8 Months Old

Joanna Banana is 8 months old today. She's modeling an adorable little dress that I found at a garage sale for just 50 cents!

I'm in awe that we're 8 months into her first year, and we only have 4 more months to go until her first birthday.

Our little Jo has learned to wave.  She likes to wave at people from her seat in the grocery store shopping cart.  Actually, it's difficult to get very far in the grocery store.  People gravitate to her.  They love to coo and her and play with her feet.  She hams it up for people, too, by laughing and babbling at them with her big smile.  She loves to smile, and she occasionally acts bashful and hides her face from view of strangers.  She'll touch her finger tip to yours, and she bangs toys together.

Jo's working hard at learning to crawl, but hasn't had much success with it yet.  She kicks her feet and pulls with her arms.  Sometimes, she inches forward a bit.  Sometimes, she pushes herself backwards.  Most often, she just moves her body in a circle.  Joanna stands very well when I support her with her hands.  She has done this for months now, but I try not to practice it too much.  I really want her to crawl before she walks!

She is very vocal.  Her favorite sounds to make are still "B" and "M" sounds.  She still makes lots of grunting noises, and she likes to try to yell over anything loud.

Jo's warmed up a lot to her brother.  When she sees him, she smiles, and she usually laughs when he hugs her.  Oliver loves it when he can make her laugh and announces, "She's laughing!"

I'm already working hard at weaning Jo.  She's currently down to 5 nursings a day, and I hope to cut out her night time feeding this month to bring her down to 4 nursings a day.  Jo eats mostly jars of baby food, as that's what we get from WIC, and I can usually get her to eat a whole jar in a feeding these days.  Jo usually eats two jars of food a day, and then I give her a meal of finger foods, like Cheerios.  We've given Jo small amounts of peanut butter now, and she's done well with it.  I simply toast a piece of bread, and then I scrape a scant amount of peanut butter over the surface.  I dice the toast up into teeny pieces, and I give them to Jo a couple pieces at a time.  Jo loves finger foods, and she would shove them all into her mouth at once if allowed.

Sleep is going OK.  Jo naps one to two times a day.  Usually, she gets one good nap in, which lasts about 45 minutes long.  Sometimes, she surprises us by napping for an hour and a half.  She sleeps from about 8pm to 6am, getting up once to nurse.  I put her back to bed awake, which causes her to cry.  We now let her cry in her Pack 'N Play, and Andrew and I alternate going to her to soothe her every 10 to 15 minutes with soothing words and pats.  It takes about 45 minutes for her to go back to sleep on her own like that.

At 8 months old, these are Joanna's likes and dislikes:

Likes:
*Examining toys
*Banging toys together
*Opening and closing the oven door in Oliver's play kitchen set
*Eating finger foods, especially Gerber sweet potato puffs
*Air conditioning at the grocery store
*Being held
*Grabbing people's faces
*Pulling out grass and shoving it into her mouth for Mom to fish out
*Water (this includes splashing at the sink faucet, taking a bath, "swimming," or just drinking sips of tap water)

Dislikes:
*Long car rides
*Seeing someone walk away from her (especially Mommy)
*The heat

(Flashback to Oliver's 8 Month Post)

What Do You Say? My Baby is 8 Months Old Today!

Oliver is 2/3 of the way through his first year! I am loving being his mom, and my "job" just keeps getting easier and more fun. I'm starting to wonder when it's going to start getting more challenging again, but I try not to worry too much.

My Ollie Bear still isn't crawling and doesn't even try to very often anymore. I hope it'll be like his standing (which he learned to do while holding onto furniture this month), where he's not interested in it at all but then, suddenly, is able to do it and likes it. Oliver loves standing and playing upright. He's not as happy on the floor, but he'll play that way for a short while and roll around a bit.

His babbling is getting more intense and frequent. I can often be found near him, giggling to myself, listening to him talk to himself, his toys, or his daddy. He's just as curious as ever; he examines all his toys very carefully--flipping the, turning them, banging them, etc. He also examines his own fingers and toes a lot.

Oliver's not as interested in eating as he once was. When I hand him his spoonfuls of food, he plays with it instead of eating it. As a result, I'm now feeding him myself again. He continues to excel with finger foods (toast soldiers and Cheerios, mostly).

Taking Oliver out and about is easy. He still hasn't flipped out in public at all, which is amazing. He likes watching people walk by, especially if they have dogs. Speaking of dogs, Oliver hates all loud sounds except for dog barks, which he loves. Maybe that was a last gift from Bailey. But, yes, Oliver hates loud noises. He hates it when people talk loudly or laugh loudly (he starts crying), and he hates the sound of the vacuum cleaner and food processor (he starts screaming, afraid of it).

His sleeping continues to improve. He now completely understands that we're still around, even if we're not in the same room. When we wakes up, he starts babbling and cooing, which lets us know he's awake, as opposed to crying from his crib until we get to his side. He slept through the night 5 times last month. Most nights, he still gets up for a feeding, but almost always just once, and it's around 3am now (as opposed to 1am, which was killer for me). His naps are frequently longer. More and more often, he'll nap for an hour and a half, as opposed to the 40-minute ones he was famous for.

Oliver had his first camping trip this month (http://becky-shattuck.blogspot.com/2010/06/camping-weekend_20.html), and he generally gets out of the house with me daily. At the very least, I take him for a walk to the mailbox or out back to examine the trees and flowers (though he's not a fan of grass).

My baby still doesn't like being alone, but he tolerates it long enough for me to do things like take a quick shower or run downstairs to start/switch out the laundry. If I'm gone for more than about 3 minutes, he starts crying, but it's a half-hearted cry. He's also content (most of the time) to play by himself with me with him as opposed to me always playing with him. He'll sit in my lap and play with his toys, or he'll sit at my feet and chew his books (like right now). That's such a change from even a month ago where he needed constant attention from me. Don't worry; he still gets lots of my focus and attention, but it's just nice to be able to do something (like organize my coupons or flip through grocery ads) without him getting mad.

Finally, Oliver's attachment to me has gotten a lot stronger. He's happy to play with other people now like Andrew, my parents, and Andrew's parents, but as soon as he sees me in the room, he cries until I come to him and pick him up. If he doesn't see me, though, he's happy to keep on playing with other people.

Oliver's likes:

*Cheerios
*Babbling
*Looking at lights and ceiling fans
*His indestructible books
*His toy shovel
*His toothbrush
*Standing
*Mommy
*Daddy (as long as Mommy's not around!)
*Jewelry (especially watches)
*His toy duck
*The camera
*Slapping the table with his hands
*Banging two toys together
*The washing machine
*Textures (he loves to scratch different fabrics and the carpet)
*Touching people's faces
*Drinking from a cup (if I'm drinking something, he tries to grab it out of my hands!)


Oliver's dislikes:*The vacuum cleaner (as soon as I turn it on, he cries)
*The food processor
*Laughter (no laughing, people!)
*Getting a new diaper put on, especially a disposable (Does this mean he'll potty train early? I hope so!)
*Having a poopy in his diaper. He wants us to change it right away!
*Wearing his sun hat