8 months

This is my new favorite age. Have I said that before? But for real. This month has been SO incredibly fun. I love it because I feel like it's a perfect blend of him of baby and start of cool little kid. Does that make sense? He's still small and babyish but he's so much more interactive and aware and FUN. Oh my gosh he's so much fun.  This has been a really great month. Still not sleeping great. We have had plenty of ups and downs and moments I've thought we were getting somewhere and then not but the great thing that happened this month is that I think I'm okay with it. I don't feel like it's my fault anymore. I've tried lots of things. So many things. And he's just not an easy sleeper. And that's okay. I'm trying to let go of things I have no control over and trying to de-stress my life. And this area has definitely been one of high stress.  I think part of the problem is the expectations I had of how he should sleep and since he hasn't been fitting that perfectly, it has worried me. Not anymore. I'm turning over a new leaf of acceptance and stress free sleep deprivation.
On that note, though - here's some more of my favorite theme - Harvey sleeping :)

He has consistently been waking up at 7am. So either Tanner brings him to me or I go get him and bring him back in bed and we just have a real party in the mornings while I work myself up to getting up and such.

This is the first month that it is obvious he knows what we are saying. He has learned to give kisses. He does it only when he wants to but it is my FAVORITE. And it seems true to child form, he comes at ya with wide open mouth. Horrible blurry picture, but besides one video we got, it's all I've got.

He will now stop what he's doing and look up at me and smile whenever I ask him if he wants to play "Patty Cake". He has learned to clap on his own as well. He thinks he's pretty hot stuff. He smiles so big whenever he does it - which is a lot. It's his new favorite trick.

He's also shown he knows what we are saying when he tries to feed his food to the dogs. Tanner had him the other night and kept telling him no but then Harvey would laugh and then Tanner would laugh and needless to say, the dogs got a lot of green beans. I was bathing him the other day and he was trying to grab the plug and I told him no. Then about ten more times he reached for and grabbed it about ten more times and every time looked up at me like he knew he wasn't supposed to and then smiled really mischievously. And then I laughed. We are screwed. 

Another exciting thing that happened this month is he is MOBILE! Early this month he started inching slowly forward. And then Emily sent me a video when she was babysitting of him cruising along with a rather unique army crawl. A few days ago he stopped with the side to side drag and started pulling himself straight. And just today he was like a little motor man cruising all over the living room and giggling like crazy. He's gonna be causing all sorts of new mischief now. I suppose we need to get the house as "baby-proofed" as possible. 

The food thing has continued to be a highlight as well. Of all the books I read about all things pregnancy/child rearing/etc, the baby led weaning one has been the one I have been most glad about. I love watching him get creative with getting different sizes and shapes of food in his mouth. He's getting a lot better. He is pretty good about trying most things I offer, but he's showing some more stubborness in this department too. I have to say that right now, by far, his favorite food is grapes. Oh man. He will POUND those. That's the only food I have yet to see him refuse. He is LOVING on mangos too.  I'm so proud :) That's my favorite fruit.

He has about 3 full grapes in his mouth I think.

 

He is loving bath time still. We got rid of his little bath and he's just a little kid in a fat bath :)

We actually switched babysitters again. Haha. Hopefully this is the last time. It was working out just dandy. But I randomly met some people from the other ward in the ER and he volunteered his wife to babysit and she seemed fine with that. I only mentioned it to Emily to let her know I had a back up if she was overwhelmed. We were going to keep on how we were, but she had to pick up her oldest from preschool right in the middle of when Harvey would be napping. I had tried to get him to nap earlier, but it was such a fight and I'd end up being super late to work, so her busy life and the serendipitous finding of another person worked out. Christine Higgs is her name. She has 3 kids, all in school, and Harvey has been there 5 times now. He seems to be getting more used to it. I don't know her as well as Emily so it's hard not to beg for pictures and updates ALL day long :) Her daughters apparently love Harvey, she has said he's fun to have around, and Harvey smiles real big every time I drop him off, so I have peace about this for the time being.

 These are some other cute pictures Emily had taken during the last few weeks.

 What else? We took him to the Farmer's Market here. I knew of it last year but never went. Tanner wanted to go a couple weeks ago and so we did. Super small, but totally legit. It made me like Williston a lot more! And we all had buttercup squash which we never had tasted and all decided it was the best squash of all time. We'll have to go a lot more next year. People cared more about Gus than Harvey, though.

I've been trying to get to the gym a little more. Now that I'm not worrying about him getting a nap before work, I think it's going to be more realistic. He's been to the day care there 2 times. He's done okay I guess. We played on some astro turf for a little bit after one visit and he thought that was cool.

 Other random pictures...

 For his 8 month birthday, the weather decided to be in the 70's. So we went on 2 walks and played at the park twice. He would NOT look at me anywhere at the park. It was so glorious. Best fall we've had since being up here. Harvey loved today too. I love hangin' with this awesome dude.