Caroline is 7 months old

Caroline was not in the mood to sit very still, smile, and pose nicely for her 7 month pictures. I finally gave up, but these pictures still turned out cute and certainly reflect her personality this month. Caroline is a girl on the move, rocking on all fours, and scooting backwards like a pro. I often have to extricate her from under the couch or the corner she has jammed herself into. As soon as she can figure out how to move forward, we are going to be in trouble! She can sit very well now and once I even caught her pulling up to a sitting position all by herself. All that activity must require extra calories and thankfully Caroline has started to eat her solid foods with a hearty appetite. She loves sweet potatoes, and yogurt, and will eat her green vegetables also. No teeth yet, but today I saw a distinct white spot under her gum, so I am expecting it to pop through any day. She is certainly drooling a lot and loves to chew on everything, especially my fingers. I fed her some cheerios for the first time at Nana's and she worked so hard to grab them with her pincer grip. Then she couldn't figure out how to release them in her mouth, but her focus and determination were fun to watch. She also gets super excited about playing with beaded necklaces, ribbons, and mommy's silver watch. We hear "da-da" more often, as Rylan loves to point out, and a few other consonant-vowel combinations, but not "ma-ma" yet.
I saw a little separation anxiety for the first day or so when we traveled to Nana's, but was thrilled to see her gradually warm up to her extended family. By the end of the trip she would laugh and snuggle with Nana and go with her out of my sight for a while. I think she is more shy than Rylan was around strangers and she will duck her head down into my chest if I am holding her and someone new approaches. For her six month pictures, we tried every trick for a half hour to get her to smile with no success. She just sucked in her lower lip and kept such a serious face! When she feels safe in mommy's arms, she will laugh and squeal and ham it up, even to the strangers on the airplane! She was a great traveler and I have to give a lot of credit to my moby wrap. She slept a good deal in it on the plane and it was so much more comfortable than having to hold her 20 lbs. in my tiring arms for the flight. I also loved being able to use it for a cover-up when she had to nurse and not having to deal with a stroller while traveling through the airport security.
I'll post more pictures of our Kentucky trip next, but I will warn you, there are a ton, so it is going to take me another night just to pick out the best.