forward, but he definitely can go faster if he gets down on his belly.  In fact, he has surprised me several times by grabbing at my foot when I wasn't expecting him to be anywhere close.  It is so fun to see him moving around, and I love that I can now tell what he enjoys by paying attention to what he zooms toward!

This was the way he moved around since he was about four months old... and how he was moving the first time we went over to Grandpa Kovar's.

The next day he spent hours like this, but not moving yet.

 Two days later he would go a couple of feet to get to a toy or a person he wanted to play with!  Andy and I sat across from eachother and kept turning him around so that he could crawl back and forth.

I thought this would be a good occassion to pull out the video.  Of course, once I did Ephram was not too interested in crawling.  So instead you get to wtch an assortment of many ways that Ephram moved during his sixth month!

Ephram's Blessing Day

While we were in California we decided to take advantage of having a lot of our family gathered by having Ephram blessed in my parent's ward.  I feel lucky that we were able to have so much of our family, which is fairly spread out, attend his blessing.

We started our day out pretty early.  That's one thing about having a whole bunch of family visit one house at the same time... one shower for fourteen people and a church starting time of 9am can be a bit difficult.  So I decided just to wake up super early and get started.  Ephram was in a great mood!

We were actually all ready with time to spare, so we were able to take a few pictures before outfits got all wrinkled.

I love these pictures of me and Ephram...  (Although I think they may show a little too clearly just how tired I was!)

We headed to the church and walked in to find a whole row of relatives that had driven up from San Diego county that morning.  It was a really nice surprise!  The relatives that attended Ephram's blessing included:  Great Grandma Hayman; Grandma and Grandpa Boyce; Aunts Daja and Keira; Uncles Russ and Chad; my Aunt Esther; my cousins Justin, Andrew and Parker; Ephram's cousins Evin, Braxton, Quinlan, Dustin, Adam and Brinly; and of course Andy, me and Charlie.

My dad gave the blessing along with my brothers-in-law Chad and Russ, my cousins Justin and Andrew, and an old friend of Andy's named Doug.  It was a beautiful blessing, and I'm grateful to my sister Daja for writing it down so that I can share it with Ephram in the future.  For his part, Ephram did a great job, remained calm and fell asleep about five minutes after the blessing ended.

Afterwards I was able to get a few pictures with some of the surprise attendees...

Ephram with Great Grandma Hayman

Ephram with some of my Harrison cousins - Justin, Andrew and Parker

My sister, Daja, also got some pictures of us in front of the building.  I love both of these pictures!

 

Ephram is one of my greatest blessings, and I am so grateful that my dad was able to give him his blessing.  We had an amazing morning and a relaxing afternoon.  Charlie received his blessing from my dad that afternoon as well.  (Since he was just adopted this year, we were happy that he was able to have his blessing too.)  This was the last day that we all spent together before we returned to Washington, my sisters to their homes, and my parents to a Boyce family reunion in Missouri.  It was a great way to cap off our vacation!

CA: Train Museum

While we were in California, Andy's dad offered to take the kids to the Train Museum in Perris.  Because we were there during a big heat wave, I didn't think it would be good for Ephram to be outside for a few hours on the trains... so Andy and Charlie got to have a day out with Grandpa Kovar.  They had a lot of fun!  We need to visit the train museum here now...  And we'll probably go back to this one the next time we are in California!