7 months, 3 weeks.

It feels like it's been forever since I posted. I will list Griffin's achievements in life so far:

• Sit in an upright position without aid.
  
• Roll around to go where he wants to.
  
• Reach for what he wants.
  
• Drink from a glass. Not only drink from a glass, but recognize that we are drinking from a glass, and want our beverage.
  
• He recognizes grape juice when he sees it, and reaches for it.
  
• Hold his bottle (though he is usually content to let us do that for him).
  
• Recognizes that food comes in a spoon, and tries to feed himself, occasionally grabbing at it when it comes to his mouth, and trying to do it himself.
  
• Recognize his name.
  
• Babble baby talk. Sometimes it sounds like words, but they haven't been repeatable.
  
• Grab his feet. He doesn't seem to remember that he doesn't like the taste of his own toes.
  
• Worship the ceiling fan.
  
• Dig himself under the bumper to view the world.
  
• Take off his diaper.
  

He now has a lot of hair, but it's very fine, and very light coloured, so it doesn't seem as if he has a lot until you get very close to his head. The little beard-shaped 'V' of hair in the back of his head has changed colour to match mostly with the rest of his hair, which makes me slightly sad. I'm someone who really does not like change, and he changes so fast that sometimes it's hard to see. I catch myself crying over a baby outfit that he wore when he was smaller, or a picture of him when he was incredibly small.

There's this teething ring that Eric bought for him. It's now Griffin's favourite thing. You'll see it featured in some of the Christmas pictures; it's a rainbow of hard beads on a string. Some kids have a teddy bear, he has this string of beads. It goes everywhere with him. He grabs it when we lift him out of his crib, and gets upset when he doesn't have it, or he's dropped it and can't get it back. He has taken to cuddling some of the stuffed animals he owns once and a while, which is incredibly cute. His three favourites are the tiger that our friend Rob gave him, a red dog that my aunt Julie gave him, and Eric's old stuffed monkey that he had as a child. The monkey is his favourite of all.

Griffin loves car rides. He sits and stares out the window, completely fascinated with the world. He also loves to get out of the house and go places, especially new ones. Sometimes when he's extremely grumpy, going outside will make him instantly a different Griffin. I suppose I can understand that. He wants to see different things, meet people. He'll be wanting to borrow the car, next.
-Autumn