Eight Months!

Bubba is eight months! Well, technically he turned eight months old last Thursday, and while I did manage to take his photos, I did not manage to post them in a timely manner. It was a loooonnggg past few days here and other things just came first. So, without further ado: Bubba.

He's a cutie and he knows it!

He is starting to pull up on things. We had to lower the crib after catching him standing up in there, and just today, he managed to pull himself out of his feeding table seat, stand up, and lean over so he was laying on the tray!!! I guess we need to start belting his little behind in there again like we used to do before.

If I hold my hands out in front of him and ask him to give me his hands, he'll get all excited, grab my hands, and pull himself up with them. This is awesome because now I don't have to bend over as far to pick him up now. HA!

He's definitely getting more of a personality. He gets the biggest cheese grin when his dad comes home from work and starts making his excited grunting sounds. If his dad does not say hello or come over to properly greet him, he gets upset and starts craning his neck around to see where he went. Dad also gets most of the big giggles and laughs during playtime. That's okay, since Dad is also the one who gets peed on almost exclusively during diaper changes too, ha ha!

Some of his favorite toys right now are an old computer keyboard I picked up at Goodwill, a lightweight meshy ball that looks a lot like a dog toy (but I bought it at Babies R Us, I swear!!!), straws, rhythm bells, these plastic links Danea sent me that I've made into a chain, a cardboard box (dubbed "The Bobsled") that we use to drag him around the apartment, his binky, an old cell phone, and a freaking DRINKING STRAW. That's right, almost half of his favorite things could have been scavanged from a dumpster. Oh, and he likes to chew on blocks and books and remote controls.

The drooling has slowed down, but in no way has it stopped. He doesn't have to constantly wear a bib now, which is nice, and he's not soaking through them as fast as he used to.

He's doing this thing now where he looks like he's waving bye bye - but he's waving at himself. He'll get his hand right up by his face and flip his lips while babbling at us. It's pretty funny.

His face is changing - he's starting to look less like a little baby and more like a kid, if that makes sense. I can see it from certain angles and in some photos, like this one.

He's starting to give those messy, drooly baby kisses now. You know, the ones with the open mouth that leave you kind of soggy afterwards? It's so gross, and so dang sweet all at the same time. I love it. I'll kiss him on the cheek a couple of times, and say "Kisses, Kisses!" and he'll lean in and plant a big wet one on me in return.

He will also lean forward and kiss his reflection in a mirror. I'm not thinking he got THAT from his father either. Oops!

He definitely pays attention to detail - he'll tune into a piece of lint on the floor, or a stripe on his dad's shirt, or a polka dot on a ball and just stare at it or pick at it with his fingernails. He's got that pincer-grasp thing down but doesn't get to practice it much because his mom is a freak/terrified of him choking on something.

Learning how to drink from a cup is definitely coming along, but I'm starting to warm up to the idea of a sippy cup if only for the reason that he will be able to hold it by himself sooner. I hate the idea of buying a plastic one, although I'll probably cave immediately if I can find one of those Playtex ones where you can decorate the insert yourself, because I'm a dork like that! So far I can only find the ones with a straw, and I need the sippy lid.

Another thing he does is to grab the front of his clothes, whether it be a bib, shirt, or pajamas, pull it out, release it, and do it over again. It's like he's saying, yeah, I'm cool, or doing some baby version of dusting his shoulders off! No shirt? No problem! As you can see from the red marks on his chest, he'll just use his skin because he's resourceful that way.

He also likes to show just how cool he is by hanging one arm over the back of the seat in the shopping cart, like he's riding along in his convertible or something. He'll also ride in the bobsled this way, with the one arm draped over the side. Silly baby!

Interesting Bubba fact - his feet smell like feet even though he doesn't wear shoes or socks. Gross and weird all at the same time.

He's like, "I'm outta here, SUCKAS!!!"

He's not crawling yet - but he will get onto his hands and knees from a sitting position now and he also does the rocking back and forth thing while on all fours. He's starting to experiment with moving a hand or a knee here and there, but mostly, he just scooches backwards!

He doesn't fall asleep as nice and easily as he did before. He'll lay there and watch you for a bit. In the mornings when he wakes up I'll bring him into bed with me where we'll snuggle for a bit and go back to sleep. When he does wake up, he likes to wake me up by either pulling my hair or kicking me. He's also started to feel like he should have a pillow too, which, by the way, is SO not happening yet kid! He'll roll over or scooch himself a bit until he can grab my husband's pillow, and then lay his head on it. It's super cute, but still, no pillows for the baby!

I'm not sure what this face was about, but I think it's funny.

One of his absolute favorite things right now are drinking straws. If you have a take out cup with a straw poking out of the lid - beware! He will lunge for it. He can't suck anything through one yet, so I'm sure people have been horrified to see me carrying my infant while he has the Starbucks straw from my drink in his mouth! LOL! I swear I'm not giving him coffee! At home, if he's in a bad mood, or starting to fuss, we just hand him one of the straws we keep on the coffee table for this reason and he's happy as can be, waving it around and gnawing on it. We do watch him carefully though, because I'm scared he's gonna put an eye out with one!

He's definitely longer - you can see it in photos. He's not growing as fast as before though, which we can tell because the pace at which he was outgrowing stuff has slowed. His thighs look a little chunkier to me this month, and his belly too.

I stopped pumping this month, and we returned the breastpump to the hospital. There is still some milk in the freezer, but before he gets to his ninth month it's looking like we'll be transitioning to formula. I'm not entirely happy about that, but I just couldn't pump anymore. Seven and a half months was plenty for me!

He's doing the "Sprinkler Dance."

This was his first month going to the pool. At first, he wasn't too sure of what to make of that cold water, but the last couple of times he's gotten more used to the idea. He splashes with his hands and paddles his feet. He also splashes a lot with his hands in the bathtub and loves when I get out the bubbles while we're in there.

The drooling has slowed down, but in no way has it stopped. He doesn't have to constantly wear a bib now, which is nice, and he's not soaking through them as fast as he used to do before. He still has just the two teeth, with no signs of more. He loves to have them (and his gums) brushed with the finger toothbrush.

So far he's eaten: rice cereal, brown rice cereal, baby oatmeal, avocadoes, broccoli, peas, green beans, carrots, sweet potatoes, acorn squash, butternut squash, corn, peaches, applesauce, tomatoes, pastina, bananas, blueberries, mangoes, strawberries, brown rice, ground turkey, potatoes, shumai, whole milk baby yogurt and those Gerber puff things. I also let him taste the beef and cheese filling in my taquitos once (bad mom) which he loved, and a teensy bit of ice cream residue off my spoon (really bad mom - ah well). He also gets a little bit of white grape juice that has been heavily diluted (5 parts water to one juice) here and there.

He definitely is able to entertain himself better these days. We can sit him on the floor with some toys and he'll play quietly for a while, as long as he can see us. This is definitely nice because I can do things with two hands now!

This month also marked him starting to hold his own bottle! He can only hold the plastic one right now, as the glass one is still too heavy (and probably why it's taken him this long to even try) to lift. You can tell when the more urgent need to drink has passed though, because about half to two-thirds of the way through he'll start playing with the bottle and waving it around which flings milk/juice all over the dang place! This is a source of great entertainment for him.

Here he had decided that we were done with our photo session apparently and pulled down my backdrop. Booger.

Okay, one more. He wants the camera for himself REALLY badly. He's constantly reaching for it and trying to grab it. This almost looks like he took a self portrait, MySpace style! Ha ha!

Busy month, huh?