HEADLINE: New Stage of Babies Life Threatens Young Mother with Heart Attack.

Wow, 7 months have gone by so incredibly quick. It is hard to imagine that Laurelei was ever only 5lbs and slept all day. For having a genetic anemic disease, she had A LOT of energy! This 7th month has brought many changes to our little one, as well as to our way of life. And I thought the young sleepless night required a lot of energy, I was SO unprepared!

As of late, Laurelei's favorite past time is standing up. On anything, against anything, using anything as leverage. This has created many problems for us. 1) Laurelei can pull up, but not sit up: This creates a lot of falling! 2) Our house is completely hard wood, so falling over hurts a great deal! 3) We no longer go down for naps easily because we stand right back up. Naps are down to about 45 minutes at a time at the moment, which leaves some sadly black circles under the little babies eyes! Its awful!

The other day she hit her head with the remote control and it left a nice purple bruise. Now I am concerned about what people think about my parenting abilities when we are out and about. ugh. We are hoping she will become a bit more sure on her feet sooner rather than later. She needs all the help she can get!

my little houdini

Laurelei has many tricks. The first memorable one occurred when she was about 1 1/2 months old. While completely swaddled, she managed to turn herself around, head to where her feet go, in her crib, without even ruffling her cover. Next, she learned to break partially free from her expertly wrapped swaddle, leaving one sole arm exposed. This seemed enough to make her happy for awhile. Finally, she got a bit more creative and figured out how to get both her hands and feet out of her swaddle, while leaving the blanket perfectly wrapped in the middle. These bed time tricks always surprised me when I went in to get her up from a nap, but always made us smile. 

Recently she has begun performing more interesting tricks. For instance, the other day I heard her "talking" and singing happily in her crib after nap time. I was surprised that I had not heard her stir at all, and then suddenly heard her little voice. When I went in to pick her up, she had partially removed her crib bumper, which had previously been tied. All of this, without making a noise. The next day, after nap time, I went in to find her partially standing, hands on her crib rails. This is quite the trick because Laurelei can't even sit up on her own yet! Today, as if we were progressing at the speed of light, I went in to find my only 7 month old BABY between her bumper and the crib, standing all the way up. I would have gotten of picture of this truly amazing trick had I not been scared to death that she might fall out of the crib! Luckily, although the crib was still at its highest level, my child takes after me in the height department. She was still only tall enough to lick the railing, thankfully not to jump on out. 

I have learned two very valuable lesson from my daughters magical abilities. One, lower the crib NOW. Two, super glue bumper to crib since apparently I am really terrible at tying a bow securely.