8 months

I feel like I haven't really documented all Eli's tricks. I keep seeing other moms doing such a good job and I think,

"Well, crap, Eli can do that but I never wrote it down.

I meant to write it down.

I meant to write it down for a few weeks now.

 But how many weeks?

Geesh, when DID he start doing that?"

SO, 8 months:


Large Motor Skills:

So, here's what he is up to these days. He rolls everywhere. Not rolling over… rolling over, and over, and over.

My dad says, "I've never seen a kid use rolling as a means of transportation quite like that"

It's true, it is pretty impressive.

He locks eyes with his target

(usually something hard or dangerous, usually it is both)

then he rolls over and over, pretty quickly. He'll stop if he needs to wriggle around so he can get his angles right.

It's great and all, except that it has caused him to lose ALL interest in crawling.

Why crawl when he's gotten rolling down to such a science?

He's been doing this a few months now.

He'll do a little rocking back and forth on all fours (so we thought for SURE he would be crawling by Thanksgiving…ha!) from time to time just to tease us, but then he'll go back to the trusty crawl when he ACTUALLY wants to get somewhere.
Here he was on Thanksgiving night as we all cheered him on,

Then almost a month later it started looking more like this:

Rico's mom said he was also a little rolly polly.

Update: Ok, just kidding, today he crawled! I thought it might be coming, since he has been sleeping a lot more (it takes a lot of energy to hit those milestones). Here's the video of one of his first crawls, by a few hours later he was already substantially better.

He cruises…like everywhere. He LOVES to pull up on things and then use them to "walk". 

It is far less exciting when he does it in the tub. Yikes.

He also waves "bye bye" with his whole arm. It's pretty adorable.
Here was the first day he did it:

We're working on high fives and clapping- but he still hasn't quite figured out the whole "my hand doesn't always have to be in a fist" thing. Right now it is more of a hand touch.

 Fine Motor Skills

He uses the pincer grasp! I got overly excited the first time I saw him grabbing food this way (I think it was salmon). 

I think that using baby led weaning has been a BIG part of him doing this. 

He's doing some pointing and exploration using just certain fingers.
He loves to rip paper.
Into tiny bits.
And then put it in his mouth.

Social Skills

He plays "Where's ___" and can recognize "Eli" "Daddy" "Max" and "Papa"

(he'll look around the room until he finds them when you ask where they are and then he'll light up with a HUGE smile)

He reaches his arms up if he wants picked up.

He reaches his arms out when you are holding him and he wants to go to someone else. 

He recognizes familiar songs (Days of the Week, If You're Happy and You Know It, Five Little Monkeys, and All About That Base…don't blame me for that one, grandma gets all the credit for that)

He still loves peek-a-boo, but now he will crane himself around to try and find you before you jump out and yell peek-a-boo
He LOVES people. He can go from person to person without issue.
We think he might be an extrovert. He seems happiest when he is with lots and lots of people
He smiles with his WHOLE body.
He'll smile and then nuzzle his head in your shoulder. People always think he is being shy and hiding, but he's just smiling away.

Language:
Still babbling away.
Lots of yelling singing
He's got his d's. b's, and p's

Self Help Skills:
He feeds himself, but it's mostly playing with the food.

Bananas- with Flax seed to help him be able to grip the slippery pieces. Flax seed was a mistake. The banana turned into a paste and the flax seed into a harsh abrasive exfoliate when I tried to clean him up. He got his first kitchen sink bath. Lesson learned.

That's one of the main ideas of Baby Led Weaning (skipping purees), they are in control. I offer healthy choices from whatever we are already eating and he explores them.
I'm a fan of that- food right now is more of a learning experience.
He gets every nutrient he needs from my milk, so food is just something to be explored right now.
Like they say, "Food before one is all just for fun"
He eats whatever we are eating that is baby safe (Ie: he won't choke and it is healthy)
He KNOWS that when we eat he should be getting something to explore, and he'll let you know if he feels left out.
They say it should make him a less picky eater later: we'll see.

Intellectual

He's developed object permanence
Sensory play is kind of his jam right now.

He is OBSESSED with his reflection. He used to always like it, but it's gotten a little out of control lately
That's about it. Not too much to report here.
He does make THIS face when he is concentrating.

Physical Growth

6 teeth. You heard me right.

6

freaking

teeth

4 uppers and 2 lowers. 

I know what you are all thinking, "I wonder if she is still breast feeding with all those teeth"

My "teacher answer" 8 months ago would have been, "it's no big deal, he won't bite because the mouth has to form a certain way to latch on and the teeth are not involved"

My reality answer is the same, but add the words "on purpose" to "he won't bite"

Every once and a while if he is falling asleep and loses his latch (or if he is distracted/ticked off and not focused on nursing) he will bite me- we're at 8 times now. 

Does it hurt?

Hell yes it hurts.

Sorry, there is no classy way to say that.

But I give a quick little "Ow!" and the little guy makes up for his evil biting by the saddest little face you ever saw. 

He cries when he bites me. 

Scrunched up face turning beet red kind of crying.

At least he knows he's been an ass.

I know, I know, you can't call your baby an ass.

Well, I did. 

I feel like he would agree.

Will I keep going. 

YES!

As long as I can keep my supply up, I hope to keep on exclusively breastfeeding until 1 year. I'll see where I am at at a year and decide then what I think will work best for us. 

Maybe it is weaning off a few night feedings*.

*Yes, he still nurses multiple times each night. 

Like 4-6.

Mostly for comfort.

If you'll remember, the boy won't take a pacifier.

I'm tired.*

Maybe at 1 year he'll be going to sippy cups of pumped milk during the day and still nursing at night. 

I don't know yet, and I'm not going to stress myself out trying to guess how I'll feel. 

Height and weight…eh, you've got me. 

We don't own a scale, and his pediatric appointment skips 7 and 8 months.

He's "dense", how about that?

Not huge, just dense.

He's in 9 month clothes and size 3 diapers, that's about all I've got.

Speaking of diapers…he's back in cloth!

Thank goodness.

We were off while we lived with the in-laws (I may not be grossed out by the idea of washing dirty diapers in the washing machine, but I am not going to push that comfort level on someone else- PLUS I would have basically had to take over their washer/dryer and that is rude.

I'll admit it, I had gotten so used to the disposables that I was worried cloth was going to feel overwhelming.

It's not.

We have enough diapers that I only have to wash every other day (every three days if I can stand it), so it doesn't feel overwhelming.

We DID decide to use disposables at night.

Those suckers hold a LOT OF PEE

We also had to get used to changing him more often during the day when he is in cloth.

Turns out, we'd been letting him sit in a soiled diaper for longer than we knew in disposables…which is grosser to me than washing cloth diapers.

He's also been doing a lot more "naked time" to let everything air out.

Speaking of "junk", he is still fascinated with his. 

There is a lot of pulling involved.

He hates diaper changes, but that might be because I won't let him turn the lights on and off to make a baby dance party

There. Now I can feel like I have documented his life.
Except the baby book.
Oh crap.