8 months!

**OK Sorry this is such a long post! I didn't expect it to be so long. I blog to keep a record of where we are in our lives and what he's doing so I can one day look back and remember (in addition to keep others up on our life) so feel free to skip this read**


I know I say this every month about whatever age he is, but it's hard to believe my Valentine is 8 months old! I just cannot get over how fast time is flying by. I mean one day he goes from being this helpless, little, pink blob on a blue blanket to this independent, busy, little personality that I have to literally run after to catch up to! He is no longer and infant, he is a baby, and on his way to being a toddler....how the heck did that happen?? He's been on this earth almost as long as he was growing inside me, weird huh?

Henry is such a happy and fun baby! He loves to play with his toys and crawl around the house. Lee and I love to watch him play by himself and "talk" as he's doing so. His new favorite spot to play is under the kitchen table. He pulls up on the chairs and drums away on the seat and weaves in and out from under the legs of the chairs. While trying to cook dinner one night, I found my little explorer constantly under my feet. Out of desperation, I pulled out a box of his old 4 oz plastic bottles hoping to entertain him for a few minutes so I could move freely about in the kitchen. He LOVED it! He must have played with those bottles and lids for a good 45 minutes- pulling them out, tasting each one before pulling out another along with a lid. He loved banging them on the floor or against each other...well really banging them against anything he could find, including the dog. Sophie is such a good dog, she puts up will all kinds of abuse from him. We now leave the box out full time to occupy him while we're in the kitchen. Tonight he was a little fussy and nothing seemed to make him happy. I pulled the box of bottles in the den and we played with them on the rug. I started stacking them up and when they fell and crashed Henry let out the BIGGEST belly laugh! For whatever reason he thought that was hilarious. His laugh was contagious! We stacked and crashed bottles until we both had tears in our eyes we laughed so hard. I of course was laughing at him laughing. It made my night.

We are all trying to get over colds in our house. I think that's why he hasn't been himself lately. I took him to the doctor last week because he has a terrible cough and he ended up having a double ear infection. Poor fella! I felt so bad because I had no clue, he hadn't run a fever or tugged at his ears or anything! I have a feeling tubes are in our near future. We went after hours so they didn't weigh him so I am anxious to see how much he weighs at his 9 month well-visit.

At 8 months Henry is sleeping around ten hours a night. He goes to bed around 8:00/8:30 and wakes between 6:00 and 6:30. He occasionally will wake in the middle of the night, lately I've been letting him cry it out. The crying usually lasts about ten minutes and then he's back to sleep. We've been blessed with a good sleeper...I'm sure the next one will be the complete opposite. My mom says God gives you the good one first so you'll have more LOL! He still takes a morning and an afternoon nap. They last anywhere from 20 minutes to and hour depending on the day.

Not only is he a good sleeper but he's a good eater as well! He is still on stage 2 jar foods. I tried a stage 3 not too log ago and he didn't like it. I think is was the bigger chunks he didn't like. He gagged a few times then refused to open his mouth. We'll try it again in a few months. For now, he's perfectly happy with the puréed ones ;) He's had a few table food tastes (not sure If I remember them all) mashed potatoes, green beans, kidney beans, avocado, and he's sucked on a chunk of cantaloupe. Those are the ones I can remember off the top of my head. He still just has two bottom teeth, cute little white bunny teeth I might add! ;-) We recently gave him star puffs and it's so cute to watch him nibble it with his teeth and try to coordinate his tongue and jaws to chew it up. His facial expressions are priceless! The funniest part is watching him pick them up and try to get them in his mouth. At first he missed his mouth more than he rang it but he is a fast learner and has picked it up pretty fast. He is still not very interested in a sippy cup or apple juice. He'll drink a little but he does more playing and dropping of the cup more than anything.

He "jibber-jabbers" all of the time and loves it when you "talk" back to him. He thinks its hilarious if you pretend to sneeze and he loves to play "Where is Henry?" with a blanket...such a silly boy. He loves to play patty-cake (pat-a-cake??) and he's now trying to clap by himself-it's so cute! Henry has really become attached to Lamby, his stuffed lamb lately....I'm not sure if that's a good thing or a bad thing. For now we think its super cute! Just incase it becomes a full-blown addiction, we have an extra one we switch in and out during washes. This way, if something happens to the first one, we'll have a backup that smells and looks just like the other one. We try to keep Lamby in his bed most of the time so it will just be a bed buddy but since he's been sick Lamby's made it all over the house.

Henry is still crawling every where, getting faster every day. When you come up behind him (especially when he knows he's headed for something he's not supposed to), he goes faster and squeals with excitement. I call him my little snail because where ever he goes he leaves a trail of slobber...yes that sounds gross but I love it. It means he has a growing interest in the world around him and he is learning by discovering the taste and texture of different objects. He pulls up and stands on his own until he realizes he's standing up all by himself without holding onto anything and he'll lower himself down, cautiously. He will walk while pushing his little walker toy or if someone stands him up and holds his hands, but I am in no hurry for him to walk on his own :)

Pictures to come soon. I am behind and have not made his onesie but it's on the agenda for tomorrow! As soon as I do, Ill take pictures and post them asap.