8 Months

 You'd think I would get used to my child being a month older every 29th of the month, but I'm not and I still don't like it! But I guess it is going to happen so now our little baby boy is 8 months old (and not so little anymore!). And 8 months apparently means a lot of new skills.

So new things going on at 8 months:

• Cruising along furniture...he walked the length of the couch  multiple times today
• Teeth! Well just one that is showing right now, but there is a 2nd bottom one working on coming in too
• Crawling...sometimes. He CAN crawl normally, but he usually chooses to army crawl
• Pulling up on anything and everything...including in his crib! (Time to lower the crib mattress again)
• Eating all solid foods
• Showing displeasure when we take something away or when he doesn't get something he wants
• Reaching out for momma or daddy
• Opening and closing doors and drawers

Now for pictures!

What Jake was hoping the Cowboys would do to the Bears a couple of weeks ago

His new favorite past time

And we have a climber

How I found him when I went to go get him up from a nap...and how he has been everytime since then

I love this picture...it is my new favorite

Chilling in the sling and helping momma clean

More Exciting News!

That's right folks, we officially have a crawler.

Breaking News

We have...................................................................................................................


a tooth!

Jake is no longer toothless! The top of his first tooth broke through today. You can barely see it as it is still flush with his gums, but it is definitely there. How I found out? He bit my nose (something he does on a regular basis when giving kisses) and it was sharper than it had ever been. I stuck my finger in there and could definitely feel it and he let me get a quick peek at it too. Looks like there will be no more nose biting allowed!

Videos

Not much going on around here. Jake and I took a field trip to see daddy at work last week. All of his coworkers were asking to see him, other than in pictures from Josh or my facebook, since he was about 8 weeks old. He flirted and charmed everyone. Other than that, we have done a lot of chilling at home. Jake decided he was anti nap last week, between Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday he only took one nap over an hour. Thankfully he made up for it Friday (of course at daycare) and this weekend. Unfortunately he is getting up twice a night to eat again. I am very thankful that Josh is so involved and gets up to get Jake out of bed and bring him to me to eat. And on the weekends he gets up with him in the mornings and lets me sleep in. I think I married a pretty fabulous guy!

My camera battery needs to be charged so no pictures today, but I have a cute video. And a slightly scary one.

Imitating daddy....turn the volume up and pay attention around 4 seconds


Jake thinking he is a big boy...Momma and Daddy think they are in trouble

Preview of the future?

We had a busy but fun weekend hanging out with Gabrielle and Emmylou! They got here Saturday afternoon and left this morning. It was definitely different having 3 kids as opposed to just our one baby! Both of us were constantly busy and didn't have much time to sit down until the two little ones were in bed. Even just trying to get them all to watch some cartoons before dinner was tricky because Emmylou likes to wander around everywhere. We took them all swimming (my mom was there and helped when Emmylou was done in the water and the other two weren't) and it was a lot harder to give them all three enough attention. Thankfully Gabrielle is big enough to touch and doesn't need to be held the whole time in the pool and for the most part either Jake or Emmylou were in hanging out in the float. Dinner was interesting with 3 kids eating at 3 different paces and bathtime was definitely busy. We tossed all 3 of them in the tub together so they all got to play and I was actually surprised at how not difficult it was (and that we didn't have a bunch of water on the floor!). We had a ton of fun with them this weekend and it gave Josh and I a lot of things to think about when it comes to expanding our own family.

Trying to juggle 3 kiddos in the pool

Jake-monster splashing

Emmylou chilling in the float

Daddy working on Jake's kicking

All of us

Me with my favorites

In Jake news, he is continuing to move around, everywhere. He even felt the need to rearrange out barstools this afternoon. That is one of his favorite things to do when he escapes the living room. He really LOVES carrots. He likes the inside of pancakes. And he likes feeding himself. He continues to love swimming and bath time. He is still working on getting on all fours to crawl but seems to be getting up more often and will take a "step" with his hands then go back to his belly or getting his belly off the ground while pushing with his legs. He just hasn't gotten them both working at once. He has figured out how to hold on the couch or ottoman and take a step or 2 and go from holding on to one piece of furniture and going to another or to mama or daddy. Although with all this moving he also gets stuck in places a lot more. Usually we let him get stuck and struggle to get out while we grab the camera. I cannot believe how quickly he is growing and learning.

"Hey look what I figured out"

I'm stuck

Cosmo jumped on Josh's back and just laid down

This looks like a good book...to eat

Strawberries are yummy!

Oh look, a barstool

Stuck again

Cute Baby Tricks

Since Jake has gotten the whole army crawl thing down (I don't think he is really interested in real crawling) he has had to figure out other fun tricks to work on. Tricks like pulling up to a standing position, on anything and everything he can, but his favorites are the laundry basket, mommy, and the ottoman, and crawling to new places. We thought he didn't like to sit still before, now there is very little time that he is not going! The kid even moves in his sleep! We moved his crab mattress down this weekend. While he can't get to a standing position while laying down and hasn't yet figured out how to get to a sitting position from a laying position we didn't want him to figure it out while he is in the crib.

Jake loves his bath. Since he likes to move so dang much (especially when he is getting changed) I put him down on the ground one night and told him to go get daddy. This is cute baby trick #1.

Jake's other big thing, blowing raspberries, and making quite hilarious faces while doing so. Although we have tried to catch this on video, he tends to stop when we pull out the camera, so we just manged to get a few pictures of it.

And pulling up.

Who needs the toy basket when I can stand!

Hanging out in the laundry basket.

Trying to stand.

And success!

Trying out the swing at the park. He was a fan!

7 Months

7 freaking months old. Absolutely not possible that I have a 7 month old. Jake is growing and changing and doing more everyday. He has a fabulous little (big) personality and loves to laugh. But he also knows what he wants and is not shy about telling you what he wants! His biggest wants right now, any small electronic gadget in his sight (remotes, timers, phones, etc) and any food we are eating that he is not eating. He will throw a fit if he can't get what he wants or we take it away or we don't give him something to eat while we are eating. And by fit I mean screaming and arching his back doesn't want anything to do with us fit, but only until we give him what he wants. He might be slightly spoiled.

So what else is going on at 7 months:

• Eating lots of finger foods, at dinner we typically give him his purees then some of whatever we are eating, he also loves saltine crackers
• Definitely gets up on all fours but won't crawl like that, as soon as he wants to move he flops onto his belly
• The army crawl is super fast and today he started exploring places other than the living room
• He has started reaching for Josh and I when he wants to be picked up
• Goes from sitting up to his belly, by choice and without just flopping over
• Pulls up from a sitting position to his knees, and with help can get to his feet
• Chases Cosmo and thinks Cosmo barking is hilarious
• Starting to show preferences for toys
• Takes baths in the big bathtub (a necessity after he decided that he needed to dive out of the ducky bath tub a few times)
• He has mostly settled into taking two naps a day, once in a while he will still take 3 if his morning nap is short

And our 7 month old: