Ocho!

That's right... we've hit the eight month mark and it's gone by fast. I think the Holiday Season will do that to you! I feel like the past two or three months have been really fun with Brady... watching his personality develop more along with his curiosity. Everyone who has met Brady describes him predominately with three words... either they say he's "very alert", that he's "curious" or that he's very "smiley". And yes, all those things are true. He does not snuggle very much, unless he's really tired or not feeling very good. He likes to be up and looking around. He's pretty much always been that way, but I guess it's grown more in the past month or so. As far as being curious goes, I feel like that's with every baby and I put hat more with being 'alert'. He reaches for everything and anything... and like I said, I think most babies this age are probably like that. (As I'm typing this he literally almost pulled my screen off of my computer backward! That would NOT have been good!) And yes, we're sitting in the back yard on a blanket because it looks like it might rain and I'm blogging while he's playing! What a fabulously lazy mommy I am today! And the smiley thing... he does smile a lot. And BIG smiles... I can't wait for teeth to come in because I think I'll see them all the time! But for right now, I love his big gummy smile!

So let's talk about some new things this month... ummm... first off, he has definitely realized what mommy and daddy's food looks like. He knows when we're drinking a bottle of water that it's a drink and it looks like his bottle so he wants it. He doesn't like it when anyone eats in front of him if he doesn't have something to eat. In fact, last week in the nursery, Erik and Jerica were volunteering and they had to give him his bottle early because he got so upset when the other babies were getting their bottles and he didn't have one! (It kind of makes me laugh, to be quite honest!) But we're starting to work on eating "together" with him. I try to eat my cereal when he's eating his cereal so that he sees it's okay if he doesn't get ALL the food. This has been a BATTLE with a capital B!!

He shows no concern with crawling, although he loves to stand up. In fact he tries to let go of things and catch his balance but he's nowhere close to being able to stand by himself yet... even though he may think he is! Today (only a few minutes ago) is the first time I've seen him get his knees up underneath him by himself and rock. He'll rock if I put them up underneath him, but eventually he'll face plant.... he's never done it all by himself.

He loves to swing. On Saturday when we left the park, I was truthfully embarrassed becaue when I put him in the stroller he started crying... LOUDLY! I didn't have a pacifier with me for two reasons... ONE is that we're getting off of it everwhere but the car and at bed time... TWO (and mainly) is that he NEVER cries outside so it never crossed my mind to need it. Either way... I had to carry him and push the stroller until we were out of earshot of all of the other 'older' mommies at the park. Then he cried basically the whole walk home.

He gets so excited to see his daddy. Actually, it seems like he gets excited to see everyone BUT his mommy. (tear). I've heard this happens but it doesn't mean it doesn't hurt my feelings! Wow, I just admitted that? I guess so! Whenever he sees Jeff he gets all squirmy and pumps his arms and his legs and giggles really loud. With me... there's nothing. I go to pick him up from my mom's or Darlene's and it's just like, "Oh, cool. Mom's here!" I thought that wasn't supposed to happen until he was like 13!!! The one thing I heard over and over when I was pregnant with a boy is, "Oh, boys love their mommies!" Well?? Am I doing something wrong? I'm just kidding (a little bit) but I've heard that since we're together all day it's not as exciting to see me, so I'm going to go with that excuse for now!

Let's see, what else. I think he weighs a little over 19 pounds (according to our measuring method at home). He's getting so heavy! We're in 9-12 month clothes and some things just flat out say 12 months. Wow. We're getting up there, aren't we? Some days it goes by fast and others, not so much! As far as food... we've tried all sorts of things. Green Beans, Sweet Peas, Carrots, Squash, Sweet Potato, Pumpkin, Mac and Cheese, Avocado, Pineapple, Apples, Mangos, Bananas, Prunes, Strawberries, Blueberries, Beef, Ham, Turkey, Chicken, Grape Popsicles.... and crackers. (We tried those for the first time when we visited Big Daddy at the Dallas Country Club and almost had a melt down!) The boy doesn't turn any food down... in fact that's all he does all day long... try and eat EVERYTHING... he's even tried to put Georgia in his mouth!

One more issue we're having is that both Brady and Georgia like to share. So Georgia always brings her toys to Brady's lap and without fail I'll turn around and he'll have one of her toys in his mouth! Gross!! And when Brady's enjoying a wagon wheel or a puff on his blanket, he likes to hold it out to Georgia and she of course takes it! It's rather adorable, but I'm going to have to nip that in the bud quick!