How is it possible that our little guy is 8 months old already?! Technically, 8 mo 1 wk since it's taken me a week to get this posted. ;)
Every week he's learning new things and developing new quirks that just crack us up and make us gush unashamedly. Yep, we're
those parents. I mean, how could we not be? Have you
seen our kid?
He's babbling all the time now, and it is just the sweetest thing. Well, sometimes it's the loudest, not-so-sweet thing, like when he's squawking like a pterodactyl. But sweet coo or grating screech, we love it all. :) He says babababa, dadadada, mamamama, and tatatatata. Mamamama is the latest one. The funniest so far has been when he whispers tata when you whisper to him. So.darn.precious. We think he's still just babbling for now and doesn't actually associate the "words" with meaning but we're sure that's right around the corner.
We're working on waving. Sometimes when we wave he'll "wave" back by raising his hand and moving his fingers a little, but most other times he just smiles, throws both arms up and back down and carries on with whatever he'd doing.
He loves standing! The ottoman is perfect because he loves standing up next to it and banging on it and also cruising around it. He also loves standing in front of the fireplace. He'll see his reflection and get really excited and put both arms up in the air. He can stand for a few seconds without holding onto anything before he falls down. Thankfully he always fall onto his bottom and not face first!
In addition to cruising on furniture, he loves walking with the walker we got him last week. He gets so excited and happy when he's pushing it around! When a wall or piece of furniture gets in the way, though, oh boy... he can get pretty pathetic (especially when it's close to nap time and he's tired!).
West loves baths (see pics on
this post here) and really the whole bathroom in general. We have to keep the bathroom doors shut at all times because if they're open, he'll be in there playing with the toilet paper, banging on toilet seat, playing with the toilet brush, getting into to the trash, etc in no time. Same with the dishwasher and fridge - the second either of those are open he makes a bee-line for them! He actually used to be that way about the pantry too, but after I "gave him" the bottom two shelves he's really not too interested anymore. Figures. :) He also has a cabinet with plastic things and a drawer with his spoons, bowls, cups, etc that he can play in while we're in the kitchen. Keeps him entertained for awhile while I'm cooking or cleaning up, but most of the time he'd rather be held so he can be a part of the action. When that's the case, I throw him in the high chair and scoot it up next to whatever I'm doing and he's usually pretty happy.
Another of his favorites is rough housing. He is the happiest when we're down on the floor with him rolling around - he loves climbing on us and "attacking" us. He does have a biting a problem that we need to work on, though. Ouch! He also loves being "chased" and "chasing" us. He can go pretty fast for such a little guy!
Speaking of biting, he has his two front bottom teeth and one of his top front teeth just broke through on his 8 mo birthday. For this most recent one we had a couple rough nights, a runny/stuffy nose, and some overall fussiness. Poor guy just wan't his happy self, but is coming back around.
He's still pretty picky when it comes to solids. We've tried traditional jarred baby food, homemade pureed veggies, mashed bits of what we have for dinner (like grilled zucchini and summer squash), diced bananas, plain full fat yogurt, puffs, graham crackers, vanilla wafers, ritz crackers, bits of pasta... and he still may only eat a few bites at a time (when he's not gagging). He's just not interested. He does best with graham crackers and plain yogurt but that isn't always a guarantee. But the majority of his calories and nutrition come from milk still so we're just viewing solids as practice for now and not stressing out about it. We figure he'll catch on soon enough!
He's still on a flexible 3-4 hour schedule during the day. Really it's more of a routine than a schedule - he wakes up and I nurse him, then he's awake for a couple hours, then goes down for a nap, then I nurse him when he wakes up, etc. If he only takes an hour nap, he's more on a 3 hour schedule, but if he naps longer it may be closer to 4 hours between feedings. The way this routine loops, he usually gets 3 naps a day - mid morning, mid day, and late afternoon. In our opinion he's a little too old for this sort of schedule and we think he'd do better with two longer naps a day, but we've been trying to keep him closer to 3 hours between feedings to get in more calories during the day.
I took him to get weighed the day after his 8 mo birthday and he weighed in at 16 lb 11 oz, which is close to the 10th percentile. In the last four weeks he actually gained a little better than what would be expected - he gained 13 oz and the expected range was 4-12 oz, so we were pretty excited!
Little quirks we love: how he shuffles his feet when he gets excited, how he sleeps with his bottom up in the air, how he shakes his head back and forth all the time, how he loves being outside, how he pants through gritted teeth/gums and wrinkles his nose when he's excited or determined, how he can always reach just a little further than we think (and thus always seems to reach what we think is out of reach), how he used to run into our legs with his head when he wanted to be picked up (now he reaches his hands up), how he loves watching Brad mow from the windows in the living room, how he gets so excited and crawls so fast towards Brad when he gets home from work... we could go on and on but I think this post is long enough already... ;)
Happy 8 mo birthday Weston! We love you more than we can express and you make every day so incredible!!!
*See all of his monthly pictures here
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