Every day, something new

Wow. It's really fascinating to see how many new things this baby picks up every day. He's now 8 and a half months and he's just a bundle of energy. He's officially getting his top two teeth...the top left one started appearing on January 17th...and a few days later, the top right showed up. They're still trying to make their way out, but we can definitely see them. He also got his first "big" cold on the 30th. Poor little guy is having a hard time with his runny nose. For the most part, he's still been sleeping through the night, though.

So now that he's able to pull himself up in his crib (and everywhere else!!!), he's been harder to put down to sleep and has been waking up earlier. Now all he wants to do is stand, stand, stand! Instead of waking up in the morning to a baby laying down saying "dadadadada" (his morning talking).... now I wake up to a standing up, dancing baby. Over the past few days, he's been pulling himself to stand on anything and everything he can find.... the coffee table, the bookshelves, his toys, and most of all...ME. When he gets frustrated because he can't figure out how to stand up on something, he'll crawl over to me because he knows how to get up on ME. Too funny.

He's still got the ole army crawl down. He uses his right side properly, but crawls on his left forearm...and continues to hold his left leg up in the air. The PT in me wants to "fix" it, but do I really want to make a fast baby even faster? I think not. Last week, he was able to stand and cruise along in his crib... but over the past few days, he's really figured out how to move along the furniture. It's amazing to see how brave he is.

On Wednesday, we reached a big milestone - he got his helmet off! Wooohooo! He only had to wear it for 10 weeks. The before and after pictures were striking... He really used to look like ET! We're so happy with the way his head shaped up. It's strange to go about the day without the helmet now...we're so used to it! His hair is getting really long... we're going to have to take him for a hair cut soon!

His favorite things things this week: holding his hand up in a permanent high-5 position (and we now do this after every bite when we're eating), crawling while holding onto something (usually one of his blocks, books, or his wooden spoon.... he MUST be holding something), throwing cheerios on the ground, dancing (to the music we hear and the music in his head), opening and closing cabinets, standing at his music table (only on the JAZZ setting...he instantly switches it back if I flip it over to the other setting), and screaming DADA whenever he can.

I'm a lot more tired these days (especially because he's trying to give up his second nap!!!), but we're having a great time! Let the adventures continue.