Great Eight

Whoa, month seven flew by in a flash. I guess that is what happens when you are having fun.

Before I get into this post, let me reiterate that much of the "boring" information that comprises much of my monthly posts is more for my benefit than anyone else's. This blog is, in large part, a record of the whats, whens, and hows of Alex's babyhood, a journal of sorts, that I will use in the future for reference and remembrance of the good ol' days. That said, please feel free to skip directly to the pictures, cuz we all know those are the best part anyway...

Size: We won't know his exact height and weight until his nine month appointment, and boy is the anticipation killing me. I have no perspective whatsoever until the doc says that he is in the xth percentile, so he could've shrunk since last month for all I know. But I'm pretty sure he hasn't, since his clothes are getting smaller and not larger. He's still in 6-12 pants, but I gotta tell ya, those suckers aren't going to last anywhere near 12 months unless Alex's tailor can turn them into shorts come summer time. 6-12 shirts work for the most part, while jammies are moving quickly towards 12-18. Size four diapers do the trick - regular ones during the day and the "overnight" version at night. I have been squeezing his feet into size three shoes, although I'm starting to get the impression that he no longer has size three feet. Luckily his wardrobe of size fours are lined up in his closet, patiently awaiting their turn.

Eating: Slowly but surely, he is adding to his repertoire. He is completely indiscriminate when it comes to baby food, with the exception of any stage three food that has giant chunks of anything in it. Not that I can blame him, really. I mean, imagine if you were drinking what you thought was an ordinary glass of milk, and all of a sudden you felt a giant chunk of unidentifiable matter in your mouth. I think you'd want to puke, too. So he's not great with the unexpected, but he has warmed up to such things as peach and sweet potato puffs, crackers, and biter biscuits.

He is always very curious when Tim and I eat, and he will stare our food down and try to grab it off of our plates. Occasionally I will give him a taste of something I'm eating, and recently I discovered his affinity for hummus (of all things). It's really unfortunate that his strong gag reflex is limiting his diet because I have a feeling that he would be quite adventurous with his food choices if his throat would just let him swallow the things he puts in his mouth. His throat just needs to lighten up and realize that chunky foods are foods, too, and that they deserve a chance to be eaten.

In addition to two servings of baby food, A will drink 5 oz. of formula at breakfast, lunch, and dinner, then an 8 oz. bottle before bed. Excepting the nightly bedtime bottle that I feed him, A has fed himself out of his sippy cup at every meal, every day, for the last month. Niiiiiice.

Sleeping: Still erratic, but manageable. Bed at 7, nap at 9am, nap at 1pm, lather, rinse, repeat. Wake up times as of late are falling somewhere between 6:00 and 6:22am, with the occasional 5:46 or 7:03 thrown in to keep me on my toes. He still protests at any and all naptimes, sometimes a little, sometimes a lot. Some naps are short, some are long. At least he is consistently inconsistent. I am praying for the day that he is consistently consistent.

Physical/cognitive milestones: Geez, what hasn't this kid accomplished this month? In the last four weeks, he has become proficient at sitting himself up, crawling, waving, clapping, giving high fives, and pulling himself up to a standing position. He even said his first word this month! Although he has uttered many "ba-ba's" in his time and just a few "ma-ma's", his vocab as of late has consisted solely of "da-da's", albeit in various tones, volumes, and inflections.

Crawling has brought about a whole new dimension to mothering. Having a mobile child is even more exhausting than everyone warned me it would be. A is only interested in the things he can't have, and I spend everyday chasing him down to keep him away from "no-no's". On the flip side, he is able to entertain himself more since he can explore the whole room and not just the things that are sitting in front of him. That's where serious child-proofing comes in handy. Not that I've done any of that...

And there is one more thing. I know it sounds crazy, but I have witnessed Alex dancing on more than one occasion. If music is playing and he is in the mood, he will bounce his body and bop his head just like his dad and I do when we dance for him. I didn't mention it to Timothy cuz I didn't think he'd believe me, but today, when I was in the kitchen and he was playing the guitar in the living room, he shouted for me to come in and see Alex dancing. See! I'm not crazy! That's corroborating evidence! The boy can dance!!

What a kid our Alex is. He is our happy-go-lucky, willing to try anything, sometimes kamakaze, usually happy, always curious, often ornery, ninety-to-nothin' ball of ham. And yes, we still love love love him to death.