Life With The Pate's: 7 Months and Oh the Explorer

Zeke has mastered the army crawl, I'm pretty sure he is faster than any military man/woman out there. :) We have baby proofed, but man he can get into anything and everything. If he sees something he wants to explore he is there in an instant! He's such a happy guy that when I get home I'll put him down in the living room to play with his toys and I'll head to the kitchen to start dinner or just work around the house etc. and it's not 2 mins before he is in to something. If I kick my heels off at the door he seems to think they are for him to play with. He loves the remote and cell phones, he will literally chase them around the entire living room without ever getting tired of them. He will get on all 4 and rock back and forth, but still no crawling. Thanks to our friend Kesli he has now conquered the ability to go from sitting to laying down so he can army crawl, but he just can't figure out how to go from laying down to sitting up. We're working on that. Not only does he love to explore on the floor, but he loves his walker, he has already figured out how to pull the trash over, twice! He is a mover and an explorer, you can forget trying to love on him/cuddle with him during the day because he won't stay still. He is always grabbing at things, pulling hair, jewlery etc, and will literally roll and crawl out of your arms. Everything is just really exciting to him and it's so fun to watch him explore and figure things out.

He is still an amazing baby and we are beyond blessed with how good he is and how much he spoils us, but our night time routine has changed a bit and I won't say it's awful, it's just different. I was really proud of how he would just take a bottle and then fall asleep in his crib (on his own). If you remember we were doing bath around 7:30 and he was asleep by 8. Well those days are long gone right now. He has started this new routine: we don't take a bath till about 8 or a little after, then he eats a bottle and mind you he will fall asleep while eating, but as soon as you burp him or lay him in his crib he decides it is play time. We even did a few nights where he took his bottle in the crib and he did fall asleep and stay asleep, but that trick only worked like twice. :) So now after he eats he seriously plays for about 20-30 mins, it can be in his crib or on the floor in the living room he doesn't care he just wants to laugh and roll around. You can time it b/c about 30 mins after his bottle he gets extremely fussy, but all I have to do is pick him up and hold him close and he falls asleep instantly, but there is no more laying him in his crib and falling asleep on his own anymore, right now. This really isn't a major thing because he is still asleep by 9 every night, it's just different from what we're used to and the hardest part is once I rock him and sing to him it's so hard to put him down. As stated previously I get no other time to truly cuddle my baby. I've decided that there are worse things in the world than rocking my baby to sleep and I will enjoy it while I can. I am hoping this is a phase, but we shall see what happens. Side note: I know there are moms and experts that say you should never rock your baby to sleep and they should just sleep on their own, well by golly he did that from 6 weeks to 7 months so if I want to pick my baby up to get him to sleep that's what I'm going to do. :) Oh and he still sleeps through the night until 6-7 am!

We're really getting into a fun stage and I must confess my favorite part of the day. (small pre story first) Kyle still takes care of Zeke in the morning, even if we're both up. He feeds him, changes his diaper, dresses him for school and makes his bottles for the day. Then Kyle is out the door for school and we won't see him until anywhere from 5:30-7:30/8 some nights. So I take Zeke to school (daycare) and pick him up and we play for what can be hours before Kyle gets home. Now here comes my favorite part of the day. Zeke can be tired or hungry, which makes him fussy, but when Kyle walks through that door Zeke is all smiles and laughter. The look on Zeke's face is priceless and I need to try to capture it with either video or a picture. It is the greatest feeling to see the love Zeke has for his dad. What's really funny is Kyle always goes straight to the half bath (right off the living room) to wash his hands and Zeke will follow him and stare at the wall until he returns. The other night Zeke even got mad when Kyle left the room, I had to reassure him (like he understood) that dad would return and how would you know as soon as Kyle walked in the room Zeke was a completely different baby. He just loves his dad! My other favorite thing about Zeke and his dad is that Kyle can make him belly laugh like no one else, it's a laugh that fills the room and makes everyone laugh along! Such a strong bond between Kyle and Zeke, it's truly priceless!

We are so in love and so grateful for this little blessing we call our son! He is already 7 months and before we know it we will be celebrating his 1 year birthday!

What was our life like before Zeke?
Mary + Kyle + Zeke + Kato & Bear-Bear

Here is a picture of 1-6 months followed by some 7 month pics!