E @ Eight Months

 

Now that E is 8.5 months old it is well past time for his 8 month update.  Realistically, much of the updates are already done and in the weekly Ten on Tuesday posts, but we all need to see the progression in pictures too, right?  Here is his cute pictures at the beginning of the month. I am going to try and blend them with the prior updates and some additional memories so the stories are all in one place.  We'll see how that goes and maybe make it a trend in the coming months. 

Week 1: 1/15/2013: E is eating a lot.  Today, he ate pretty much non-stop all day.  He started by drinking 14 ounces of formula between 4 and 5:30 am.  That is nuts -- he normally has 6 ounces every 3 hours.... for context. Ms. Kia and I both gave him solid food and bottles back to back pretty much all day.  Here's hoping he sleeps well.  The whole day definitely has me worried about having two teenage boys in ten years or so. 

This seems like SUCH a long time ago.  Why, you might ask? You see how he is just lying there, quietly looking at his ball? Not on the move or investigating some far corner, but just on his designated blanket. (The blanket, in fairness, actually was given to M's dolls by Grandma, but sometimes he gets to borrow it). 

Here he is learning about flag waving from big sis while watching his first Presidential Inauguration. 

Week 2: 1/22/2013: This guy is having kind of a rough week.... or maybe just rough for the parents.  He seems to have decided that he is a newborn again and is waking up every three hours at night and we are so tired of it (literally and figuratively).  He again has a little sniffly cold, which may be part of it, but seriously, E? Also, he has learned sometime in the last several weeks to say "da da" and "ma ma" on occasion which makes it much harder to resist the middle of the night mutterings.   He is eating lots of finger foods now, spending a lot of time working on his crawling, and playing with Potsy quite a bit. 

Of course huge smiles and tickle time with Daddy helps us forget those fussy nights.  Here he's wrapped up celebrating B's birthday and is now helping Daddy celebrate his!

This is one of my favorite pictures of the month.  Doesn't he look dapper in his pea coat and cap?  He seemed so grown up and ate normal food like part of his brother's grilled cheese sandwich.  A momentous day. 

Who knew he could sit up in these little chairs and keep himself stable.  He did this for quite a long while watching the world go by and occasionally dropping that ball.  It would immediately roll down the driveway and result in my having to chase it down the street....

Week 3: 1/29/2013: I have determined that if E is going to be an early riser then we might as well be having fun, right? So here we were, having fun.  Happily, he is sleeping better this week.  Sadly, still waking up once, but suddenly that seems fine.  Particularly if you consider the current poor state of his parents' health!  He went to the Doctor last Thursday for an ear check and came home with more antibiotics and a healthy 21lb 14 oz weigh-in.  He is babbling more and more and adores finger foods. Happily, he is playing with toys more now and not yet really mobile, but trying his best. Adorable, warm, and happy most of the time.  Love this moment.

(Beginning below are pictures from his 8 month photo shoot, which was a couple days late).

Week 4: 2/5/2013: E is doing well. I think he is actually wellish and his sleep is improving (knock on wood on both counts-- they appear connected).  He is so much more mobile than a week ago.  He has discovered that he can roll in a series, which is fun.  Also, he can now, fairly quickly, do the worm or lunge crawl himself across the floor so the fun game of "playing defense" has begun.  He would very much like to get into his Brother's Skylanders and sometimes manages it.  He also seems to want to eat any paper/tissues he can find.  We are going to have to start being vigilant. He has also just taken up crying if you walk away (sad) and his face still lights up whenever I look his way (which I adore).  I had the most difficult time leaving him this trip.  The others are older and "get" it mostly.  He is so little.  A kid cried on the plane most of the flight and I worried that somewhere E was crying missing me (granted, this was irrational as I'm always at work at that time of day and I have never heard reports of such behavior, but motherhood is often irrational).

Week 5 - Happy Eight Months -  2/12/2013: Lil' E is, as usual, awesome.  He went to the Dr. on Monday to have his ear's checked (two-week follow-up from the last infection).  Believe it or not -- no ear infection!  (This is very rare with our kids).  He is (knock on wood) sleeping better.  He is worming his way around the house and getting into mischief.  Today, he is quite a bit more fussy than usual. I have no idea why, but hopefully just overtired as we hear he didn't nap well today at childcare.  He currently adores being held up by fingers to stand or holding onto a window sill or elsewhere to keep his standing balance. We're switching out all of his clothes this weekend for the next size up as his little tum tum is showing quite a bit these days. I thought he looked quite different when I returned form DC.  I think part of it was his quickly growing hair.  As it grows, his face gets reframed a bit and starts to look like it is a different shape.  Now that he prefers a 6:15am wake-up time we're getting some one-on-one time in the mornings.  He has a big bottle, changes clothes, and then we do some floor playtime until Brent joins us for breakfast.  As much as I miss sleeping in, it is nice for some quiet play time with the little one while he's at his happiest.  (Ps, yes, that is a pink flamingo purse in the background - a gift from Uncle Able to M--- I really should move things like this before taking pictures. )

Taking pictures of him in the specified small white blanket is getting tough.  He is very much on the go and very much not interested in sitting still and smiling for extended periods.  He has things to do.  Solution? Hand him my lens cover.  Not an ideal teething toy, but novel for him and it kept him in the general area for awhile as the prior day with the cute sweater he wasn't having it. (I have a lot of photos of him crawling away from me that day). 

It has been two weeks almost since these pictures and he is now, perhaps just today, a master of crawling.  He doesn't necessarily do it properly 100% of the time, but has been spotted moving along the traditional way on all fours.  He is very inquisitive and just starting to have some separation anxiety.  He is still so happy, loving, and loved.