Jack | 8 months

This month's chalk board photos had their challenges... :)

New this month:
1. CRAWLING!  He's on the move!  He started this the day he turned 7 months old.  There is now great accountability to vacuum, mop, and keep the house picked up.  Yay me.  I'm dumbfounded that he can have 12 toys spread out across the floor and I'll look over and he's concentrating and picking at the one speck of fuzz on the carpet that I missed.  Please don't eat it.  (ugh).  We've also had to rearrange and reorganize to accommodate our mobile child.  It's been interesting in our small apartment.  Potter's House thrift has seen a lot of action.  Everything that I can't store in a drawer, on a shelf, in a basket, or suspend from the ceiling has got to go!

2. Sitting in a high chair at restaurants and at home.  What a big boy!  I am so relieved to finally be hands free when we eat out.  I can enjoy a meal!

3.  Shout out to my sister-in-law Hayley Hayes.  She pretty much rocks at getting stellar deals.  We don't know how she does it.  We've been on the look out for a bike trailer for several months.  Hayley finds us one at Target on clearance norm: $120.... price tag: $35!!!!  That = pretty much free.  We couldn't find a used one on Craig for that cheap.  Dang gurl.  Jack got to feel the wind in his hair.

4.  pulling up to a standing position.  We often find him standing in his crib. We already lowered it a notch.  He's been pulling up on everything.  It's created a small problem the first few weeks during nap time because he didn't know how to get back down.  15- minutes into nap time I would be summoned to help him lay back down.  Fortunately he's learned the seat-drop now and can plop here and there.

Try not to focus on the fact that his name banner still says "baby Granderson," or that the clouds/airplanes need to be restrung for optimal visual balance.  We're workin on that...

5. He's got a tooth! .... and another tooth!  Double whammy

We discovered the moby wrap back carry.  Everybody's happy!

6. He got a carpet burn on his big toe from crawling.  Gaw, and this filter makes it look like we need to amputate his foot.  Sorry about that...

7. Riding big in the shopping cart at Walmart. He can say hello to everyone better this way.

Doesn't he look so big here?!

8.  He takes bigger naps.  1.5-2 hours in the morning and afternoon.  I've been trying to power through some editing.  He can take or leave a 20 minute catnap in the evening.

9.  He loves his Daddy's guitar.  It used to sit on a stand in our office.  Every time he crawled past the office he would make a bee-line for it.  The guitar has since been relocated to our bedroom... along with most of our house plants.  Our apartment is starting to look pretty minimalist from knee-high down and our bedroom in a little overcrowded.

10.  He's added some new noises to his orchestra of sounds.  He can now do the one where you stick your tongue out between your lips and blow... resulting in a motor boat type sound.  He loves this one.  He can also "cluck" with his tongue. You know... where you stick your tongue on the roof of your mouth and then drop it to make a click/cluck noise? . He is also definitely his Father's son.  A few days ago Jack put his mouth to my arm and blew a fart noise.  (I have a witness!  Amy saw the whole thing.)  I am outnumbered in this household.

11.  He now has enough hair to mess up.

12. Jack has had the most consistent routine yet.  It might have something to do with the fact that for once in his life we had a month's worth of relaxing weekends at home as a family!  It's been nice.  We should do this more often!  For my personal records here's a version of the routine:

8:00am wake up and nurse
Play
9:30-11:30 Nap
12:00 nurse + solid food
Play
1:30-3:00ish Nap
4:00- nurse + solid food (usually his biggest meal)
6:00... mayyyybe he takes a nap, if so it lasts all of 20 minutes
8:00 nurse, bath, off to bed

13.  Bath time is so fun.

14.  2nd round of shots followed by a few feverish days.  :(

15.  Boring Stats:  He's still a small fry weighing in at 17.5 lbs. and 26.5 inches long.  Still sporting the size 3 diapers and barely fitting into 6-9 / 9 clothes.  Not related, but he also likes to play while sitting on his knees.

That concludes this month's post.  Thanks for checking in!  No photo finish... we haven't had a chance to take "official" 8 month photos just yet.  That will be another post.  :)