Peaks of Cuteness

I have a theory that about every three months for the first year, babies hit peaks of cuteness. Let's face it: few babies are truly adorable looking at birth. Around three months or so, though, oh man do they start to get really cute. Then again at about six months, when they get really chubby and start sitting up, they peak again. At about nine months is my favorite age, when they're mobile but not walking yet and still have plenty of chub but also plenty of personality. And then who can deny that the first-steps phase of an about-one-year-old new walker is seriously cute? But still, nine months is my favorite.

Charlotte is seven months old, just past her six month peak and headed into my favorite peak. Six months to a year is such a fun time. When Elise was about six months old, I finally started to feel like myself again (I know, that's really late). At about six months was also when Matt really started bonding with Elise. With Charlotte, both of us have come around a lot faster, but this is still such a fun age. We are enjoying her so much.

Charlotte has started some serious babbling lately, and I can't get enough. Can you blame me?

She has also recently started clapping. Like, when you sing "If You're Happy and You Know It," she claps. Or if you just say, "Yay!" or mention the word clap, or clap for her. I haven't gotten a great video of her clapping yet, but here's something to give you an idea. So cute.

A few of her favorite positions:

tummy time

happy face!

She can sit indefinitely these days.

explore/relax mode

on the go

Charlotte is not crawling yet, but she is starting to learn that she can move to get to what she wants. She stretches, rolls, and even pushes herself along with her toes sometimes to get to things. She gets her knees or her toes under her quite often, but she doesn't push up and put her hands under her, so she mostly just faceplants, then rolls with her bum high in the air. This video of her inching forward was taken on April 19th, the day Charlotte turned seven months old.

Charlotte's first tooth broke through on May 5th (bottom left central incisor), and the one beside it is due to pop through any minute.

Holy Hannah, I don't know what could be much cuter. Maybe Charlotte at nine months? Only time will tell.

P.S. I know this is absolutely a "my kid is so cute" blog post. And I'm not even sorry. :)