I’m getting more and more behind on these, but I wanted to get some pictures posted before he turns 8 months! The time is just flying. William is a lot of fun these days, but also a real handful. When I was pregnant, we thought he was going to be a total monster based on his in-womb behavior. Then we were surprised by how incredibly good and easy he was as a newborn and the first few months. It turns out he was just lulling us into a false sense of security because he knew we would throw him out the window if he started out this way (just kidding!). He’s incredibly lovable, but instead of sleeping 8-11 hours at night, he wakes up three times to nurse, and sometimes refuses to go back to sleep. He sort of takes two naps a day (some days!), but they rarely last 40 minutes. He’s got 7 teeth now, crawls everywhere, pulls himself up on everything, and tries to walk. We keep telling him he can’t just let go of things and take steps, but he thinks he can. We tell him he’s not even 8 months old, but he doesn’t care. He keeps me on my toes and I’m completely exhausted from chasing him. He DOES NOT sit still, and always has to be moving. Lately he keeps trying to climb the fireplace and walk in the bathtub when we’re trying to bathe him! All of this has resulted in a lot of bumps, scrapes, and bruises, and a lot of racing hearts in his mom and dad. But he’s a sweet, happy boy. He’s thrilled when he sees his grandparents, and the best part of his day is when daddy gets home from work. He comes into my bed with me in the mornings and takes a little nap, and he sometimes wakes me up by gently putting his hand on my cheek. Of course, sometimes he wakes me up by yelling and stepping on my face or punching me, so there’s that. He also says “mooooommmmMA!” which I love, of course. It’s so fun to watch him growing and learning and exploring.
Oh, and he eats like a pig. He is really good at feeding himself solids. If you’re wondering what “program” we’re following (I know you’re not!), we’re not following any program. Since we started feeding him, he wanted to feed himself, so we’ve been letting him feed himself whole pieces of “real” food (under strict supervision, of course). I guess it’s sort of baby-led weaning, but after he eats that stuff for awhile, he starts to get frustrated and still wants more food, so we top him off with organic purees. So a typical meal will be some meat (he’s eaten chicken, egg, and pork, but he LOVES steak and pot roast), some fruits and veggies (he loves carrots, broccoli, kohlrabi, cauliflower, potato, squash, bell pepper, pear, apple, plum, melon, banana – basically all fruits and veggies so far. The only thing he doesn’t seem crazy about is avocado, weird child.), then most or all of a 4 ounce package of baby food. Oh, and either a bowl of homemade wheat cereal or yogurt. I bought organic wheatberries and grind them, then cook them with breast milk. And I started making the yogurt myself – it’s super easy, and he loves it. I spoon feed him the cow’s milk yogurt, but the goat milk yogurt is thinner and he drinks it from a cup. Anyway, you get the idea. He eats a ton, and that’s right after I nurse him. And THEN he nurses himself to sleep. He’s a big boy, but you’d never guess he could put it away like that. Not looking forward to paying for groceries when he’s a teenager. (For example, tonight he ate: a couple ounces of pot-roast, a slice of apple, two big pieces of melon, half a cup of goat-milk yogurt, and 2 ounces of broccoli-apple baby food.)
That was his first time eating avocado, a little before he turned six months actually. He doesn’t seem quite as opposed to it now.
And the first time eating carrots. He LOVES carrots.
That’s a frozen breast milk popsicle because his teeth were bothering him. A momsicle.
Once he started pulling himself up, he never went back and he never slowed down. These were from the very beginning:
Working on it, right before we had to lower the crib . . .
Still working on it . . .
Any object will do.
“Whoa mom, I got it!”
“And I’m never going to sit down again.”
And this is what he was doing that night when he was supposed to be sleeping. Just quietly walking around the inside of the crib.
He’s been doing a lot of playing and being cute:
Look at that fat face!
At Great Grandma Anne’s house.
We took a picnic to the park and he got to swing for the first time. Look, he knows what to do!
He’s scared of the vacuum cleaner.
And this is what crawling looked like at first. He’s an old pro now.
He still looks like an angel when he sleeps:
Okay, he was just falling asleep here.
And he’s out in Costco. In the least comfortable position imaginable.
Or maybe this is actually the least comfortable position.
One night this was the only way he would sleep.
Much better to sleep on daddy.
Or mommy.
Milk coma.
And this made me cry. When he was just starting to crawl, he crawled to Lucy’s shadow box and put his hand on it. Maybe he just wanted the toys, but it was still very touching.
In just a few days he’ll be 8 months old, and I’ll be late with the update again. Oh well, I’d rather be late with the updates and spending all of my time with him. It goes by so fast, and he’s already so independent. I’ll take every minute with him that I can get. I know what it’s like to lose out on those minutes. His babyhood is fading into the sunset.
I didn’t know you posted this. I didn’t see it show up on Facebook. I love all these pictures. I love my little sweet William.