Adventures in Parenting: Month 8

Okay, no Yoda pic for this month's edition, because we are currently on our way down to the beach, and Momma was busy packing yesterday and forgot.  Beach experience will get its own post once we get back and recuperate. (12 hour car ride with an 8 month old?  Yeah...that probably warrants its own post.)

Weight: Well, my home scale says 24 lbs, but his growth chart tells me that's ridiculous.  So let's guess about 20 lbs.
Height: 27.5 inches
Teeth: Still 6, with at least one more threatening to make an appearance soon.

1) Finger Foods:  When Baby J was about 7 months, we started giving him Gerber Puffs to help develop his "pincer grasp"...and to help keep him occupied while Mom & Dad eat their dinner.  It took several weeks, but he finally got to where he could pick up the puff with his thumb and forefinger...and then it took a while longer for him to manage to actually GET the puff into his mouth.  Many of them went on the floor.

Same when we tried peas for the first time. I think of the 20 or so I put on his tray, about 4 made it into his mouth.  8 ended up in his high chair.  None ended up in the little pouch on his bib.  I'm presuming the dog got the rest.

Subseqently, the dog has figured out that underneath the baby's high chair is a prime place to hang out. :)

Soooo close.

2) More sickness:  Before I had a kid, I honestly thought I had a pretty decent immune system. I got sick MAYBE once a year.  Now I realize...we just didn't have Patient Zero living in our house.  It's like a neverending loop.  Kid comes home with a runny nose.  Kid gets fever a few days later.  Mom gets fever.  Dad gets fever.  Entire house sounds like a commercial for Mucinex for a week.  Then we all start to get a little better...  ...and then someone at daycare gets a runny nose...and it starts all over again.

On one hand, it's SO hard to be sick and try to take care of a sick kid.  On the other hand, if your kid is nonverbal, it's actually somewhat handy.  Why is the baby crying?  Well, my throat hurts, so I bet his throat hurts too.  But DOWNSIDE--there's hardly any medicine for kids under 1 year.  Can't give 'em that honey cough syrup because they may get botulism.  And how the crap do you teach a baby to actually SPIT OUT mucus when they hack it up?  Because honestly, my kid is more like *coughcoughhack* "Hmmm...there's something in my mouth...MUST BE FOOD!"  *chewchewswallow* ...Ugh.

3) Sleeping:  ...maybe we just shouldn't talk about sleep anymore.  When it's going well, and I share that, things inevitably change.  And when they're bad, it's just depressing to think about.  On those rough nights, I really do my best to keep a "30,000 feet" view on the situation:  this is temporary.  He will eventually be a good sleeper.  At least I get to kiss his little face while he sleeps in my arms.  At least I have 3 seasons of Doctor Who left to watch.

It's really like a game of Russian roulette at this point.  We know that he is physically CAPABLE of sleeping through the night. It's happened.  Even multiple nights in a row!  BUT--everything must be perfect: no teething, no stuffy nose, temperature in his room is just right, belly is full...   Actually achieving that perfect storm of conditions is REALLY tough.  For a while, he was just waking up at 12:30a & 3:30a out of habit.  We got to where we could just give him a paci and he'd go back to sleep, working under the theory that eventually when he realizes he's not getting to nurse at those times, he'll just stop waking up.  THEN he got sick, and the only thing that would soothe him was nursing.  So then you have to start all over.

And sometimes, it's waking every 3 hours.  Sometimes, he wakes at 12:30 and then sleeps til 6am.  Sometimes he sleeps til 4:30am, nurses and then would probably conk back out 'til 8am if we didn't have to wake him for daycare.  You really just never know.  But I DO know that someday I will get to sleep again, and that knowledge is sometimes the only thing that gets me through the really rough nights. Like when I have to make a pallet for myself on the floor of the nursery so I can lay beside the bouncer and rock him because it's 4am and we've already tried all our other tricks to get him to go to sleep.

Still blows my mind how much he's grown. Look how long he is!  (That's what she said.)

4) Baby Dedication - At 7.5 months we finally did the baby dedication ceremony at our church.  It was a really nice little service, and he was one of three babies (and the only boy).  Of course, our curious little man almost strangled the pastor, who had forgotten to take his lanyard off before holding our son...and then of course Ninja Baby managed to swipe a pen out of the pastor's shirt pocket while we were all praying.  Thankfully Daddy kept one eye open and snagged it away before somebody got their eye poked out.

Thankfully his lil' Easter suit still fits.

5) Mobility - We're still not crawling.  We love to stand while holding on to the couch or coffee table or someone's hands, and even love to walk across the room while holding Daddy's fingers.  But crawling?  Meh.  That requires tummy time, and we're not a fan.  He's a champ at sitting, and often lunges for toys that are slightly out of his reach, but the idea of REALLY going after them doesn't seem to have occurred to him.

There's a little girl in his daycare class who's a day older than him and already crawling all over the place.  The competitive mom in me is a little envious...however, I've also seen her almost get stepped on several times when she sneaks up behind one of the teachers.  I already trip over my dog at least 3 times a day; adding another tiny mobile being to the obstacle course that is our house...yeah, not really in a rush for that.  Or baby-proofing, for that matter.

"Why would I need to crawl?  Mom already gave me her seat on the couch. Shhh...Family Feud is back on."

6) Other Developments:  Clapping and headbanging are SO cool.  And apparently making weird wheezy noises (just because he can) that sound suspiciously like something is trapped in his windpipe is ALSO hilarious.  However, if you try to get a video of said clapping, all you will actually achieve is recording about 2 minutes of blankly staring at the camera and 30 seconds of [still amusing] poop face. I'd share that here, but we're saving that for when he's a teenager and brings a girl home for the the first time. Muahahahahahahahahhhh....

7) Nursing - We're officially out of frozen/pumped milk, so he's eating straight formula during the day, but still nursing at bedtime and in the morning.  I'm cool with keeping that up for a while since it's nice to have that time with him, and he's sleepy/hungry/focused during those times.  Mid-day, he's too easily distracted...and bitey. Chomp on those Dr. Brown's nipples all you want, kid, but that's a no-go on Mom's milk jugs.  

"It takes a bite out of Mom's skin?  Guess it gets the bottle again."

8) First Camping Trip / First BooBoo - In the grand tradition of Memorial Weekend, we met up with my folks at their favorite camping spot.  Of course, by "camping" I mean "RV-ing", but still.  You get the idea.  I'm going to save most of that for a separate post, but here's an adorable photo of him sleeping in a hammock.

This was taken by my mom--we dropped Lil' Man off at their campsite, hung out for a bit, and then The Hubs & I went canoeing nearby while they watched him.  Mom sent us this to assure us that he was safe and sound.  He slept in the hammock for about 20 minutes...and then at some point after this photo, he managed to tumble OUT of the hammock and get a little scrape on his knee.  Poor kid is now traumatized--every time we tried to lay him in the hammock after that he screamed.  So, we have our first fear:  hammocks.  He's okay laying in one while being held, but by himself?  That's probably not going to happen again for a while.