In honor of Cate’s 7-month birthday, she got her very first haircut. Which was actually more of a single snip – she had this one long piece of her bangs that kept falling into her eyes, so I trimmed it.

I was trying to even it up with all of her new hair that’s growing in, but I may have made it a little too short. Dave says she looks sort of like one of those kids in “Village of the Damned.” I think she looks cute. If she starts singing creepy children’s songs or jumping rope in slow-motion, I’ll worry. Until then, I think we’re ok.

Also, since the Stroller of DOOM! has been officially retired, my folks bought us a new one. It is so awesome, and was such a relief for my back since I finally had a break from toting her around on me for our daily walk.

I know you can’t tell that she was having fun, but she was. While we were out, we met one of our neighbors who was out for a walk with her 9 month-old, and who was very nice, but she (the neighbor, not the baby) had dreadlocks and was wearing army pants, so I think she might be too cool for me to hang out with. I’d feel like a big corporate nerd around her. I mean, come on, I don’t even buy the chlorine-free diapers at Whole Foods.

Oh, and thanks to Danielle for the tip on how to flip a video. I’ve re-posted my sister’s home movie.

Man, I need to get some videos of this child doing something other than bouncing in her jumperoo. It’s just that I can’t hold her and videotape her at the same time, and the jumperoo seems to be the only place I can set her down and she doesn’t scream. I will figure out another movie idea soon, though. Promise.

Today is Cate’s 7-month birthday. Now when I write these little milestone recaps, I have to go back and read the previous month’s, to make sure I’m not forgetting anything or mentioning something twice. I guess lots of parents probably brag excessively about their children’s accomplishments, and I don’t want to get too redundant. Anyway, Cate’s latest achievements:

* She raises her arms when she wants to be picked up. Which would be quite cute, except she does it all the time. And oh man, my aching back. Girlfriend is heavy.

* She’s still working on those first 2 teeth. You can see them just under the surface, but they have yet to make an appearance. I’m not in any rush for her teeth to come in, since that’s when I’ll have to start her on a fluoride supplement. That’s what happens when you live in the boonies and your water supply is from a well. We have to compensate for what our water is lacking. Fun.

* She’s slightly improving at sitting up on her own. I’ll get her sitting up, let go, she’ll be ok for a few seconds, then she flops over and face-plants on the carpet. It’s sweet, she reminds me of myself after a few margaritas.

* She is a backwards-scooting maniac. Set her down anywhere, and you will find her a minute later several feet, and usually at a 180-degree angle, from where she was. I guess that’s the problem with crawling backwards, it’s hard to stay in a straight line. It’s pretty hilarious to watch. Although half the time, she’ll get up on all fours and start to fuss because she can’t figure out what to do next.

* This has been the month that we’ve really started experimenting with solid food. So far, here’s the tally:
Likes: rice cereal, oatmeal, carrots, sweet potatoes, green beans
Dislikes: peas, yo baby yogurt (!), bananas (!!), and apple juice (!!!)

I find it really odd that she rejects all of the sweet tastes, but I guess that explains why I only craved salty foods when I was pregnant. The apple juice kind of made sense to me – she’s only ever had water in her sippy cup, so when you’re expecting water and you get juice, I’d imagine that’s it quite a shock to the taste buds. So the fact that she spit it out and started to cry seemed like a reasonable reaction. But the bananas and the yogurt? I have no explanation.

We have a new stroller that should be delivered tomorrow (courtesy of my parents, who rock), and I can’t wait because I’m so tired of lugging her around in the Baby Bjorn, and I think this will be much more fun for both of us. Who knows, I might even get over my fear of walking her down the big hill that we live on.

Been a while since I posted a video, so here’s Cate taking up one whole minute of your day.

I hate how dark that turned out, I can never seem to get enough light in my living room at night. As for the noise I’m making in the video, we’ve learned that sometimes when we go “HA!” at her, it’ll make her laugh. She kind of laughs a tiny bit at the beginning of the video, but you almost can’t tell over the noise of the jumperoo.

Oh, and if you want to check out my sister’s mad cinematography skillz, you can go here to see the video she filmed when my family was in town. My sister is a great photographer, but she doesn’t seem to get that you can’t flip between portrait and landscape in video format. Still, it’s pretty cute if you tilt your head to the left.

On Saturday, we met up with Kris and her new boyfriend Tony for a trip to the zoo. It was a lot of fun even though Cate is too young to really notice any of the animals. I knew that was going to be the case, since when we go for walks, she doesn’t notice the horses unless they stick their heads over the fence for us to pet them. It’s all about people-watching for her, and that’s fine.

And I am totally annoyed with myself for bringing the camera with me and taking a grand total of one picture while we were there. I took a picture of a wallaroo. That’s it. Not a single baby photo. I don’t know what happened to my brain, but there you go.

I realized while we were there that I really need a normal stroller. I’ve been getting by for the past 6 months with just the frame that the car seat snaps into, and that’s fine for quick store trips, but I need something that Cate can ride in sitting up and facing out. She was not happy about sitting in her car seat at the zoo, so Dave and I took turns carrying her in the Baby Bjorn most of the time. That was ok, but a little tiring for both of us.

Since I had mentioned the stroller thing to Kris, less than an hour after we left the zoo, she called me to say that she was at a yard sale and found a stroller. She said it was ugly, but it was lightweight and easy to fold, and it only cost $5, so she was buying it for me. Right on! We met up the next day so I could pick it up from her. It’s a Century TraveLite stroller, and ok, it sort of looks like one of Bill Cosby’s sweaters from the 80’s threw up all over it, but it isn’t that bad.

When I got home, I took Cate for a spin up & down our street in the stroller, and she LOVED it. She tends to kick her feet when she’s happy (sort of like a puppy), and her feet were going non-stop the entire walk. I even stopped to chat with one of our neighbors, which is normally when she’d get bored and cranky, but she was happy and smiling the whole time. Yay!

Then yesterday, I googled the stroller to try to find a picture of it so I could show my mom what it looked like. In retrospect, it would’ve been easier to just take a photo of it and email it, but I guess it was lucky that that didn’t occur to me until later. The first result was a link from the Consumer Products Safety Commission that the stroller was involved in a huge recall several years ago. They say, and this is a quote: “The strollers can unexpectedly collapse or the car seat/carrier adapter can unexpectedly detach. When this happens, an infant or young child inside the stroller or an attached car seat/carrier can fall to the ground and suffer serious injuries.” Um, holy crap?

So obviously, we won’t be using this stroller ever again. I’m honestly tempted to take it back to the yard sale people and demand Kris’s five dollars back. I’m hoping that they didn’t know about the recall, because if they did… god, what jerks.

Meanwhile, Cate and I are off to go stroller shopping this afternoon. At least I don’t have to worry about spending money on a stroller and her not liking it. And maybe I can get one that doesn’t involve the colors teal, purple, yellow and hot pink all on the same stroller. Fingers crossed.

I would not normally have done this, since… well, I’m not insane, but Cate is unfortunately at the peak of separation anxiety where she screams every time I walk out of a room. Since I needed to clean and was going to be back and forth all over the house, I thought it would be easier to just strap her on my back and get on with it.

And honestly, it was easier. She was happy as a clam to come along for the ride while I did everything. But man, thank God for ibuprofen, because my back isn’t sure when it will forgive me for that little stunt.

Aside: Cate is trying really hard these days to figure out how to crawl, but so far all she can do is get her knees sort of halfway underneath herself, and then she proceeds to scoot backwards across the floor. Is that normal? Dave and I both find it hysterically funny to watch her try to figure it out. It’s weird, though – on the one hand, I dread crawling because it means we have to start childproofing the house, and I haven’t done the first thing in that regard. On the other, when she’s mobile and can follow me rather than scream when I walk out of a room? That sounds pretty awesome.