Isaiah is 8 Months Old

Last time I logged in it had been so long that I forgot my password and had to change it.  And that just happened AGAIN!  Screw google for not letting you use the same password you've used in the past!  I'm never going to remember the one I just chose!

Anyway, Isaiah is 8 months old today... yay for being on time with a post!

So, at 8 months old...

-Isaiah weighs 19.5 lbs.

-He is about 28.5-29 inches long... it was hard to measure him; he didnt want to stay still.

-His head circumference is 18.25 inches.

-Still no teeth... I never would have guessed he would still have no teeth at 8 months since he started teething at 4 weeks old.

-Still exclusively breastfed with no bottles and no solids.  He did have a tiny taste of a pear I was eating the other day, but he just licked it, didn't actually ingest anything.

-Like last month, he's still in the awkward place between 2 and 3 naps, but moving closer to 2.

-He is now cross-crawling on his hands and knees!  I just love crawling babies, they are so darn cute.

-He is pulling up to stand.

-He moves from laying down to sitting up (and vice versa) with ease.

-He is starting to become more adventurous in travelling around the house, so we now close the gate at the top of the stairs.  We also recently put our mattresses on the ground because he is too mobile.

-We cosleep, and honestly sleep is not wonderful for him lately, but still within the range of what is biologically normal. The past few weeks have been really yucky for sleep.  One night he woke up 6 times.  He is waking up a minimum of 3 times a night, and almost always wakes up within the first hour of going to bed.  I expect this now so it doesn't bother me like it did when Noah did it. I just go in, nurse him, and he goes easily back to sleep.

-He's doing pretty well in the car.

-We still babywearing all the time. I'm still a carrier-churning maniac, and right now I have 32.

I have been awful about taking pictures in the past few weeks, but here are a few of the recent ones!

Right after a haircut... I didn't realize 1/8 inch was so freaking short!:

Isaiah is 7 (and a half) Months Old

I'm so so behind on writing this since Isaiah turned 7 months on April 22 and it's not May 6.  But I still have to write a few things. This is not his 7.5 month update, though, it will only be up until he turned 7 months.

So, at 7 months old...

-Isaiah weighed 19lbs

-He was about 28.75 inches long

-Still no teeth... I never would have guessed he would still have no teeth at 7 months since he started teething at 4 weeks old.

-Still exclusively breastfed with no bottles and no solids.

-I stopped bathing him in the sink right at 7 months old when he started literally trying to climb out.

-We switched to using all fitteds and wool covers (all sustainablebabyish) around 6 or 6.5 months.  He'd had red, raw chafe marks on his chunky thighs from his PUL covers that would NOT go away.  It was an expensive switch, but a fun one!  And the new diapering system is sooooo cozy for him.

-Still in the awkward place between 2 and 3 naps, but hopefully moving closer to 2.

-He is army crawling.  Still not cross crawling, even though he's been pushing up on his hands and knees and rocking since he turned 5 months old.

-He's a great sitter, moves from sitting up to laying down fairly easily, and looks like he's starting to try and figure out how to get from laying down to sitting up on his own.

-He is a lot more content to stay in one spot than Noah was.  Maybe it's because I babywear all the time so he gets carried around the house constantly, seeing different things, so when I do put him down he is fine staying within the same area.  Noah was already into everything all the time at this age, crawling through the whole house.  Isaiah stays in the play area when I put him there.

-We cosleep, and honestly sleep is not wonderful for him lately, but still within the range of what is biologically normal.  He wakes up to nurse 2 or 3 times a night, lately it's usually 3 times. I would be at my wits end without cosleeping.  I'm going to figure out how to nurse him while laying down more easily.  At this point it's too hard to get positioned properly, so I might as well sit up to do it (and that's what I do).  But sometimes I'm sooo tired that I would really like to be lying down with my eyes closed.  It's hard to do this properly when we're sleeping on different mattresses though.

-He's okay in the car and has fallen asleep in it a couple of times when it was nap time for him.  Unfortunately, though, he won't fall asleep in the car without crying for awhile first.

-We still babywearing all the time.  I'm still a carrier-churning maniac, and right now I think I have 30.

Here are some pictures from right around when he turned 7 months old... I am not neglecting my child or my attention to his milestones, development, and picture taking.... I'm just neglecting my blog!

First bath in the big tub:

Noah had to join!:

He plays in his exersaucer beside the kitchen table while we eat dinner:

Noah always did this too:

Isaiah is 6 Months Old

9 days late... oops.

-Isaiah is about 18.5 lbs.

-He is 28 inches.

-His head circumference is about __ inches (it was 17 inches at 5 months)

-Same as last month, he is on the medium rise setting on his diapers. We exclusively use Flip covers with various inserts (stay dry, organic cotton, Thirsties inserts, flats, or prefolds) during the day, with a few bumGenius Freetimes thrown in, mostly for Daddy. At night he wears an sbish snapless fitted (with both doublers) with a Blueberry one size cover with aplix. The rise on the cover is completely unsnapped to fit over the fitted.

-He still has those two bottom teeth playing peekaboo (since he was 4 weeks old), and his bottom gums are swelling out in other areas, so I think some of his other teeth are moving around. I cannot believe those teeth haven't come through!

-He has no bottles ever, nor will he ever.

-He has had no solids, and we don't plan to introduce them anytime soon.

-We cosleep, and I can't imagine how much life would suck if we didn't.  He sleeps like an infant is supposed to - getting up to nurse anywhere from 1 to 3 times in the night.  1 time a night has been rare this past month, it's usually twice.  But almost every night this past month he has had a long awake period in the middle of the night, ranging anywhere from half an hour to an hour and a half (this is why life would suck if we didn't cosleep).

-He goes to bed between 7 and 8, depending on when he woke up from his final nap, and wakes up between 6:30 and 7:30 (we are very very lucky if he sleeps all the way until 7:30, though).

-Isaiah isn't sleeping very well on me anymore, so most of his naps are in bed.  Like last month, most of his naps are 30-45 minutes long, but a few times a week we get one that ranges from an hour to an hour and 45 minutes long.  I big-puffy-heart LOVE those ones.

-We're in that awkward place between 2 and 3 naps.  He needs 3 but we can only fit in 2 most days.

-He still sleeps on his tummy, but this month he started flipping to his back on his own while he's in bed (he has been rolling over for a long time, obviously, but just never did it in bed until recently) and so occasionally he sleeps on his back.  He's finally at the point where I can lay him down on his back and his windmilling arms wouldn't wake him up immediately.  I don't usually do this, though, because he sleeps shorter periods when he's on his back.

-In the past I have said that Isaiah is the happiest baby I have ever met... Well, the past 2 or 3 weeks he's been kind of miserable.  He still has big smiles and giggles, but he's a lot fussier again this month.  It's been reminding me of when he was a newborn and things sucked.  Obviously it's not THAT bad, but we have seen far far better days.

-He started pushing himself up on his hands and knees and rocking right when he turned 5 months old.  Still not cross-crawling, though.

-He scoots himself all over the house, but hasn't perfected the army crawl like Noah had at this age.

-He is a really good sitter.  His back is straight, he doesn't need to be propped up by anything, and he can stay like that for a good 10 minutes.  Right when I started thinking he might not be sitting "properly" by the time he turned 6 months, he started sitting really well!  Just a few days before he turned 6 months old.

-He is friendly to people and smiles at them when they talk to and smile at him.

-He loves Noah!

-He is getting better in the car.  He won't nap in there (booo!  My sympathies to those of you whose children don't nap in the car!  I never understood how this was possible before), but at least he doesn't scream the entire time we're in there.  If I provide him with a steady rotation of toys he can make it through a 20 minute car ride with no issues... once a day, anyway.  The car ride back home usually involves screaming.

-He still has all his baths in the kitchen sink because it's easier for me.  I have no idea when I'm going to switch this to the bath tub.  Now that he sits up straight he is fitting really well in the sink and I have even less motivation to change the location.  Oh well!

-While last month I had 25 baby carriers, now I have 35 (even though I continue to sell them off).  Hello, my name is Lauren, and I am a babywearing addict.

This was a very cranky day... and he has since decided he doesn't like the soother (which I didn't even give to him until he turned 5 months old... I was shocked he took it in the first place!):

Happy baby! 

I forgot to mention... instead of reclining in the bouncy chair, he now insists on sitting straight up.  He can even do a sit up to get in this position if I lay him in the chair.

Walker-Walker

(Noah is 9 months, 1.5 weeks)

Noah has been fairly early to meet many of his milestones.  He was sitting at 5 1/2 months, army crawling at 5 months, getting himself to a sitting position from lying down at 6 months, pushing up on his hands and feet at 6 months, full-time hands and knees crawling at 7 months on the nose, pulling up to stand at 7 months on the nose, standing independently (not holding on to anything) for "longish" periods at 8 months... he's grown up very quickly.

Because he's met so many milestones so early, I kind of expected him to be even further along by 9 months.  I thought he'd be even better at standing independently (he can stand for about 15 solid seconds without holding on to anything, and he does this a few times a day, but I just thought it would be more by now considering how quickly he's developed so far).  I thought he'd be motoring around the house using his walker (an actual push walker, not a walker that you put a baby IN).  He's not, and that's okay.

Despite my personal expectations of him being "high", I was pretty annoyed all during Christmas when everyone's questions were "Is he walking?  Is he talking?"

Ummm, no, he's 9 months old.  Walking and talking at 9 months old is very early.  It's like asking a parent of a 4 month old if their kid is sitting up independently yet.  It's not impossible, but it's pretty friggin uncommon.  It's like expecting a 5 month old to crawl on his hands and knees.  Again, not impossible, but pretty friggin uncommon.

I was bothered by these questions because Noah is doing really well for his age, but everyone was wondering about walking and talking, two skills that usually happen more around the year mark.  I'm not kidding either, when I say "everyone."  Well, it may be a slight exaggerration, but about 90% of the people we saw over Christmas asked those questions.

Noah got his walker back at 7 months when he was pulling up to stand and standing at things without us spotting him.  His Nana and Papa figured he'd go crazy for it.  Well, he liked the "toy" aspect of it, but hasn't been so interested in the function of it.  We've pretty much pushed it to the side and not pulled it out to play with much over the past couple of months, because everytime we'd put Noah behind it, instead of walking forward he would sit down and crawl away.

(That's the "problem" with good crawlers... they are already very efficient at getting around, and don't necessarily have any desire to learn a new method.)

Yesterday my parents were over for dinner and they were saying that Noah is for sure going to be walking by a year.  I didn't necessarily think so, especially since a couple of months ago everyone was saying he'd be walking at 9 months (I never thought he would be, for the record, and that's definitely not going to happen this month).  I wanted to show them how uninterested Noah is in walking, so I took out his walker to demonstrate.  To my surprise, Noah started walking behind it.

He made a total liar out of me.  Don't kids always do that??

He suddenly has gotten pretty good at walking behind that walker.  Funny how that can happen out of nowhere.

Today we had an 8 month old (and his parents) over for a playdate.  This was our first playdate together, and I was very surprised to see that 8 month old James is about as physically skilled as Noah was at 5 months.  He still falls all the time while he's sitting up, just rolls over if he wants to get somewhere, doesn't pull up on anything (his crib mattress is still where it was when he was a newborn), and spends a lot of time lying on his back to play (Noah hasn't spent any time lying on his back - unless he's sleeping - since he was 4 months old).

This reminded me (not that I need reminding) that there is such a huge range of "normal."  And made me even more annoyed by all the questions I got at Christmas time.  I was also impressed by the relaxed nature of this mother, who also happens to be a infant/child public health nurse.  Personally, I'd probably be freaking out if that's where my child was at developmentally at 8 months.  But she's not worried at all, because, like I said, the range of what's "normal" is pretty large.

If Noah walks by 12 months, that's cool.  If not... I'm going to try my best not to be bothered by it. 

If people would stop asking me if he's walking and talking, that would be very helpful.

9 Months Old

At 9 months old, here is where Noah is at:

-On December 23 (9 months and 5 days) he weighed 19lbs 6oz (totally naked).  This is about the 25th percentile.

-He's 30.5 inches tall, which is about 100th percentile

-His head circumference is 19 inches (48.3cm), which is 100th percentile.

-He wears size 3 diapers.

-He wears 12 and 18 month clothing by Carter's (my yardstick).  The 12 month clothing is on the verge of being too small.  Most of the 18 month clothing is a little too big.  We're in the awkward in between stage, since he's 30.5 inches and that's the max height for 12 months and min height for 18 months.

-He has 7 teeth, but his 7th tooth has not grown very much since it popped through.

-He's a very good eater, according to everyone who watches him (they all make comments). He's accepting of so many foods, he opens his mouth well, hardly any food gets on his face... just a good eater.

-He points to everyone and everything with his tiny pointer finger.  And he "shows" you things by holding them up in your direction.  "See??  Look at my toy!!"

-His pincer grasp is getting better.  He picks things up between his thumb and forefinger, it's just not necessarily the tip of his forefinger.  He could still make improvement in this area.  But he doesn't get a ton of chance to practice, and was only presented with the opportunity about a month ago, so I can't really blame him.

-He's still exclusively breastfed (no bottles or cups) except for a dinner of solids, and the occasional snack or taste of food during the day.  Most days he doesn't need anything until dinner, though.

-He nurses usually every 2 hours during the day.  More right now, since I've trying to build my milk supply back up after having the flu for 4 days.

-He is 100% swaddle free, and has been since a few days after he turned 8 months.

-He sleeps very well at night, usually about 11 hours total.  He usually starts nursing to sleep at 7:15, although if he doesn't fall asleep I can put him in bed awake and he'll only cry for about 30 seconds before going to sleep.  He sleeps 9 to 11 hours straight (usually around 10 hours), then nurses and goes back to sleep for a bit.  If he wakes up before 4, I don't get him up to nurse, because I have found that he will STILL wake up sometime in the 4-5:30 range even if I nurse him at 3:45.  He falls back asleep very well if he wakes up in the middle of the night.  In the morning he has no consistent wake up time, but he usually does have a period of wakefulness in the 6-7am range, we don't turn on the lights or get him out of his crib until 7am, so if he wakes closer to 6 he often falls back asleep for a bit.

-Naps are still crap.  A usual day has three 30 minute naps.  We started a half-hearted attempt at nap training, but I'm not very consistent.  It's bad, I know.

-I think he may need to go down to 2 naps a day, because I'm finding it harder and harder to get him to fall asleep before the 3 hour mark.  The problem is that two half hour naps a day is not enough for any child.

-He still uses a soother every time I rock him to sleep, but if he goes to sleep on his own he spits it out (because of crying) and doesn't put it back in.  So he only needs it if I'm rocking him.

-He had his fourth haircut today.

-He had his 4th illness this past week, a stomach bug, but was over it very quickly thanks to breastfeeding.  No such luck for me.

-He's very capable, physically.  He started full-time hands-and-knees crawling and pulling up 2 months ago, so you can imagine how good he is at it now.  He's a great climber, too.

-He's getting better at cruising, but isn't amazing at it.

-He waves!

-He's back to social coughing again - A LOT.  He was doing it way back at around 5 months, but my Dad got him back into it a few weeks ago when he copied him every time he coughed.  He thinks it's hilarious.

-He's very talkative and babbles incessantly, but hasn't connected any words with any actual objects yet.  As far as we can tell, the only word he truly understands is "Up."

-This month he started making an adorable scrunchy face.  He does it often, when he's smiling, whining, whenever.  It's so cute.

-When we click our tongues he copies us, and thinks it's the greatest.

-He never goes in his jumperoo or exersaucer.  He prefers to play with the toys while standing next to it.  Whatever!

-He loves to play peekabo in the mirror, and to watch you make faces at him in the mirror.  This isn't new (he's loved the mirror for a long time), but he's just really really enjoying it this month.

-He still enjoys his jolly jumper, but we don't put him in it very often.  He jumps way too high and hard, and the spring slams shut really hard and he continues to fly past the point where he should have stopped.  It's not dangerous or anything, but sometimes he doesn't like the jolting he gets when that happens.

-He has separation and stranger anxiety, but it's not too bad at the moment.  It seems like it's really bad when he's teething.

-Bathtime hasn't been tons of fun this month.  Some days he hates the actual bath (for whatever reason), some days he's fine.  But everyday is a huge struggle getting him undressed, giving him his vitamin D, getting him dried off, lotioning him (his skin has very dry spots, so he needs to lotion) desitin-ing his bum, diapering him, and getting him dressed again.  He will flip over and bear crawl away so fast (he doesn't like the cold ceramic tile, so he bear crawls... lol).  And he's so strong now, there's really nothing we can do about it.  Justin pretty much has to pin down his upper body while I deal with the diaper.  After that I can dress him as he's sitting and standing.  But getting the diaper on is HARD.

~~~~~~~~~~

This past month has had ups and downs.  Noah reached his peak of separation anxiety this month, and I had many days (some entire weeks) where he was literally glued to me.  I couldn't even stand up without him freaking out.  As a SAHM, this gets very tiring.  I couldn't get anything done, my house was a mess, and I couldn't even go to the bathroom without bringing him with me.  Since he hardly naps, the only time I wasn't concentrating on him was at night when he was sleeping.  It got tough after several long days.

I may have connected increased separation anxiety with active teething, though.  It seems to get worse when he's actually cutting a tooth, and he cut 4 teeth in the past month, including his two front teeth (which are rather large, and I assume painful to cut).  Unfortunately none of his teeth cut at the same time, so it meant a lot of painful days for him.

Noah has also reached the lowest of valleys in napping habits.  3 naps a day, all less than 30 minutes.  This is frustrating, and I haven't been very good about nap training.  There are several reasons for this.  One, I don't enjoy listening to him cry, and oh-boy does he cry when I nap train.  Two, for the past couple of weeks (since I decided to nap train) I've had a very hard time figuring out his optimal awake time, which is key if I'm not "putting" him to sleep.  He's seemed to need awake times of at least 3 hours, but I can't fit 3 hour awake times plus 3 half hour naps PLUS the time it takes for him to fall asleep on his own into our day (3 naps means he has 4 awake times).  It seems to be a time of transition, so maybe my efforts will go better if I cut him down to 2 naps a day.

Furthermore, we both got sick again this month with the stomach flu.  I was laid up for 4 days, and today, day 6, I'm still not feeling great.  Being a nursing mom with the stomach flu really sucks.

There have also been good times this month.  Like when I connected the separation anxiety/crankiness with teething and was able to give him Motrin to avoid him being miserable all day long.  Like the seriously improved night time sleep that has given me my evenings and nights back - uninterrupted!  I've also been sleeping pretty good for the most part.  Very few nights do I lie awake for hours on end, although I do still wake up upwards of 6 times a night - and this is medicated sleep, people.  That's how bad a sleeper I am.  But not being rudely awakened by a crying baby 10 times a night is a joy that every mother should experience.  And that being your NORMAL?  It's fantastic.

There have also been GREAT times this past month.  The hugs and kisses and cuddles from my wonderful son.  The fun games of copy cat that make him smile sooo big.  Chasing after his skinny little naked body as he bear crawls out of the bathroom before bathtime so he can go out and happily play with his toys and stand naked at his baby gate.  Seeing him relax on Daddy's lap in the rocking chair by the front window, watching the snow.  Him really being so happy and well behaved after the teething was over.  Being complimented over and over on what a cute, cheerful kid he is.  Listening to Christmas music, and singing Silent Night to Noah before he goes to sleep.  Just enjoying this wonderful time of the year and being sooooooo thankful that our miracle baby is here to share it with us. 

I just can't even put into words how incredibly in love I am with Noah.  He is the perfect baby for us, the only baby for us.  I honestly can't imagine how empty our lives would be if he wasn't here.  And all the challenges and tiring days don't for a second make me wish anything was different.  He completes my life.  I had this big hole, and now it's overflowing because of this most perfect child. 

I am so full of thankfulness and love, I feel like my heart could burst.  I freakin' LOVE my kid, and I love my life, and I can't imagine things being any different.  THANK YOU God, for blessing us with Noah.


(PS - did you know a post can only have at most 20 labels, and those labels can only have a maximum of 200 characters?  I only know since I surpassed that and needed to delete some of my labels on this post.  What is the purpose of that limit?  Let people label as much as they want!!)

8 1/2 Month Pictures

I have so many things I need to post on here and on FB.  I decided to go with here first.  I was just uploading pictures from my camera onto my computer and found some I just really want to post for my own memories.  So, I bestow upon you a plethora of pictures.

Yes, Noah can hang from the top of his gate:

We bought his this Santa hat, size 12-24 months.  He's 8 1/2 months, and the hat barely fits on his head.  I had to shove it on.  I think I'm returning it, but he looks sooo cute, doesn't he?

I was cleaning up after dinner while Justin got ready for his first basketball game of the season.  Noah had just gotten up from his nap, and Justin wanted to know what to do with him.  I told him to take him with him.  I figured when I went in there (the spare bedroom where Justin keeps his clothes) that Noah would be crawling around on the floor.  Instead, he was still in his sleep sack with his soother in his mouth, sitting in the middle of the bed playing with a hanger and his Dad's belt.  It melted my heart.

Little stinker getting into my cupboards:

I want it!

And his little stinker face:

In a track suit:

He started waving this past Saturday!!

I think he looks young here:)

Mommy and Noah at 8 1/2 months... couldn't get a smile from him:

 But we got a wave!!

Baby Proof

As anybody with a mobile baby knows, baby proofing is an ongoing process.  You don't get it all done at once.  Or, you don't if you have a fairly large 6 bedroom, 2 bathroom house.  We started 3 months ago when Noah perfected his army crawl.  And we're still going.

Yesterday we baby proofed our downstairs. Our main floor is mostly baby proofed, but there's no TV except in our bedroom.  Now that high school basketball season is upon us, I'm spending many long days alone at home with Noah (this is a post on it's own).  When my husband leaves before (or just after) Noah wakes up in the morning and gets home after Noah goes to bed (or just shows up for 30 to 60 minutes sometime in there), I need to be able to watch some TV or something some of the time that Noah is playing.  We live in a tiny farm town 25 minutes from the real town (we're looking to move back, but that is ALSO another post of it's own), so it's not like Noah and I have anywhere to GO unless we want to make a full day of it and use my parents' house as a home base for feedings and naps (seriously, running to the mall turns into a 6 hour long affair).  Furthermore, I can't clean my house or anything, because Noah has such bad separation anxiety (also another post on it's own).  So we need somewhere else in my house that we can go besides the main floor.

Despite the fact that Noah has been on the go since 5 1/2 months, our downstairs was NOT baby proofed.  There were visible cords everywhere that he was always yanking at. There were deathtrap coffee tables that he could maim himself on. Whenever we were down there I was constantly pulling him away from things, so he was getting frustrated and I was getting frustrated.  Needless to say, we didn't spend much time down there.

After yesterday, it's about 90% baby proofed. We put a walk through gate up at the bottom of the stairs, since Noah is a stair climber.  We got rid of the dangerous coffee tables; they have found homes in our various extra bedrooms.  We put outlet covers in the empty sockets, and moved furniture around so that all but one of the plugs with cords coming out of it are covered.

We have three problems remaining.

One is the outlet that has this tall lamp plugged into it. I don't know how to cover the lamp and the outlet. We put a couch in front of the other lamp and outlet, but the location of this lamp doesn't really allow that to happen. And it really is the best location for the lamp, lighting-wise.  So far Noah hasn't gone to play with it.  We'll see.


Another problem is that we have a low entertainment unit, so Noah can pull himself up and reach and touch the TV.  The big, expensive, 50 inch LCD TV.  Not something you want a baby pawing at.  We need to find something that lifts the TV up higher so Noah can't grab at the screen. Or we need a new entertainment unit. But getting one tall enough and safe enough would be really expensive.
 
Finally, we need to install cabinet locks on the entertainment unit doors. Noah opens them and pulls out all the wires and chews on them. Not good. We have the locks, but we have to screw them in the doors, so it'll take awhile to do it.
 
I've been wanting to babyproof the downstairs for a long time now, but the way my husband is I actually have to say "We are doing this now.  Let's go."  Saying "We should go babyproof the downstairs" is apparently just a suggestion intended to be ignored.  About 10 times.  And I couldn't do it myself because a lot of the furniture that needed rearranging was WAY too heavy.
 
So now our upstairs and our downstairs family rooms are baby proofed.  So Noah and I have more than one big play room to spend our time in, which helps with the stir-craziness.
 
A baby proofed house is not nearly as pretty.  Our house used to be so immaculate.  We had the right furniture, the right accents, the right decorations, the right arrangements.  Now everything is shoved to the side or put away to accommodate our little Monkey. 
 
I'm not complaining.  I love having the "problem" of our house being less attractive than it used to be because we're blessed to have a baby.  In fact, I think it's ridiculous that some people inwardly judge me for accommodating Noah in all areas of my house.  So many people think you shouldn't have to adjust your entire lifestyle to fit your child.
 
However, I don't think our once immaculate, tastefully decorated house will show as nicely as it would have 9 months ago!

Stair Climber

Noah is 8 months and 6 days old

Today while we were visiting my parents, Noah climbed up the stairs.  It was his first attempt at stair climbing EVER and he figured it out in about 5 seconds.

I cannot believe this little rascal!

They Grow Up So Fast

Noah is doing all these things that it doesn't look like he should be doing.  He's tall (but skinny) for 8 months, but he still looks too small to be doing all the crazy stuff he does.  For example:

-He's a speed crawler and just takes off on his own out of the living room down the hallway and goes into bedrooms and closets and bathrooms on his own.

-He is always pulling up to stand using anything he can.

-He'll pull up on the couch, turn his body, reach his hand over, grab the coffee table, and cruise over to the coffee table.  He also has an extremely long reach to grab anything on top of said coffee table.

-He'll stand up by using just the wall as support - nothing to actually grab onto.  Then he'll just turn around and keep one hand on the wall and check out what's going on around him.

-He crawls over to the windows and pulls himself up so he can stand there watching the world go by.

-If I'm on the couch and he's really hungry he'll pull up to stand and then list his legs and actually try and climb UP the couch.  All while whining.  It's hilarious.

-He'll pull up to stand just using one hand on one leg of the jumperoo.  Then he just hangs out there.

-He can balance himself when he's just sitting in a squat, ass to ankles.

-About a week ago he was playing with Justin on the floor.  He was standing up, squatting down, stand up, squatting down while they were playing.  He was sitting in a squat, and then just pushed up with his legs and stood up without holding on to anything.  He just stood up!  On his own!  He put his hand on Justin's leg to steady himself once he got up there, but it was crazy!

-He doesn't even need anyone spotting him as he travels throughout the house, even though we have all hardwood and ceramic floors.  I mean, we need to make sure he doesn't get into anything dangerous, but he almost never falls down.

All these things are things he's been doing since no later than 7 1/2 months old.  He just seems too young and small to be doing all this!  I can't believe how fast he's growing up.  It's so much fun, though.

I hardly ever post pictures, but I'm going to bombard you now!  Here are some from when he was 7 months old.

Climbing under the coffee table:

Crawling on the table at Josiah's baptism:

Everytime I put him in the pack 'n play he refuses to "play."  He just wants to get out:

This is how we find our monkey after every nap (and now in the mornings).  Look at that mischevious face!:

Little stinker:

Playing:

Whaaat?:

What a flirt:

Happy kid:

Checking out the world:

"Oh, hey Mom":

"I need a new bib, this one's wet":

Here, he's 8 months old:

Trying to escape from jail:

This is a terribly framed picture that Justin took, but his face is cute and it demonstrates his squat... although he's hanging on to something here:

If it sounds like I'm bragging about my child, I absolutely am!  I think Noah's the bomb.