Life, Love, and Rockets: 8 months and Easter

Well, D is a whopping 8 months old now. Two-thirds of the way to 1 year. That's just crazy to me. Some days that sounds about right, and others too long. Generally too long, but when I think about how far he's come developmentally it puts everything in perspective.

We now eat 3 meals a day plus 5 nursings (morning, noon, afternoon, bedtime, and dream feed). He's been sleeping for 12 hour stretches at night since 6 1/2 months. (Recently started waking up hungry around 6am, so I added his dreamfeed back in and that fixed it). Scooting/army crawling/inch worming since 7 months. And as of 8 months legit crawling, pulling to stand, and cruising! I know that some moms will get all weepy with these new stages as their babies gain some independence, however, I am pretty thrilled by it. Don't get me wrong, a small part of me is sad to see him grow up. But a bigger part of me is excited to watch him accomplish new tasks. Working where I do, I know a lot of those kiddos won't do the things D does. So I'm thankful. And it is just heart-melting when that chubby, wiggling boy crawls to you, pulls to a stand using your leg, and reaches his hands up (hold me Mommy!) Too sweet :)

I think I can, I think I can...

I'm pretty proud of myself and so is Mom and Dad!

We've had a few playdates with Rowan, Carson, Reece, Lainey, and Jenson. He's getting a bit more interactive and not crying quite as much when others babies get loud (if they cry though, he's gonna turn on frownie face and the waterworks). It's pretty cute to watch him reach out to touch their face or poke their belly. He's so curious. I keep telling myself that he's in that explorer/scientist mode right now. "If I hide my eyes behind the blanket, every time Mom is still on the other side even if I can't see her" "Every time I go to play with the door stop, I'm going to be told that it's not a toy""The door swings open, the door swings closed, the door swings open, the door swings closed..."

A day out and about with my buddies, Reece and Carson.

He doesn't do much that he has to be told 'no' for just yet. Mostly no grabbing faces/hair and no playing with the doorstops and outlets. We plan more on house-proofing D rather than baby-proofing the house (to an extent; the dangerous stuff will be locked up, ie- cleaning supplies). We still need to figure out what to do with our staircase. I would like to think this would be a great example of house-proofing D, but it probably needs to be baby-proof as well. With how fast he moves and climbs now, the stairs could be a bit trickier. And a fall down the stairs onto a wood floor is no good.

Anything is a toy, right?

We're working more on our fine motor skills now. He has little interest in picking food up to feed himself. I think he knows that I can get it in there faster, and he just wants it in his mouth! I though maybe his puffs were hard to pick up off the tray so I held one in my palm for him instead. He looked at my palm, then at me, attempted to pinch it (he can use his pincer grasp to get it but then lets go before he gets anywhere near his mouth), and when that didn't work he leaned way down and just licked it off my palm! Well, I guess that's one way to do it, but I don't see his kindergarten teacher being impressed with that skill.

I'm so hoping that he'll start signing back to us soon. We don't do a ton of signs (I wish we did more) but he definitely shows a reaction to 'milk' and has for quite some time. For now we use the basics and I'm starting to add a few more as we go. Common signs we use: milk, more, eat, drink, water, play, bath, ball, help, mom, and dad. I'm proud to say his first word was Mama!! Matt and I have been repeating mama and dada to him over and over waiting on him to say one :) Pretty excited it was Mama since every other baby we know right now chose Dada. I feel a little special. I'm not sure he really associates it with me. He says it most often in the evening when he's more cranky and wants his milk and to go to bed.

Spending Easter weekend in Joplin with our parents and celebrating Matt's birthday was a good weekend. My grandparents played a huge part in my childhood, so it makes me a little sad that D doesn't have them around all the time. But we're grateful for the times we do get to see them and spend with them. Matt's mom has one of those fancy schmancy pro-style digital cameras and obliged my request for a few family photos since we were all dressed up. I searched of and on for weeks about what we were all going to wear. You know... cute dress, coordinating outfits, etc... I'm pretty happy with how it turned out though. Fun bright spring colors for each of us :) AND this is only the second 'family photo' we've had since he was born. I'm not very good about planning ahead for things like that. I don't even have a baby book for D. I don't think he'll really care when his first tooth came in (not yet, by the way, but it's my excuse for all his cranky behavior and probably will be until he's old enough to drive), what day he first said Mama, or what foods he liked/disliked. It would just be for my keeping anyway, but I still feel quasi 'lame mom' about it. Oh well...