January update

James just turned seven months old at the end of January. He has developed so much this month; it's amazing!

On Christmas, he was just starting to crawl, but, except for rolling over and sitting up, was mostly stationary. Now he's mastered crawling as well as pulling himself up into a standing position on any nearby objects. He even walks with a little hand holding help for balance. With the Christmas tree gone, we've rearranged the living room to give him more space to play on the floor.

James also loves playing with his toothbrush with Daddy. Though his teeth still haven't come through yet... They are so very close and he's chewing on everything he can get his hands on.

We're continuing to feed him different pureed foods. He takes the loaded spoon from us to feed himself. And then, of course, teeths on it and doesn't want to give it back. He has great control over it though. His hand coordination is getting really good in other ways too- he's starting to use a pincher grasp to pick up smaller objects with his fingers.

The most incredible thing, though, is that James has started to say, "Mama" and "Dada". We weren't certain at first if he realized what he was saying or just practicing different sounds. But often times he would call out,  "mama!" when I was walking away from him or similar situations which didn't seem coincidental. Then the other night Ryan had left the house for a few hours and James was getting a bit fussy. He started saying "Dahdah dahd dahdee" which sounds very much like baby talk for Dada, dad, and daddy. Then when he heard Ryan's voice on the phone and again when Ryan came home, James was all smiles and no fuss. I can't help but believe he was asking where Daddy went. He did it again the next day while Ryan was out and has been saying it a lot these past few days.

In other news, we celebrated two major Orthodox holidays, old calendar Christmas on January 7th and Theophany on January 19th; Ryan and I both had baptismal anniversaries (the 17th and 26th); and I turned 30 on the 15th. All in all, it's been a very good month.