Video of our baby at 8 months old (I love his smile here)
Our baby will turn 9 months on September 27th. I am feeling both melancholy and excited because 8 months was such an incredible age. I am sad that our sweet little baby has to grow up. I am excited by how much he developed this month and how much more we have to look forward to in years to come. I am embarrassed to admit that I had forgotten how much an 8 month old baby learns in just a few short weeks. I just want to throw a "Sweet 8 Months" party for him ... limousine and all :) I will share his 8 month changes instead of the party, so that other moms will have something to go by aside of the textbook "milestones" chart. The following are all of the interests and changes our baby had at 8 months old:
Hair Growth
Max went from being just about bald to having a nice layer of sliky brown hair that I can make stick up like Alfalfa from the Little Rascals :) This is actually the length it was when he was born and then it thinned out, so it's nice to see our baby with hair ... again.
Teething / Cutting Teeth
Our 8 month old baby has 4 teeth (the two front teeth at the top and the two front teeth at the bottom). He bites crackers with these 4 teeth. He sometimes bites while nursing, but not as often as I would expect. He has started gnarling on the crib and playpen. All of his toys are being used to shave those 4 rigid teeth smooth, as well as on his gums that are expecting more teeth.
Increased Verbal / Talking / Singing
We are not certain that he knows what he is saying, but we hear "maaaa" (mom), "da da" (dad) and "baaaaha" (brother) all of the time. I have to think that he is calling our names as we have taught him because I hear them screamed at us in the morning if he has woken before us and wants picked up out of the crib. He also says them throughout the day and gets really excited when the right person responds and / or picks him up. I have recently heard him singing with his toys and TV shows. I swear that he is trying to do his ABC sometimes because he starts singing "ahhhhhhh ahhhhhh" and then I hear "aaaaaaaaaa" (long A sound) and "oooooooooo" (long O sound) in an exaggeratedly friggy voice. It is so cute that he stops me in my tracks ... I get that melancholy / excited feeling so badly that it gives me pangs in my heart. Max cries, calls for us and speaks LOUDLY, too. I even find that comical, though have been working on some volume control around here (in how we interact with him), so that we are not speaking too loud around him.
Crawling / Standing
Max crawls like a champ. He has totally stopped using his swing and lets us know when he wants out of his play yard and pack n play, so that he can move around. This is so great because he is getting so worn out that he is starting to sleep through the night (FINALLY). He is pulling himself up to stand. He uses furniture, walls to his play yard and our legs :) One day he pushed a Pampers box around the house, so that he could walk hunched over. He used a flipped over laundry basket and his high chair to try to walk the other day. It was so cute! I have no doubt in my mind that he will be walking in his 9th month, so the house is all baby proofed and ready for him.
Sprout / Nick Jr
Although I swore that this child would not have early exposure to TV, we do let Max watch TV and it is obvious that he has favorite TV shows. His responsiveness is amazing. Prior to this month (7 months old), Max would watch for a bit and become bored more quickly. Now, he stands in his pack n play or crawls over to the TV stand and holds himself up, so that he can watch closely. He laughs, bounces, talks and sings to his favorite shows. He gets fussy if it is not a show he likes as much and totally loves the memory card and shapes "commercials" they have in between shows. He is learning a lot from these TV shows, so they compliment what we are doing with him.
Learning / Playing
Max has always been responsive to our playing with him and has a few favorite toys, but he plays alone now and plays back with us. He is at the point that he crawls to his toy bins, pulls himself up and selects what he wants to play with each time. This is so much fun. He is pressing the buttons when we point them out, watching how we play with toys that he is not familiar with and dragging them across the room to his father, brother or me when he wants us to play. The best was when he sat flipping through one of his book the other day. It was just a few seconds, but he was "reading" all the same :)
Little Upsets / Temper Tantrums
Lastly, our 8 month old has started having tantrums (not just fussing or crying), but the cutest angry faces and feet kicking that I have ever seen BECAUSE HE HAS A DIRTY DIAPER. Our baby cannot stand to have a poopy diaper and lets us know just as soon as he has "done his duty". He sits up with his feet out and kicks left, right, left, right and makes a nuh sound until we pick him up to change him (which is almost immediately because now we know what is wrong with him). If we let it go on to long, it can be quite annoying to all of us :)
8 month old babies are fun ...
All in all, this has been such an adorable, progressive and heart warming age that I cannot stand for this stage to end (even the teething and starting of temper tantrums) , but I know that I have no choice. Our 8 month old baby will turn 9 months on the 27th of September ... I have to live with it :( The funny thing is that most people "feel some kind of way" about THEIR mortality; especially as they are approaching 40 (which anyone over 35 knows what I mean).
Watching my baby grow up is making me feel this way about humanity.
UPDATE: 9 Month Milestones and baby Max's development notes.
In Motherly Love,
Mother Baby Child
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