8 months old!

dear miles,
today you are 8 months old! this month has been super busy and i think this has been one of the months you have changed the most. i was also just thinking yesterday that no matter what is going on, whenever i look at your sweet face i can't help but smile. i am so glad to have you! here's a look at what you are up to these days.

sleep
you sleep in your crib on your tummy. 2 fingers from your right hand go into your mouth, your left hand you stick straight out behind you. just about all the time. sometimes you still scrunch up into a ball, bum up in the air, hands under your tummy, ankles crossed. so cute. you are doing a great job of falling asleep on your own when we place you in your crib. unless you are super tired or have just had a bath, you burst into tears when i lay you down, then abruptly stop, suck on your fingers, and fall asleep. sometimes you take awhile to fall asleep and we will hear you in there talking and wriggling around. you are rarely in the same place as where i left you when you wake up, but i find it so cute that as you inch around your crib, your blanket travels with you.

you wake up in the mornings usually around 8am and take a good morning nap or two short ones. in the afternoons when i am home with you, you usually are still napping every other hour for an hour, though sometimes you stretch it to every 2 hours. lately you've been taking a nap from 5.30 or 6pm to 7.30pm which i would like to remove and just move your bedtime earlier. but for right now you've been going to bed around 8.30-9.30pm. you still are waking up a couple times per night but go right back to sleep after i feed you.

you did struggle some this month with sleeping because you had a super nasty cold and because we were traveling. when we returned home we put a pillow under your mattress to elevate your head and that seemed to work well. i was pleased with how you settled back into your routines after two weeks of travel.

eat
you are nursing at 5.30am, noon, 3pm, 6pm, 9pm, and 1am...or around those times most days. in the mornings you eat baby food and occasionally a bottle of formula. at lunch and dinner time i have been offering you baby food and snacks. your favorite baby foods are bananas, strawberries & bananas, and chicken noodle dinner. though recently you have been very interested in feeding yourself. once you mastered cheerios, you decided you don't really want me to feed you baby food (though your babysitter reports that you eat well for her). so i bought a variety of baby snacks from the grocery store so you wouldn't be eating only cheerios. you LOVE them and can't get enough of them. i was worried you would struggle to eat them, but you grab them up, some in each hand and chomp them. right now you are eating banana puffs, sweet potato puffs, mixed berry yogurt bites, mum mums, and veggie dip corn snacks. this month we are going to continue to try baby food, but also i am going to buy some frozen veggies for you to try and some diced fresh fruits. you also enjoyed chewing on celery and tangerines over the christmas break.

i offer you water while you are snacking. your favorite sippy cup is one that has a straw. recently you have wanted to drink out of anyone's cup who happens to be holding you and a cup! especially if the "cup" is a water bottle or gatorade bottle, etc with a crinkly wrapper. so this week you have been working on drinking a 20oz dasani water bottle through a straw. it is hilarious to watch! i think you think you are so big, feeding yourself and drinking from a water bottle. yesterday you got your first taste of apple juice...i think you are a fan.

skills
your biggest achievement this month was learning to sit up. it seemed to happen overnite while we were traveling for christmas, but you have definitely got it down. but now that you can sit, you don't really like to be on your tummy. you don't really seem interested in crawling, but i know it will come soon, whether we are ready or not!

you have been saying "dada" a lot, sometimes it seems like you are saying it right to your dad. you also have "baba" sound down and you seem to say "nehnehneh" in relation to food or in relation to me or just randomly, i'm not sure.

you have been blowing lots of raspberries this month.

you love to look at yourself and other people in the mirror and smile.

you have graduated to the last section of your infant bathtub. you've gone from the hammock, to reclined, and now you are in the sitting up section. you love baths just as much as ever. you have moved to splashing with your hands rather than your feet. you sit there and hit the water with both hands, splashing water everywhere, looking startled when it hits your face!

play time
we moved the office into the old guest room so that the back bedroom would be emptied out as a playroom for you. we moved the guest bed out and bought a futon to have in the playroom. we loaded up the cabinets with all your christmas toys and moved your jumper and other gear into the playroom. the plan is to paint the walls and do some decorating and baby-proofing so we will have a safe place in the house for you to explore and play with your toys. the closet doors in that room are mirrored and you love to jump and look at yourself in the mirror.

you also are pretty happy to lay in bed with us or on the couch and play with remote controls, cellphones, or laptops...anything with tiny buttons to stare at.

your aunt m and uncle m gave you a sailboat quilt that was hand made just for you for christmas. we usually spread that out on the floor and you sit on it and play with your toys. you take blocks in and out of buckets and chew on them and bang them together. you still love to read books. at the beginning of the month the touch and feel books were your favorites, but this past week i have noticed you are learning to like the lift-the-flap books more and more. the two books you are most interested in right now (though i think 'that's not my puppy' is still your overall fave) are called "Ears Nose & Toes" and a Little People Farm book...both are lift the flaps. you stretch forward and lift each flap after i do...i love it!

the weather has been really cold, but one day this week i was able to take you to the park (we also took you to the park in graham over the christmas break). you enjoyed the swings and watched the other kids running around playing. a 16month old girl came and was in the swing next to you, and you really stared at her while she laughed and talked.

what we did
you spent the mornings i was working with your babysitter. it's obvious you are getting to know and recognize her and enjoy your times with her. your dad and i both had 2 weeks off work and we spent them traveling to graham and missouri to celebrate christmas. auntie jen babysat you, you hung out with your dad while i had bball tournaments, we rang in the new year with friends, played in snow, went shopping, had a cold, got your first stomach bug, celebrated mawmaw's 80th birthday, and celebrated your first christmas!

i wonder if this time next month we will have a mobile miles??? scary thought!!!