Seven months and counting

Whenever I tell fellow parents that my child is now 7 months old, I am consistently met with the same response: “Oh, this is when it gets really fun.” These friends will go on to explain that their child finally became interactive and playful during these months. Comments like this initially made me wonder whether these parents simply had angry, shy, fun-hating children, since my Oliver has always seemed interactive and playful. Rather than ask “So, why does your child hate you?” I simply nod and suggest that my baby has been judging me with his eyes since birth.
At the time, I simply could not imagine that my baby and I could become more interactive than we were.  Sure, we may eventually use real words to form actual phrases and share with one another our fears and hopes for the world and one another. But right now, we do pretty well with fart noises and animal sounds. We have inside jokes, we like dancing to the same music, and we both enjoy throwing food. We are tight.
With all that said, I have now discovered that these friends were right. My baby seems to have grown up over the course of a week. On multiple occasions, we have heard him say Mama and Dada. He smiles whenever we come in the room, and laughs when we laugh. He even gives an adorable wave that looks more like a request to lower the volume on our boom box.
His greatest accomplishment to date is his high-five. Oliver’s high-five has developed over the past few weeks, as he originally tried to grab our fingers and eat them. We informed him that he would eventually scare his little league teammates if he continued to offer high-fives in this way, and he improved his technique accordingly.
Over the past couple days, I have not practiced the high-five with him. He must have missed practicing, because I caught him high-fiving the mirror this morning.  Smart kid.  When he slaps at the mirror, the other guy never leaves him hanging. He always has his hand out. I think Oliver likes the reciprocation.