7 weeks old

Sydney, at 7 weeks old, you:

• Smile a lot
  
• Hold your head up quite a bit, looking like a Bobble Head doll when you get tired
• Are starting to find your voice with little coo's
  
• Know mommy & daddy's voices (and smells)
• Are starting to sleep longer stretches at night
• Wail less - having distinct cries for gas/burps, hunger or wanting to be held
• Smack your lips when you are hungry (or lick the shirt/arm of whomever is holding you)
• Love to look around outside
• Love to stand up with assistance
• Love to jump with assistance
• Love taking baths with mommy or daddy
• Love being held
• Love to snuggle, especially when you are tired
• Love to ride around in the Moby Wrap or front pack
• Have huge hands and you use them to hold on tightly to mommy's shirt so that she has a harder time sneaking you into your bed at night or for naps
• Have very good hearing
• Get hiccups a lot, which makes you throw up after eating
• Like to fall asleep while eating... must be because it is so comfortable in mommy's arms
• Clench your fists tightly when you are mad or when you are really, really hungry
• Still like to keep your hands near your face when you eat. You often put them right up by your eyes.
• You don't track things with your eyes yet, but you LOVE to look around with your bright, blue eyes. You love to look at the pictures on the walls of the living room - which have a lot of contrast against the wall color. You really seemed interested in things on the walls at Grandma & Grandpa Olson's house because they had all kinds of shapes - hearts, stars, circles, half circles, rectangles and squares. (Our house strictly has rectangles and squares on the walls.)
• Have had a good head of hair on your head since birth. You have a cowlick swirl on the back of your head. Daddy says you've got some cowlicks in the front too because it is especially easy for daddy to give you a mo-hawk by styling it with daddy's fingers.
• Still have little control over your hands. You tend to hit yourself in the face and then become upset,  but forget about it quickly. We're waiting for you to find control over your hands in the coming weeks and months.
• Have almost NO baby acne left on your face. You do, however, collect milk in a fold under your chin when you throw up.
• You tend to poop when we're trying to change your diaper in the morning. Sometimes, you manage to spray us. (If you keep that up, mommy threatens to call you SQUIRT.)
• Love to lay on your back and exercise. You throw your arms and legs in the air as if you are participating in a Billy Banks TaeBo class. 
• You tend to still flail your arms when you are getting tired.
• You are becoming a good sleeper and each day is getting a little easier to put you in your crib. Last week, you still insisted upon being held ALL THE TIME! Last night, you cried for less than one minute when I put you in your bed. Tonight, you did not make a peep. (You were still awake when I laid you down both times so, you're doing great!)
• If you are breastfeeding when you are over-tired, you cry.
• You become upset, turning it on and off like a light switch. You do the same with your sleep patterns.
• The past few days, you have been both sleeping and eating A LOT! We think you are going through a growth spurt. Weighing in at 12 pounds 7.4 ounces, you would never guess that you ever had problems with breast feeding after you were born. You now do it like a champion!

You are so much fun! You have changed our lives immensely, but we love you more than you will ever know!