Hellobee

Baby Stroller turned 8 months old on Tuesday, and all of a sudden we’re playing a whole new game over here. He started crawling on Monday. Now I know why people babyproof before babies become mobile. Oops.

We spent his entire eighth month in Maine at Mamie and PawPaw’s house. Daddy came to visit for a couple weeks, and it was clear that Baby S remembered him when we picked him up at the bus station. Baby S was all smiles!

Eat
Baby S really started to consume his food this month as opposed to just testing it out. And he’s eating A LOT of it. He developed his pincher grip mid-month, and has been obsessed with picking up pieces of food of all sizes ever since. He’s also quite adept at just scooping up fistfuls of food and chowing down. It’s kind of nuts.

This month some of his new foods include: blueberries, oatmeal without a spoon (just using his hands), sweet potatoes, steak, blueberries, red peppers, strawberries, blueberries, mangoes, anything and everything spicy, puffs with salsa, French toast, blueberries, salmon, blueberry pancakes, waffles, baked oatmeal, blueberries, rice, mozzarella cheese, blueberries, breakfast sausage with the casing removed, lobster, cherries up the wazoo and blueberries. He’s currently obsessed with blueberries. I’ve been bleaching diaper inserts. ‘Nuff said.

Blueberry Pancakes, the Aftermath

We share one meal of solid food a day together at breakfast, about an hour after he nurses in the morning. He eats so much food, it boggles my mind. It’s SO MUCH!

We went out for lunch dates together twice, and Baby S sat in the restaurant highchair for the first time. He did great playing with his toys while we waited for his food and then nibbling on treats while we ate – the lemon from my lobster roll was a big hit!

Nursing is going well. We’ve started to listen to classical music when nursing before bed; it’s nice and calming for both of us. For a few days he dropped from five nursing sessions down to three, which scared me a bit since I thought my supply would take a big hit. But he went back to four or five quickly. I think I’m making a little less milk, but we stopped giving him an extra 2oz bottle before bed at night, so I’m able to freeze an extra 6oz bag each day.

I also nursed in a moving car while Baby S was strapped into his car seat earlier this month. I felt like some kind of boobie superhero.

Sleep
Baby S slept late until nearly 8 am the entire time daddy was visiting. But the day after daddy left, he was awake early again. We nurse in my bed in the morning, and several times he’s fallen back to sleep with me. It’s pretty cozy.

We set a new nighttime record with a 13.25 hour sleep this month. I think we’ll be hard-pressed to break this record. And we really don’t need to since our average 12 hours a night is pretty awesome. The boy plays hard and sleeps hard — a perfect balance!

We lost power one night and the house was eerily quiet. I heard Baby S stir a little when his white noise machine shut off, but he didn’t wake up. He also didn’t wake up when the white noise machine came back on. Whew!

Naps are generally 1.5 hours long to-the-minute twice a day. However, he did take a few really long naps, which I think coincided with a growth spurt.

Baby S doesn’t fall asleep nursing anymore and since we dropped the extra 2oz bottle that he used to get before bed, he’s almost always going down awake. He rolls around and practices crawling a lot in his crib before settling in. It’s pretty cute — he drags his lovey, L.E.Phant, across the crib with him, back and forth, as he plays with his toys and tests out all his pacis. Sometimes I’ll go in to say hello and tell him to settle down, but he always gives me a look like he’s surprised to see me as if I’m interrupting a really fun party to which I certainly was not invited. So I usually just watch from the monitor and announce, “he’s getting cozy,” when he slows down and starts to bring LE to his face.

Play
Baby S learned to do the low-crawl this month. It took nearly three weeks from when he was up on all fours rocking back and forth to pulling himself along the floor on his tummy. He did a lot of planks, down dogs and pushups to build up his strength. Have you seen a baby do a down dog? It’s pretty funny! He’s big into standing now too, but doesn’t know not to let go yet. If we hold his hands, he’ll walk.

Last month he learned to sit, this month he learned to get himself into a sitting position on his own. He likes to do it when he’s alone in his crib, during the party when he thinks no one is watching.

We went blueberry picking three times this month!

Baby S ate his weight in blueberries while we picked and every morning since. I squeeze the berries just a touch to break the skins before I give them to him; I often can’t squeeze fast enough and the little guy slaps his tray as if he’s saying, “hurry up, mummy!” The first time we went picking, I made the mistake of freezing all our berries. Each subsequent time I’ve tried to keep plenty in the fridge to fill the bottomless pit that is Baby S’s tummy.

The love for swimming that began last month continues. It’s just pure joy when he’s in the water.  He went in the water at two waterfalls – one we all went swimming and the other he just dipped his toes. He also went swimming in a lake with mommy.

Baby S shrieks with excitement!

He played in the sand and thought it was so fun to have sand between his toes! Not surprisingly, when we watched Olympics together, he loved the synchronized swimmers the most.

Along with all the swimming, Baby S discovered splashing this month. He splashes in his bucket, the pool, the sink, wherever, the messier the better.

He also thinks it’s funny when PawPaw dives into the pool and makes a big splash, and when mommy splashes him. At one pool play date he was splashing and squealing so much at the other little boy jumping into the pool, I thought he was going to bounce right out of my arms! When we walk outside toward the pool, he bounces in my arms and kicks his legs as if he’s trying to get me to toss him into the pool. Not yet, little buddy.

Baby S is totally enthralled with other kids. At our second parade of the summer, he stayed up hours past bedtime and was in perfectly good humor playing with all the other kids (or at least watching them and was especially enthralled with the 4 year old girl with the sparkly shirt who “helped” put his PJ’s on.) He was so happy and excited by everything! In addition to the kids, he also though the music was fun; he bounced to the beat. He did not like the fire trucks. At all.

Baby S is also very into the dogs right now. Leo the puppy started to come with Baby S’s nanny during the day. Baby S thinks he’s hilarious! And at barely two pounds, he’s the perfect size for Baby S.

We took our first boat ride with Baby S when daddy was visiting. Baby S just wanted to nurse most of the time we were moving and then fell asleep on my lap. Nursing was a bit of a challenge with the giant life vest on him!

We had an island picnic and he was very into the rocks. Eating the rocks. He also enjoyed dipping his toes in the ocean and reaching down to grab the seaweed.

We did a little hiking this month too with Baby S in the Ergo. He’s tried out the back carry with Mamie, PawPaw, daddy and mommy and likes being able to see everything, although when I’m alone, it’s much easier to get him into the front. During one of our hikes we got POURED on when a rain storm sneaked up on us!

Miscellaneous
Baby S had his first ride in a shopping cart! We were at a WalMart in the middle of nowhere buying some Snapple on the way to Mamie and PawPaw’s cabin. I thought we’d just test it out since he’s such a good sitter and it was a hit. He liked being able to look around at all the interesting food.

We’ve had repeat performances at Whole Foods and Target. At Whole Foods he shrieked and squealed and laughed his way through the store as he played with a package of crackers that made a hilarious crinkling noise.

As you can see, he’s also grown quite a bit of strawberry blond hair. When asked what he did this summer, Baby S can respond, “I grew hair.” And ate blueberries.

Baby S became super vocal this month. Sometimes it sounds like we have a dozen babies here. And when he’s in the pool… I can only imagine what the neighbors think! He whispers “pawpaw” when he sees his PawPaw. I think it’s safe to say it was his first “word.” He also says says mamama and has started to make a baba noise. The mama is more of a distress call and he seems to do it while looking directly at me and wants the goods, now. Who knows if he’s doing it with any intention yet.

He makes a loud noise like he’s clearing his throat that I think is his trying to mimic our laughing.  We do it right back and he does it more and smiles huge smiles. It’s hilarious.

He’s also started to wave when we wave at him. Waving bye-bye is on our list of things to learn in month nine.

We increased the rise in his BumGenius diapers this month — the Velcro tabs overlap again now. The snaps still have one row of snaps visible in the center. At night he wears size 3 disposables.

As of eight months he is 27.5” long and weighs 16.7lbs – approximately the 25th and 15th percentiles respectively. He has zero teeth.

Happy 8 months! We’re entering a whole new ballgame with this crawling business, I’m so not ready!