7 months

Mary is 7 months tomorrow. I took some pictures a little early for her 7 month page in her scrapbook. I love her blue little eyes! She has been doing really well lately. She can sit on her own, though not for very long, and she's not always the sturdiest of people. She'll randomly throw herself backwards.
She also tried finger foods for the first time two days ago. She does pretty good with it! If I give her a little stick of toast she actually gets it in her mouth. I tried giving her little pieces, but she doesn't have the coordination to get them into her mouth yet. I went back and forth on that polo too, does she look like a boy in it? Since our car seat and stroller have a blue pattern I always think that people think she's a boy. So I try to dress her extra girly if we go out ;) Which has been a ton lately. I think when we get back from Gatlinburg next week I'm going to just spend a week in the house and lounge!
And finally, one of the parenting sites I read was talking about how ultimately our goal in parenting is to train our children that they can someday leave us. I thought this was 1. sad, and 2. a good goal to have. I have already had to do some hard things as a parent, but I think they were worth it. Like letting Mary learn to fall asleep on her own. It was hard, she would cry, I would stand by the door with my hand on the knob. But I'm so glad I spent a few months letting her do that. Since she was four months old she NEVER cries. By never I mean on a normal day. When she isn't feeling well she'll get fussy, but in general she is so happy. When I put her in her crib to go to sleep she talks for a few minutes and is out.
At one point I was thinking, it's just not worth it. I thought that training her to sleep was too hard, but I'm so glad I stuck it out. I think parenting will be this way a lot. We decide on rules for her, but she doesn't know them yet, so training will be hard. But once she does know the rules and boundaries, how much better will it be?!? If we can be consistent in training I know that the rewards will come. And someday she will be well trained enough to live independently from us. In the time between now and then we will do our best to instill moral character (most importantly) and knowledge of many other things. Here's my awesome daughter at 7 months: