Leaps and Bounds

Today mommy got your new bath seat. No more sink baths for you! You’ve officially graduated to the tub.

Also, she got you a new “toy”; a silicon chew stick to help ease your gums. You loved it. In fact, you were quite vocal about it, but as always, by the time I got to the camera, you toned it down a bit. Still, here in bright color, you and your stick:

The New Sleep Style

We had a fun, but short weekend. Most of the time, we lounged around the house. You did a lot of tummy time and met some new friends; Wes & Jenny Moore, Sierra (7), Owen (5) and Lucy (15 months) were nice enough to invite us for dinner on Saturday evening. (I work with Wes)  You were a little scared of all the new people at first, but by dinner you were your usual happy self.

Blankie held close, feet in the air, this is your new nap position.

Sunday, we were supposed to go to a Native American Pow Wow, but it was a bit far (we didn’t want to keep you cramped up in a car for so long) and mommy’s ankle hurt, so we stayed around the city. While napping, I caught you doing a new thing… pulling the blanket up to your face and curling up in a ball with your feet up in the air. Pretty funny, and as always, very cute.

Sunday at Fort Snelling

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We decided it was just too pretty a day to stay in the house, so we drove to Fort Snelling Historic Site. You braved the heat pretty well and even firing muskets and booming cannons didn’t do too much to startle you. It was lots of fun, but after a couple of hours, we were all very tired because of the dust and heat.

Here’s some shots of you with mommy as we walked around the grounds and showed you a little Minnesota history.

Danger-mouth

Yesterday, we had guests (Jason & Rachelle) who were our first official “non-family” visitors to the new apartment. You did a great job of being social and were actually much more vocal than you usually are.

Today, after breakfast, I gave you one of your favorite toys (Sophie Giraffe) and here we see you dashing mommy’s dream of you becoming a vegetarian, as you devour her with leonine precision:

Squeaking, Chomping & Logging On

Daddy was a little busy this week, so it was hard to get the time to post all the things you’ve done; you’ve tried to crawl, you’ve started making some pretty funny noises (we call it the “Christopher Walken”, where say something like “oh wowowow”), you took your first front facing stroller ride (and loved it) and you’ve really struggled through your teething like a champ.

Here are some videos to catch up the grandmothers and give a little taste of the funny, funny guy you’re becoming:

Today we were making fun of Puddy ignoring a squirrel JUST outside the window. You just ignored both of them and played with your rattle. Well, that and made some adorable squeaking noises.

You’ve also started holding your own bottle, but for some reason, you’ve decided that shoving it as far into your mouth as possible is the best solution to getting the milk into your mouth. (This angle looks like you’re drinking air, but it’s just the camera angle, I assure you).

And as requested, here you are playing on the computer. Yes, at 8 months old, you’re enamored with a site called Kneebouncers. It requires very little from you in the way of input (you simply need to hit any key), but you have figured out the “smash = reward” ratio and get quite excited when we play on that site. Your favorite activity (documented here) is the one with the loud vehicles. Chalk it up to being a city baby, I guess. Funniest part to me? When you start to imitate the noises you’re hearing.

TEETH!

After a few days of trying to get a shot of those tiny, pearly whites we finally got one today outside the Large Cats house at the Como Zoo, with our old Chicago pals, John Weaver and Cara Grib (and their son Jack).

You might have to zoom in to see them, but they're there.

Here you are, displaying all the hard work you went through these past few weeks chewing on everything you got your hands on.

Foodie

No pictures today, but I wanted to take a moment to let you know what foods you were eating early in your life. So far, you’ve eaten NEARLY every solid food presented to you. From Spinach & Potatoes (our pre-Indian Food primer!) to Carrots, Winter Squash & Peas, you’re a pretty agile baby vegetarian.

Your favorites include:

  • Prunes & Oatmeal
  • Bananas
  • Peach/Oatmeal/Banana combo
  • Bananas/Raspberries
    (okay, basically almost anything with bananas)

So far your LEAST favorites are:

  • Lentils & Rice. That’s it…

You also had a bit of diaper rash this week, so we took you in to the doc. You weighed 17 lbs and 4 oz. You are certainly our continually growing boy!

Milestone after Milestone

You had your 8th month birthday on July 20th. You’ve not hit every milestone so far (the sitting up thing is still a little tough for you), but you’ve given us some pretty good ones.

This week you said “Ma”, very deliberately. Whether you associate it with your mother yet or not, we don’t know, but when I say “M”, you watch and delightfully repeat my consonant.

Also, your tiny front, left tooth has crested the gum. Today, your mother felt what she thinks is it’s sidekick. It’s been hard to get a pic, what with your tongue wagging and exploring the new bits in your mouth.

We did, however, get a shot today of your first time on a park swing. You didn’t swing more than a couple of inches back and forth (blame your overprotective daddy if you must), but you seemed very much to enjoy it.

Wheeeeeeeee!
"Hey, that looks pretty far down there"