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.

Poop is Powerful

I have underestimated the power of poop. 

My child is a different human when he hasn't pooped. 

Yes, another post about poop.
My world revolves around his bowls. 

Evidence: I even gave up and spoon fed my child in order to get that poop OUT.  

(Eli does Baby Led Weaning, where he skips pureed baby food and goes straight to real food. It's amazing, you should totally look into it)

Point being, I turned to prunes. 

Obviously, I have a lot to learn about how to spoon feed a baby.

Oh, yes, the hair. Remember when I said he "turns into a different human"

WELL, that human doesn't sleep. 

 Ok, he technically sleeps, but he wakes up every hour, almost on the dot 

(it would be impressive if it didn't mean that I NEVER GET A REM CYCLE)

So, yes, he has some extreme bed head from all the tossing and turning.

He works it though.

You should know, the next day we did much better with the prune situation and it (the poop situation) all worked itself out. 

And yes, I did bathe him immediately after this.

Where he tried to crawl in the tub.

Sounds cute huh?

Until you remember that he CAN'T CRAWL YET.

I kept getting flashes of him falling face first into water and it became the most stressful bath time of all of my life. 

Which isn't saying much, because bath time is normally pretty entertaining really.

Those rolls…so cute.

Holy Crap

Pretty normal day. 

Woke up,

showered

played with the baby

had a family lunch date (Picasso's in Delano)

Eli went down for his afternoon nap

Eli woke up 15 minutes into said nap and POOPED THE SIZE OF HIS FOREARM

(in length, not girth)

I almost took a picture to send to my husband. 

I didn't.

But I wish I had.

Holy crap.

Literally.

That is all.

Matching Undies

Few things make me smile for less work than matching my underwear to my bra to my outift

 (all ladies understand this)

Well, add to that, the tiny bit of joy I get each time I get to match Eli's diaper to his outfit.

Welcome back cloth diapers, 

I missed you old friend.

Parenting Win

Today I really felt like a parenting champion. 

I wanted to run through the house high-fiving people.

I think I may have fist pumped…while whispering "boo-yah" 

(yes, I celebrate 90's style)

I even snapped a picture of my moment of glory.

THAT, THAT is a baby who got to STAY asleep/let me eat lunch/ let me get ready for work/ let me pack the car all because I didn't have to wake him up to put him in his crib (where his monitor is). 

Why? 

I facetimed my iPad with my phone.

I thought I was just soooooo smart.

You know what- I STILL do.

So what if it took me 7 months to think of this? 

So what if he was asleep in our bed instead of his crib (naughty, naughty: I know)?

So what if the lunch I ate was super-unhealthy chicken quesidillas?

(I got them at dinner with friends, and those calories don't count…neither do the margaritas)

So what if I didn't have time to pump a bottle for him to have while I worked? 

also known as

So what if my boobs explode because I might not get a plan period to pump when I get to work?

So what if I had to leave him in pj's to go to Nanas?

So. Freaking. What?

I could have NEVER thought to do that.

I could have missed getting an hour long nap because I tried to get him into the crib.

I could have not gotten to eat lunch at all!

I could have had to go to work unshowered.

I could have woken up earlier to pump, BUT when I got to work I had almost an hour before kids came to my room anyway, so I pumped and my mom came and picked it up. 

I mean, you don't get much fresher than that. 

I did get locked out of the building though…so that was pretty entertaining.

I COULD have gone monitor-less and he COULD have woken up and rolled off the bed.

But I didn't.

Mainly because he rolled himself off the bed LAST week (I feel exactly as awful about it as I should), so he's met his quota.

For life.

I hope.

In 100% unrelated news: THE HOUSE IS DONE!

Some day I will take the time to do before and after pics, but honestly we just spent a whole night putting up one set of curtains while passing the baby back and forth, so I have other things to do.

The jist: 

I love it.

I have no room for any small kitchen appliances (they are all bigger than you think)

Most our furniture was scratched in the move.

A ton of our stuff will still need to stay in storage- mainly because I have hoarding tendencies and can't just get rid of 1 of my 5 sets of mixing bowls or one of my 8 cookie sheets. 

The "projects still to do list" is a lot longer than any of us would care to admit.

But I love it anyway.

It already feels kind of like home- and we haven't even moved in yet.

Crib Victory

Today, more technically last night, was our first parenting win.

Pretty much everything else has been Eli driven.

Getting him to sleep in his crib at nights…that was NOT on Eli's to do-list.

We struggled.

We fought the man…and the man won.

It was becoming PAINFULLY clear that Eli needed to stop sleeping in his rock-n-play next to our bed.

How?

Well, he would put his arms on either side and sit himself up.

Oh, and he was too long for it.

We tried to transition him to the crib- but he was NOT having it. 

We spent one night up until 2am doing the crib-scream tango.

It goes like this:

Nurse.

Fall asleep in moms arms.

Carried into nursery (still sleeping)

Lay in crib gingerly

Scream bloody murder.

Get picked up and instantly fall back asleep.

Get laid back in crib gingerly.

Scream bloody murder.

Repeat.

Finally give up and (gasp!) let him sleep in bed with us. 

He would fall asleep within seconds.

We tried warmer pj's

We tried swaddling again.

We tried a warm rice bag to simulate us.

We bought new (warmer) crib sheets.

We slept on the crib sheets so they would have our smell.

We moved the night light.

We tried keeping one hand on him.

We tried all the sound machine settings AND volumes

We tried putting him in after 5 minutes of sleep, then 10, then 15, one time we even waited 40 minutes to be sure he was GOOD and asleep. (yes, he still woke up INSTANTLY when he touched the mattress)

At one point I even considered getting IN the crib with him.

These all sound like silly gimmicks, but when you hear what worked you are going to roll your eyes.

Guess,

Go ahead, guess.

See if you are the ultimate parenting guru.

Got it in your head?

Ok, what finally worked?

I rolled him on his side.

Simple as that.

Out he went.

He had slept on his back in the rock-n-play AND when he was in bed with us, so I just assumed that was how I should have him in the crib.

I was wrong.

And LAST NIGHT, oh yes, LAST NIGHT he slept in his crib all night (not slept through the night, but slept IN HIS CRIB)

Winning.

Weekend Adventures

We got bundled up for a football game Friday night.

(after Rico bought our appliances for the new house…it's coming people!)

Saturday, while he worked on the house, I went with my sister and mom to a craft show at her friend's house. We ended up back at my sister's house for a play date with Eli's cousin Lizzie

I realize this is blurry, but I think my sister looks super classy and pretty with her little pregnant self so I am putting it in

There was hugging

 …and hanging

 and general climbing on Ashley's lap. 

Because she's the coolest.

Sunday we went to Exploration Place (it was free admission for veteran's day)

Most of the things were for older kids, which we expected, but Eli was alert and interested the ENTIRE time. We even sat through a science show and he was SUCH a good student.

Here's a long trough of little recycled materials turned into fake sand (meant to show how rivers from and cut through land), but to Eli it was just more sensory play.

We also went to a beautiful wedding reception sans Eli. I even showered AND curled my hair but somehow we didn't get any pictures. Maybe some will surface later.