Em & M, plain AND peanut?: 8 Month Update

Weight:20 lbs. 8 oz
Height:
Head Circumference:

Eats: He's definitely an eater. We've moved up to finger foods and some purees. He likes watermelon, oranges, cherios, little pieces of chicken, Mike's cooked carrots, french fries, pieces of bread and he still eats little specks of dust/paper/inedible nonsense from the floor. I do think he prefers whatever he can scrounge for himself, maybe he'll be a hunter?

Unfortunately Mom doesn't always have the patience for finger food eating and takes the easy way out and feeds him about halfway through. I'm sure that this is something I can work through ;) His pinchers still aren't quite efficient, but I am brave enough to let him try pretty much whatever we're eating. He doesn't seem to picky...yet.

He also loves lemonade. We mix a little with water (like 1 part lemonade to 3 parts water) and it's just about the only thing he'll drink other than formula. We like Simply Lemonade, it's delicious, and Ezra loves it too.

Sleeps: Sleeping is going a little awry. Little boy likes to be rocked to sleep, but now it's nearly impossible to put him in the crib, open and close the door, and creep out of the room without making a single solitary sound which means he'll immediately sit up and start crying. Seriously, this should be part of spy training. Can you get out of the room without waking the baby?? I can't.

We've resorted to putting him in bed with us a couple times just so that I can retain what small part of my sanity I have left at 2:30 in the morning (I know, bad mommy). I would like to try sleep training, where you put the baby down and then just come in the room and pat his back for a minute or so every 5 minutes until he figures out how to put himself to sleep. I just don't have the cajones quite yet. I've heard amazing things about sleep training, I'm just a big ball of "I give up" around bed time.

Likes: He is still the nosiest person I know. I'm not quite sure where he gets that from...

His ears definitely work and he whips his head around at the slightest interesting sound to see what is going on. He also must investigate anything out of the ordinary that he may see or hear around - "is that a remote on the floor? I wonder what it tastes like" "Did the mail man just show up? I should try and poke my head over the edge of the couch to look out the window without falling on my head" He is definitely fearless.

Climbing over people and things and up stairs. I can't keep him away from the stairs (and the dog food, see photos below). We finally put up a gate at the bottom of the stairs to keep him from climbing up them. He also like to overturn his toy buckets and climb over the toys to get inside, he likes to use Mommy (and his future brother or sister) as a jungle gym. His elbows, knees, and toes are bruise inflicting. He is still quite determined to get where he wants to go regardless of what might possibly be in the way.

Dislikes: Being away from Mom, Dad, or some other adult that he recognizes. He's starting to go through a little bit of separation anxiety, which is giving me anxiety. I'm most definitely not a clingy person, I love a good cuddle here and there but I definitely need my "personal space." I like to walk away while he's playing and go get the laundry, or a snack, or pee. No sooner that I walk away do it hear the little slap, bump, slap, bump of Ezra crawling behind me and the tears when I go out of sight. I'm hoping it's just a phase, because I don't do well with letting him cry.

Milestones:
He can crawl - quickly. He roams around the house and finds all kinds of interesting artifacts that I didn't know existed, which he quickly tries to eat in some way. We are definitely in need of some more baby proofing...

Beginning stair climbing. I'm not sure if this is a milestone but it scared the crap out of me. He figured out how to get up 4 of our stairs the other day - gate is not firmly in place!

Pulling himself up to standing. He can pull himself up on just about anything that he can reach. He's still quite wobbly and needs to hang on to stay up. He also isn't quite aware that moving his feet will also move his body, and will usually fall on the floor and crawl to whatever he's eying.

Third tooth - on the bottom. Still no top teeth for this bulldog.

Things I want to remember about this age:
Your scrunched up smile. Your little nose gets all scrunched and your eyes squinty and you smile the biggest 3 tooth smile I've ever seen. It melts my heart.

How funny you think everything is. Like biting mommy's big toe, or yaking on daddy's bottom lip, or chasing your dogs' tails or spitting carrots all over the kitchen. It's like everything is so new and exciting. I hope you cherish that for a long time, too.

How fearless you are. I mean 4 stairs! That's like twice your height but you weren't one bit scared. I'm hoping you learn to fear a little bit when you start riding motorized vehicles or deciding to do other daring things, but it amazes me how unafraid you are.

Here are some 8 month photos for your viewing pleasure: