7 months!!!

Benjamin turned 7 months old on Thanksgiving Day (and his Pawpaw's birthday!!!). We think he's ~24 lbs or so. He's definitely still big for his age since he's wearing size 9-12 month onesies. Ben has not cut any teeth yet, but he's started to drool more again so we check once or twice a week for those. He's still sleeping from 7 pm to ~5 or 6 am and takes naps during the day.

It's now clear that Ben recognizes words like Vincent, book, bottle, up, etc. Example: He looks at his bookcase when we ask him if he wants to read a book and he looks for Vincent when we mention his name. He's doing great at day care - he's spending more and more time interacting with his peers and is happy to see everybody when we drop him off.

Ben's activities:

He's very good at sitting up now and rolling all the way over.
He's starting to push himself around on his belly, but only a little. He tends to just rotate and roll his way to whatever he wants instead.
He still loves books - his favorites are "Oh My Oh My Oh Dinosaurs", "Little Fish", and "But Not The Hippopotamus", but he's happy having anything read to him.
Ben enjoys playing piano with dad. He bangs at the keys while dad plays along. He also loves his mini piano.
He's learned to give hugs (see pic below) and LOVES to give them 10-15 times in a row. Mom and dad are happy to oblige :)
He's able to hold his own bottle, but the glass ones we use at home are too heavy for him to hold for long. He's better at holding the plastic ones we send with him to daycare.
He LOVES to look at himself in the mirror or on the front facing camera on our phone.
He spends a lot of time investigating reflections of things. When we put up our Christmas tree he kept looking back and forth between the tree and its reflection in the tv and glass on the bookcases. He also loves to watch the reflection of our ceiling fan in the bedroom mirror.

We are looking forward to our upcoming trip to LA to visit with friends and family! We'll be taking our first (albeit short) plane ride, which will be interesting. It'll be good practice for our trip out east in the spring!

Love you all and hope you had a great Thanksgiving!

Cute little guy. He wanted to "read" the magazine again, so dad had to entertain him to get a good pic.