8 Months Old!

It's so hard to believe that this little sweet pea of ours turned 8 months old today.  He is officially 2/3 of his way through his first year of life!  I just cannot believe it.  Emmett has made so many changes this past month--probably more than any of the previous seven months.  He is growing and changing so much!  The biggest news is that he now can now sit on his own and he crawls a ton in his own little caterpillar way.  Although he is yet to master the traditional crawl of moving his arms and legs in a synchronized fashion, he still can travel pretty fast to anywhere he wants.  So the days of just putting him down on a blanket on the floor to play with some toys are now gone forever.  We have to constantly keep an eye on him to make sure he is staying out of trouble.  He is starting to get into everything and can be found crying due to hurting himself on something or getting stuck under a piece of furniture.  He is almost totally proficient at sitting although he still can tip over from time to time.  I refer to his favorite sitting position as the "model pose" because he leans back on one hand which provides him with extra stability.  Emmett loves to play with toys and picks up anything he can see and touch.  He is still an extremely happy baby who smiles at anyone who gives him attention and will laugh at a moment's notice if you do something that he thinks is funny.  He also loves to pat you on the back whenever you pick him up which we think is the cutest thing.  Emmett is definitely now into a routine and takes a long morning nap and usually a shorter afternoon nap every day.  Since we have now dropped his evening cat nap, he will go to bed for the night around 8 to 8:30 instead of between 9 and 10 p.m. This has finally allowed me to get some quiet time back before I go to bed every night which has been a total relief after not having some "me time" for almost eight months!  Emmett is also getting better at eating solid foods and has baby cereal mixed with a fruit for breakfast every morning and a meat mixed with a vegetable for dinner every night.  We are working on teaching him how to drink water out of a sippy cup, but he still has a lot of room for improvement in that department.  He is nursing five times a day right now, but is still sleeping through the night regularly without requiring a feeding although I still have to get out of a bed a couple times a night to plug his pacifier back in.  Emmett has also started to become very aware of his surroundings and loves to watch people, the TV screen, or any sort of action or movement going on around him.  He is still not afraid of strangers and will happily go to anyone if his is rested and fed.  Overall, we just think that our baby Emmett is the sweetest, cutest, and happiest boy around and we just love him to pieces!!

I had to give Emmett a little, blue. crab toy that belongs to Logan so that he would leave the felt frame alone that went around the number 8 on this blanket.

Our big, 8-month old baby smiling!