8 Month Update!

My little buddy is 8 months old today.  I can't believe it.  This was a huge month as far as development for Henry.  It seemed like he was changing and doing something new on a daily basis.  By the way...I know I get very detailed on these but I do that for me so I can remember!  I don't want to forget these sweet little changes.

Stats:
Weight- Thankfully we haven't had a sick visit this month so I couldn't tell you!
Size- Definitely growing though....wearing mostly 12 months now (some 18 month sizes!)

Milestones:

Mobile without forward crawling!- This has been of course the biggest change.  Henry has gone from just sitting and playing to almost crawling.  He can get pretty much anywhere he wants to go with a scoot, lunge, rocking, and a few rolls.  It all started especially when we went down to Orlando for a friend's wedding.  We were in the car all day except for lunch at cracker and when we got him out to play at my friend's house in Orlando, he immediately got up on his knees and started rocking!  I guess he had a lot of energy built up from the long day in the car and maybe he was thinking "man if I could just get out of this carseat I would...."  He was fighting naps and going down for the night like crazy in FL (was doing fine in the pack n play in AL at my parent's house before we left for FL) because he was learning  a new skill.  Every time we would check on him to try to calm him...he was rocking his little heart out!  He was also an expert backwards crawler although he is no longer using that since he has decided he wants to go forwards.  Now he is doing this thing where he is keeping his hands on the ground but he is completely locking out his legs.  It is like he thinks he has to walk to crawl...poor guy if he only knew how close he was when he was on his knees!  (pic below to explain)

Word recognition- I can tell that Henry is starting to understand the meaning of some of the words that we use on a regular basis.  Words like....more, night night, kiss, bye bye, eat, out, milk.  Cute story--this could fall under the nursing category but I will just go ahead and share it here.  Henry is such a distracted eater so I usually don't say a word when he nurses because I don't want to distract him more.  Well I decided to try using some of the words/phrases that I use for solid feedings for nursing.  When Henry pulled off to look around, I said "more" and he went right back to eating.  I use that all of the time now, and it keeps him on task.  Really surprised me that it worked!

Standing- Henry is getting really great at standing.  He loves to stand and play with his Leap Frog music table or with trucks on top of an ottoman.  He is not pulling up yet, but I'm sure it is coming soon!

Big boy crib- Which brings me to my next point, we had to drop Henry's mattress down.  I cried when Shaun  did it because it was just such a symbol to me of how fast he is growing up!  The reason we decided to go ahead and do it is because he seems close to pulling up to stand, and he was somehow able to tear down his tiny love mobile (which is NOT tiny) and the camera for his video monitor.

Walker- Say what you want about walkers in the comment section...I know someone is going to say something.  But for a very limited time every evening while I work in the kitchen, Henry has a blast walking/running back and forth and all around the kitchen.  His favorite thing to do is to stay right by the dishwasher and to reach as far as he can possibly reach to try to get a fork or spoon.  He is trying so hard!  I usually plant a "safe" plastic cup or spoon for him to reach so that I don't have to snatch a fork out of his hand (although I had to do that today)

Waving Bye Bye- Henry just squeaked this one in for this month as he did it tonight at church.  I also thought I saw him wave on Monday to this little kid that was waving to him outside a pizza place, but I was like "did he just do that....no...but did he?"  I actually didn't see him wave at church because Shaun had him, but Shaun said it was very obvious.  He was moving one arm up and down and then opening and closing the other hand to wave.  I always move his arm up and down when we say bye to Shaun every morning so that is probably why he was doing that!

Tummy to Sitting position- Just another example of the new mobility...Henry has no problem going from tummy to sitting, and I'm always surprised to look over and see him sitting when I left him on his tummy.

Shaking his head- Shaun and I can't get enough of Henry shaking his head...it is sooo cute.  He doesn't know he is saying no yet so I guess it will stop being as cute once he uses it to tell us no.  The first time he ever did this was again in FL at our friend's wedding, Shaun was holding him and another guy started shaking his head at Henry, and Henry just started doing it.  We couldn't believe it.  Well Henry quickly learned that we thought it was hilarious so now he does it for us all of the time.  And he shakes his head when a stranger comes up...like "hey look what I can do?"  He also uses it to communicate..."hey don't put me to bed" and "oh I'm so happy"

Favorite toys- Anything he isn't supposed to have or things around the house like empty bottles, paper, door hinges...and he loves white tags!  he will play with the white tag on any toy including his taggie book.  He also really likes his trucks and leap frog music table and any balls!

Favorite books- Still loves "little cow" and "i love you more than" and "my little lovebug"

Eating/Nursing:
Breastfeeding is still going well despite being distracted.  I hope to have a separate post about breastfeeding in the near future.  4 feedings a day and one night feeding
Eating--he loves to eat!  3 meals a day with stage 2 foods

Nighttime sleep and Naps:
Naps are getting better and better with time.  I'm just trying to be consistent, and I hope that one day that pays off to longer naps.  In the meantime, I try not to let Henry's tendency to take short naps bother me too much!

Nighttime sleep- well here we are at 8 months and I'm still not getting a full nights sleep.  But it is my fault!!  Completely!  I kept feeding Henry whenever he woke up because it was just the sweetest and easiest thing to do instead of using a paci or whatever.  Well now I'm Henry's paci.  I was having to get up at 12 AM and 4 or 5 AM for a feeding.  I told Shaun about my frustrations, and he just happened to still be awake that night (last Saturday) when Henry woke up at 12 AM.  I was about to get up when I heard Henry scream really loud and then stop.  I looked at the monitor, and Henry was out with his paci!  Shaun had gone in there to put his paci in just to see what he would do.  Shaun replaced the paci at midnight for 3 nights straight and guess who didn't even wake last night at midnight...yep!  So my fault all along!  So now I'm going to wait a few more days and then work on the 5 AM.


Now for the pics!!

Didn't they look cute at the wedding....awwwh!

Henry's Baptism

Happy to be at such a neat mall (orlando)

     Before Downtown Disney...

After Downtown Disney :)

"Okay enough with the pics already."

Yes...We were matching ;)

Love.

Okay I need to post the pics from Easter and more but I'm just too tired so I'm going to have to post some more later!