Month seven has been another transition month. Blackbird hasn’t hit any big milestones, but has been tiptoeing right up to the edge of them, getting incrementally closer and closer yet never reaching them (a sort of baby’s first dichotomy paradox).

This past month she’s been almost crawling all the time. Even in her sleep. Her mobility, which is still very limited, is far greater than it was last month. She can freely roll and knows to slow herself to avoid bumping her noggin, she can spin in circles on her tummy (I call it pivoting), and she can get up on all fours and rock forward and backward. However, she can’t get that one final piece: lifting her hands one at a time. This drives her crazy. In fact, she’s better at slowly skooching backward than she is at making forward progress. She occasionally does a face-plant as a result of this little hurdle (which results in virtually no fussing, to my surprise).

However, in spite of this month feeling a bit ‘in between’ more significant advances, it’s been great fun. The contours of her personality are becoming visible and our interactions have become true responsive events involving feedback from both sides affecting the other. I admit, as cute as she’s been since day one, I’ve never had this much fun before. Yesterday, I spent the morning on the floor with Blackbird and our cat, Leto. Blackbird giggled and squealed, rolling around with the cat and trying to get a handful of her tail between bouts of playing with a book. Her sense of joy and wonder at the world is so strong and energizes me every time.

For a variety of reasons, we’re a little thin on photos this month (a new job being a big reason). But worry not! I have an SLR to play with now (sadly, only on loan), so I expect the quality and quantity to spike for next month.

If you hear these words from someone who is trying to sell you something or get your vote, you can be assured that all of the words associated with them are false or devoid of information:

Improved
Best
Greatest
Cheesier
Voted the most
Fun
Sophisticated
New convenient size
It will blow you away
Our forefathers believed/intended
Fancy
Kids love
Naturally flavored
I won’t lie to you
We can’t offer deals like this for long
Truly
Classy
Chewiest
Tastiest
Americans want/think/believe/are saying/need