milestones - eight months

Eight months old... creeping closer to the big 'one'! It's been a busy month for this little guy, travelling to Queensland and having lots of adventure. He is, as always, our happy Little Bear, content and pleased to be part of the action! He was an absolute breeze and delight to travel with :)

Routine

We are half way between the transition from three to two naps per day. The problem is with school pick ups, I need to leave at 2.30pm, right in the middle of 'afternoon nap time'. So on school days we do three naps (as I have to wake him for that second nap so early), and then on other days we are mostly doing two...or three depending on family activity. It's in a bit of a state of flux at the moment, so will see how things go over the next month.... he is easy either way really so there is no rush or stress about it!

Two nap routine days go something like...

7.30am - Wake, breastfeed, play
9.15am - Nap
11.30 - Wake, breastfeed, play, solids
1.30pm -Nap
4pm - Wake, breastfeed, play
5.30pm - Dinner with the family, play, bath
7.00pm - Top up breastfeed, bed
Sleeps 12 hours.

He is very flexible (as always) and sometimes can stay up for three or more hours if we are out and about!

Smiling at Dad :)

Miles.tones and More...

He still has just two bottom teeth. They have grown so much, they are a real feature of this month's photos :) The top two are really bulging but have not broken through yet!

He has had a big month of physical progression. He has gone from rolling just occasionally to constantly flipping back and forth (but not multiple rolls sequentially eg barreling across the floor!). He can sit independently but not for very long before he tips over. He is really making progress on his tummy - in the last couple weeks he has started lifting himself up onto hands and knees, not full crawling position but close. it was a bit of surprise, actually! It's so cute seeing him experiment with positioning and moving around, really testing himself out. I have even seen him lift up even his knees, doing a full push up (eg just toes and hands touching the ground, not even knees - it was so funny - looked like he was planking!).

He is LOUD AND CHATTY. Constantly squawks and babbling and various sounds the kids call 'words'. As I am a distracted mother I don't have a record of all the actual phonetic sounds or anything, I just now there are lots of them. (sorry Miles, I hope you are pleased I am at least managing to record this much!!!). He is making himself heard even in the midst of this very noisy and chatty family :)

We are still doing potty time... not very regularly especially while we were travelling, but it's getting very familiar to him and he even did a wee on there a couple times! Big cheers for that. We have also started doing Baby Sign Language - just the basics of 'more' 'all done' 'food' and 'drink' for meal times at this stage. He is such a mimic... he is even doing the 'more' sign himself! Not that I think he understands it yet (I don't think?!) but he likes to copy and whenever I sign it (or the kids) he cracks up laughing like its such a good joke and gets right into it himself. Sweet little hands!

I have finally snipped off a few of the long dark whispy bits of hair left from his newborn days (those days where I thought I might actually get a kid with dark hair like me, ha!). So his hair is now a dark blondish colour and growing in quite thickly! The hair behind his ears and back of neck is just starting to kick up a little, so I am making the call now that he may have curly ringlets like Eli did. *sigh* I loved his curls. If Miles has them too I am just publicly stating now that people may need to stage an intervention 'cos I won't EVER want to cut them off! :)

Solids are going great. Especially over our holiday, he really took a big leap into eating. He is sooo dexterous now, managing to pick up all kinds of things. He is eating a much wider variety, though due to his eczema I am being a bit cautious about introducing dairy. Also he had a bit of kiwi fruit the other day and got a red rash around his mouth and all up one forearm (it was really angry and inflamed!).... so looks like he may have a salycilate intolerance just like the other two kiddos did. Poor Miles. So now also avoiding a lot of acidic fruit and veg (tomato, mandarin, kiwi etc). He love his roast veg, loves meat, loves hummus on rice cakes.

He is still as sunny as ever. Visiting my Dad recently, he must have said at least 100 times (literally) on our visit 'Miles is just so HAPPY all the time. Is he ever NOT smiling?! I've never seen such a happy baby'. Yes, he really is a little ray of sunshine!

It's a busy month for our family with a few things going on. Time for blogging is cutting shorter and shorter (hence why I am so behind - have not even finished holiday posts yet. Real life takes precedent!). So though I could easily ramble for pages about the seventh month of my Little Bear, I will have to finish here. Suffice to say... we love our happy little boy!

'DADADADADADADADA!!!!!!' (the soundtrack to this entire photo session!) This is his crazy shrieking face. He is
very determined about whatever he is saying!

The eight month collage of course...