Aurick Virgil is seven months old.

slightly early, slightly late
Actually, I am writing this post advance; Aurick Virgil is actually not seven months old, yet. He will turn seven months tomorrow. I am trying not to be late on this update, (as last month’s was so late now it hasn’t actually happened) so I am getting an “earlier” start. (This will be published on the 7th, but it’s certainly being written today, on the 6th!)
Slightly late is the name of the game at the moment, however, and not just monthly updates. The Kranslings have had three categories of motor skill development: Slightly Later Than Average; Slightly Later Than Later Than Average; and Elvie. So far Aurick has been following the Slightly Later Than Later Than Average curve, literally only today managing to sit up unassisted for more than a minute or two. We will see if this trend continues to also shunning crawling in favor of butt-scooting and not walking until 19-20 months like it did for the other ones that followed this trajectory (Clive and Anselm).
He is also (like Anselm and Clive) on the lower end of the weight and height scale. (I note this only because I find it fascinating that they should have this in common. It really does not matter now when they learned to sit up or walk or anything else. Anyone over age 6 can run faster than I can.)
He seems, however, to be ahead of the curve in his social and cognitive skills. Again, this was something that was also true of Clive. They even look alike–but they are brothers, after all.

sleep
Because he’s Number Seven and our house is on the small side, he continues to sorta-kinda share a room with us. He naps in the mini-crib in the Baby Closet and starts the night out there too, but we move him into the pack-n-play when we go to bed. Everyone is happier that way. For this, he’s the first Kransling to not sleep 12 hours straight at six months, as I nurse him when I move him. But this does not bother me very much, and I’m sure he doesn’t care at all.
He is still so easy to put down. He tends to get fussy when he’s tired, but if you catch him at the right time he is glad to go to sleep, snuggling up with his crocheted blankie and rolling up onto his side. If you catch him too late, he fusses in bed, but still goes to sleep fairly easily. Aurick was sick this month, and a bad cough interrupted some of his nights. Once he recovered, though, he went back to sleeping beautifully. He has seemed like a very easy baby to sleep train, but that could be partially because I simply haven’t had the energy to obsess over it–I continued using the principles that I used to sleep train the others, but I just didn’t have the time to really worry too much about the hiccups along the way.
sling
Thankfully, he made peace with the ring sling this month, which is greatly welcomed as I am really beginning to use it more for him. I don’t know why he didn’t like it before. I never asked, and he never did say.
food
So far he hates solids. This is another thing he has in common with Baby Clive.

shaky-head and other pastimes
He loves to shake his head. Sometimes he’ll do it when he’s angry, like when he wants to nurse and I’m being slow about it. But mostly he likes it if you shake your head at him, and he can shake his back and laugh. There is another baby that used to do this. I will let you guess which one it is.
He is very ticklish, and loves to use his my to play peek-a-boo. We have worked and worked and worked on sitting up (with not too much success until today–see above) but he really loves to just lie on his back and kick and kick and kick. And flap his arms, and kick some more. He loves to babble bah-bah-bah-bah-bah, and to stick out his tongue as far as it will go. He is very smiley with us. He does not like strangers.

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