seven months and counting...

it is so hard to believe that our little guy is seven months old today. each month just seems to fly by, with big milestones, sweet little moments and all those great memories that we are trying to hold on to! it seems like every stage we get to is my new "favorite" one, with more personality and independence coming out.

i was able to get a few pictures of the tooth poking through, and it's showing even more now since i took these photos...
the little nub sticking up through the gum line

he's been in a better mood since it finally broke, but i feel like he's starting on another one this weekend....lots of chewing on his fingers and random cries like he's in pain.
we have continued with the sleep training, and we've discovered he likes to sleep on his stomach. it's almost guaranteed that if you put him down on his stomach, he'll be out in less than 5 minutes. in the middle of the night last night, he woke up around 3:45 and couldn't have been hungry--he'd eaten just a little over an hour earlier. after trying and trying to get him back down in the pack and play in our room (where he usually sleeps for the 2nd half of the night) justin took him back to his room and put him down in the crib on his stomach. he stirred for just a little bit and then slept until 7:15! it's been a relief to see some progress, and i just dream of the night that i'll be able to sleep all the way through the night again. i feel like the constant sleep deprivation has really started to get to me, and though the sleep training has really helped, he's still up at least 2 times (and often more) each night.

i had my big allergy test this past week. i didn't ask the nurse to take a picture of my back for the first part of the test, but they had 51 different allergens on my back, done with six different panels. didn't really hurt, just a quick pinch of pressure six times. i could feel welts swelling up and itching from several different areas, and after 15 minutes, they came back in and measured the welts for the ones that had reacted. i had 23 that didn't react on my back, and they had to do those on my arm with individual needles underneath the top layer of skin (like a tb test.)
this is my arm after the 23 had time to react and were measured. four days later, i STILL have welts from several of the allergens, four days later! (and the marker--sharpie that actually came off. i was surprised! i had made the mistake of wearing a tanktop that day and thought that i would have numbers on my upper arm for the rest of the day.)

the final verdict? i'm very allergic to grasses (which is why my allergies were worse this summer), dust, molds and...cats.a small reaction, but still allergic to them. no, grace and milo aren't getting kicked out (though milo does try our patience with his puking, whining and tendency to eat the dog's food now....)

we have had a great relaxing weekend so far. i'm excited that we all have monday off, and we'll get to visit with family and do some photo shoots.

davis is still doing big kisses with us--really adorable (and slobbery and wet....)
going for justin's nose...
and a HUGE wet one. i love this!
we also got his perfectly-sized mickey mouse in the mail this week. he immediately smiled and laughed in recognition of mickey, and it's become one of his favorite toys recently.
today, while justin was getting in some guy time with a movie and video games, davis and i hung out at home and then ran a couple of errands. i had a couple of coupons from babies r us that expired this weekend, so we headed out this afternoon and tried out his seat cover for the first time. he seemed to be a big fan!

we had to scope out the other mickey toys, too... (didn't get either one, but he still loved looking at them)
it was fun just to have him out while i was running errands, and he smiles at and charms everyone that he sees in the store :)
we got home just missing some rain showers, and we looked out to see a beautiful rainbow over the neighborhood--a great way to end our day.
and now that he's down (less than two or three minutes tonight, i think), we're catching up on episodes of friday night lights and i'll be doing some editing from my photo sessions at strawberries on 903 a couple of weeks ago. two more days to enjoy this weekend, and we plan on soaking up every minute of it....