Grow, Jake, Grow!

Jake is 8 months old today.  His seventh month was just full of growth and it seems like in the blink of an eye he went from a passive infant to an interactive baby who responds to his environment.  He reaches for things and is curious about everything.   He scoots around and is almost crawling on all fours.  When our laptops or cell phones are in front of him on the carpet he will scoot forward and do the worm crawl to get it.  He is able to sit up from lying on his belly.  There have been a couple of mornings when Chris went in to get him and he was just sitting in his crib with a big smile on his face.  When I bathe him I really have to watch him carefully because he grabs on to the edge of his baby tub and stands.  We have already lowered his crib so as to avoid him standing and falling out!

His personality has really developed and he now shows a wide range of emotions, from excited to frustrated.  He babbles and makes all sorts of noises.  When he sees the dog he shows excitement and says something like, "gggg gggg....dggg dggg dggg."  He loves our dog Laila and watches her every move.  In the mornings when we get him from his room he is usually on his tummy, and as soon as we enter the room he'll flap his arms and legs, bury his smiling face in his crib, shakes his head, and look up at us, barely able to contain his excitement.  He says "dadadada" though not discriminately yet (I don't think babies can do that until 8 months or so, can they?)  He makes "gagaga" noises, clicks his tongue, and blows raspberries.  He gives high fives.  Oh and he has seven teeth.

As far as eating and sleeping go we really cannot complain.  He sleeps about 10 hours straight and rarely wakes up in the middle of the night, and when he does he usually goes back to sleep easily.  I still make his food, which I really enjoy.  I had to stop posting all the food I have made for him on this blog because a) it's not a baby food blog, and b) it became too much!  He has moved on to "stage 2" foods, which are coarsely pureed and include fruit and veggie combinations.  He can now eat poultry, which I plan to introduce in the next week.  The kid can chow down 5 to 7 oz of food easily and make 6 oz of formula disappear in less than 5 minutes.  He eats three 4.5 oz meals and gets about 24 oz of formula a day.  I don't know where it all goes because I think he is still pretty small for his age.  But he is happy, healthy, and sleeps well so we must be doing something right.

I can't believe how fast time has gone by!  Gone are the days of breastfeeding and waking at all hours of the night (thank God).  I remember how hard those days were...but I actually kind of miss them.  My baby boy is growing up way too fast and I want to cherish each day because when we put him down at night that's already a day of our lives gone forever. 

Little guy, big game :)  8 months old