Tuesday, October 5, 2010

Joshua Watch: Eight Months

Eight months -- two thirds of a year old!  And what a big boy Joshua is now, crawling and everything...  We just barely managed to get a decent tiger shot this month.  I make no promises for next month.  :)


Obviously, the biggest developmental milestone this month was Joshua's learning how to crawl.  He started scooting at almost exactly 7.5 months, and then full-fledged crawling happened a couple days later.  And a couple days after that, we caved and got one of those big SuperYard baby jails -- er, that is, play pens, which is now taking up the bulk of the space in our living room.  He's okay with being put in his play pen about 50% of the time, and that's only if we get down into the play pen with him at first... David pursues a stronger policy of letting him fuss in his play pen, whereas I'm much more softhearted and will go to him if he gets really loud.  Which has resulted in Joshua playing peacefully and quietly in the play pen for David -- but if he sees me in the room, he will turn deliberately towards me and start yelling and raising his arms up, and won't let up until I give in and pick him up.  He's a smart kid, that one...

He's also a very quickly growing kid!  Ever since we started him on solids last month, he's been bulking up... We haven't had him weighed since his 6-month appointment (he goes in for his 9-month appointment on Oct. 27), but he certainly feels denser these days.  :)  He continues to love eating solids -- the only things he hasn't like so much, interestingly enough, are fruits.  He'll happily eat as many mushy peas and spinach purees as we'll offer, but he turns his nose up at bananas and flat-out refused to eat peaches.  Crazy kid.

This month, we also introduced some meat purees, and started him on some finger foods -- it's the cutest thing, watching him try to feed himself puffs.  He'll grab a puff and clench his fist around it, and then try to jam his whole fist into his mouth... We're slowly teaching him how to grasp them with his thumb and forefinger instead, with varying degrees of success.  He does much better with Mum-Mums, these baby rice cakes, which are shaped like flat little surfboards -- he can grab them on one end and happily munch on the other.

And this month also saw us getting more adventurous in our family excursions.  All thanks to our more adventurous friends.  :)  We took Joshua swimming for the first time, with his little buddy Phil -- many thanks, Hilary, for the extra swim diapers and the use of your neighborhood tot pool!  It took Joshua a little bit to get used to being in cool water -- he loves his baths, but those are nice and warm.  But once he got used to the feel of the water, he loved it -- he did his "skydiving" move while I was holding him chest down in the water, and really seemed to like how buoyant he was.  It's a shame we didn't take him earlier in the summer, but now we have something to look forward to for next year!  And, of course, we took him to his first playground earlier this month as well, to play with his friend Caleb.

The last big change for him this month was the start of the school year.  For David, not for him.  :)  With David needing to be on campus multiple days a week, and me working in the office, we decided it would be best if we could get one day of childcare every week.  And that childcare has come in the form of our very dear friend Carrie!  She's nannying for Phil B. four days a week, and for Joshua on Wednesdays.  We were a little nervous about this transition -- our Joshua has protested violently most of the changes in his little life thus far (the bottle battles, the transition to solids, etc.), so we didn't know how he'd react to being taken care of by someone new for a full day.  But he clearly loves Carrie.  :)  We're so thankful to have someone we trust so completely taking care of our little boy once a week!

You'd think there would be fewer and fewer "firsts" as these month updates go on, but I fear I've actually been getting longer and longer every month...  Thanks for making it all the way through this one!  As always, here are some adorable photos of our little man, for your viewing pleasure!


"No more tiger photos, okay, mama?"


Yup, we're a Canon family
 

OK, usually he still eats his books... So when he started "reading," I had to fire off a ton of shots!
 
We just can't get enough of this smile!

It's so much fun watching you grow, baby boy.  We love you so very much!

1 comment:

Denise Lanthier Rubin said...

As usual absolutely adorable!
Regarding the play pen... try putting in one toy at a time, and adding them as he gets bored.