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!

What's been keeping us busy: Joshua crawling (videos)!

So the other major thing that's been keeping us on our toes and becoming more fun (albeit time-consuming) by the minute?  Our little guy is now officially mobile!

Here's a video I took a few weeks ago, while he was still trying to figure out how to position his knees to get proper traction and forward movement.


Two days after that video was taken, he was a full-fledged crawler.  Here's a video I took last week, when he turned eight months -- you can see how his new-found mobility wreaked havoc on my attempts to take his tiger comparison Joshua Watch photo.  :)


Even though this second video is less than a week old, it still looks so awkward and slow compared to how Joshua crawls now... It's incredible how quickly he picks things up and grows and develops!  He still hasn't figured out how to turn while crawling -- he'll stop, pull himself up to sitting, pivot on his bottom, and then start crawling in a new direction.  But I bet he'll figure out this last little step within the next few days!

It's also been fascinating watching his personality as it emerges under these new circumstances.  He's definitely a strong-willed and stubborn wee lad -- I'm afraid he comes by that honestly through both his parents.  :)  Now that he can propel himself around the apartment, he's decided that his favorite toy in the world is the power cable to our laptop.  Followed very closely by the DVD player, and then the cable hooking up our computer to our TV.  And really any electronic cords and cables.  We'll tell him no, redirect him, put him back in the very middle of the room -- and without fail, he'll look around, figure out how to reposition himself, and then very determinedly start crawling his way right back to the cable we took him away from.  Sigh.  Time to figure out how to teach/train/discipline an eight-month-old...

It's so much fun playing with him, though.  I mean, it always has been, but now there's this whole new world of movement and mobility.  He's so pleased with himself when he can get to where he wants to go.  And he's so inquisitive -- he'll crawl all over the apartment just to be able to personally inspect every bit of carpet fluff and every chair leg he can propel himself towards.  Such a strong and smart little guy!

Added bonus -- all this burning of energy means he's been napping and sleeping really, really well lately.  :)  Here's hoping he keeps this up!

What's been keeping us busy: PEF events

Sorry for the long radio silence!  We've made it past the first few weeks of the school year, which means we now have a little bit of room to breathe... It's been hectic, but a lot of fun.  David is always so energized at the beginning of the school year -- which is good, because there's a TON to do!  I've posted a bunch of these photos on Facebook already, but since this blog serves as our family chronicle, we figured we should at least mention some of what's been going on in our lives these last few weeks.

So!  The afternoon we got back from the beach retreat, we had the interfellowship welcome -- all of the Christian fellowships on campus got together on Murray-Dodge lawn to welcome the freshmen and reconnect with the old-timers.  It was a beautifully sunny day, and while David met some of the freshmen guys, Joshua and I wandered about and charmed all and sundry.  :)






Then later that week, we had the PEF open house.  This year, for the first time, we had our open house on an afternoon during freshman week (instead of late in the evening, competing with a ton of other events -- that's right, students' schedules are a lot freer at 1pm than at 11pm...).  And we actually had a great turnout of freshmen!  It's always so exciting to meet the latest influx of eager and zealous Princetonians.  :)






And as a final frosh week welcome event, there was a game day out on Poe Field.  We were only there for the soccer part of the afternoon, but it looked like a ton of people showed up and had a blast out on the field.  (When did PEF become so athletic??)






And some portraits and little kid fun off on the sidelines.  :)










Gotta love the beginning of the school year.  :)