8 Months Old

 Baby Zaby (who acts older than a baby) is now 8 months old as of today. (Surprise, I actually posted something on time:).  He is such a funny boy, and still has the best smile. 
In the past month he has learned how to:

• clap his hands - oh it's so cute.  He smiles so big every time he claps.  A couple of days ago, he "played" a song on the piano, then clapped for himself.  All you have to do is say, "yea Zaby," and he will start clapping
• wave bye-bye.  He waves by bending and wiggling his fingers rather than moving his whole hand back and forth
• say, "Mama"

• Move - he doesn't officially crawl yet; however, he is sooo close.  He rocks on his hands and knees, moves his hands forward, and lunges his body forward.  I don't know how he manages to keep his legs crossed while doing this.  Once he has inched forward, he turns, puts his head down, then pushes his body back up to a sitting position.  By doing this, he has managed to move about a foot in either direction.  If he would just move his knees he would crawl and mobility would be a lot easier.  He rolls really well, and stretches and reaches for things.  He has an amazing ability to grab things (very quickly) and knock over everything.  He is a crazy little man - always moving in some form or another, always grabbing things, and trying to climb on things.  It is impossible for him to sit still.  He stands up against the bath tub and knocks all the shampoo and body wash bottles into the tub.  He empties bookshelves, drawers, everything.  Eliza sat perfectly still and didn't get into anything at this age, so this is all new to me.  If possible, he does prefer standing to sitting.  He managed to stand alone for 1 second today, but he can stand for quite a while if holding onto something.  When he starts crawling, or worse walking - he will literally be into everything. 

• Eat food - no not baby food; he wants the real stuff.  He has had bread, scones, pizza crust, crackers, macaroni noodles, peas, peaches, pears, graham crackers, pancakes, oranges, yogurt, and bananas (although he didn't care for those much).  The problem is he shoves everything into his mouth that he will gag himself at times. 
• Gives hugs, kisses, and pats on the back - he is a very affectionate little guy
• Pull hair and take things from his sister. 
• He has 2 slivers of bottom teeth

• Throw his weight around - it's not a good thing because he can pack it in.  When he gets mad, he goes stiff as a board and throws himself backwards.  It's hard to hold onto him, and I seriously don't know how he can maintain such a stiff body, it's hard to bend his limbs when he goes like that. 
• Get what he wants which most of the time is for mom to pick him up.  This little man has some lungs on him - he can really scream and then acts like he hasn't a care in the world when mama picks him up.  He grins and smiles, smiles and grins. 
• He hates getting put in his car seat.  Once I wrestle him in there, and give him something to hold he is fine, but the initial putting him in is hard.  I don't use the infant car seat anymore - it got too heavy to lug around with my 20 pound baby in it.  We just use a rear facing car seat.   
• He is a paper detective.  If the tiniest piece of paper is remotely within reach, he will get it.  Some of the things he puts in his mouth, I have no idea where he even got it.  He's remarkable with manipulating his hands. 

Everywhere I go, he gets lots of attention.  Everyone says he's so cute, and everyone comments on his smile.  I have people come up to me from across the room just to mention that he grabbed their attention.  Something about Zaby attracts a lot of people.  But I would definitely agree... He's just so cute!  Thanks for being my baby boy buddy.  I sure love you!!

7 Months Old

Where has the time gone?  Can he really be 7 months old?  Yes, he is 7 months old.  Yes I am about 5 months behind on all my posts.  Yes, he keeps me busier than a beaver everyday.  Yes, he is absolutely adorable, and has the best smile around.

He was sleeping through the night (at about 9 weeks old).  However, since we came back from Utah on June 3, he has only slept through the night 1.  Yes, ONCE!!  I no longer consider him a good sleeper, and I am completely exhausted.  I get up with him two or three times a night.  Why?  What happened?  Here's my theory...

1)  The boy WILL NOT eat baby food of any kind - no cereal, no applesauce, no baby food.  He won't open his mouth, turns his head to the side, spits out anything we manage to force inside, and even falls asleep in his high chair to avoid it - more on that later. 

He won't take a bottle, only chews on the nozzle of a sippy cup, and pretty much lives on nursing.  So...he wakes up in the night because my 20 pound 7 month old boy is hungry.  He's not just suckling for comfort in the night; he is guzzling and gulping and eating.  He will "chew" on crackers but rarely do they make it to his stomach.  If we try to offer him something, he refuses to open his adorable little mouth.  Grr!!

2)  He is in the process of cutting his first four teeth.  Yes, the front four teeth are coming through - poor boy

3)  He doesn't take to sickness well.  We've been to the doctor three times in the past two weeks.  He has Roseiola and we are still combating his yeast infection (seriously didn't know boys could get one of those).

4)  He must have gotten so used to room sharing the two weeks we were away, that he simply misses me during the night. 



Oh, this boy is adorable, funny too!!  He is the epitome of a Mama's boy.  I've never seen anything like it.  Happy, cheerful, content, talkative, and giggly as long as I am not only in sight, but within an arms length.  If I put him down, or take two steps away from him, watch out - it's like the world has come to an end.  He throws himself to the ground, and screams like the sky is falling.   Pick him up, and it's like nothing happened. 

 

He loves to give me hugs and kisses - he is much more lovey dovey than Eliza.  When he is playing on the ground, I of course, have to sit next to him.  He will play for a few minutes, turn to give me a hug and kiss, go back to playing, then do it all over again.  I can't complain about it except that it is nearly impossible to get anything done unless I want to hear the screams. 

 

He is a wild boy - always grabbing things, always flailing his arms, throwing himself backwards, lunging for thing out of his reach.  He is so close to crawling, any day he will take off.  He rolls this way and that way, pulls himself up to a standing position against the bathtub, and somehow manages to grab everything, even when it doesn't seem possible.  He can't and won't sit still for a second, and we already spend the majority of Sacrament meeting outside of the chapel with him.

 

He loves attention (especially mine), and loves his sister.  He watches her all day and giggles.

He babbles, blows raspberries, moves his mouth like a fish, and says, "Ma-ma and Mom."  I love it when he looks at me and says, "Mom!"  Eliza said "da-da" first so this is a special treat for me. 

In these two pictures, he is falling asleep in his high chair!

 

He loves the bathtub, giggles when you change his diaper (unless he has a yeast infection, then he screams), and loves to eat paper.  Although frustrating at times, he is the cutest, most affectionate little boy around.  I love him to pieces.  Who couldn't fall in love with that face.

Yep, that's the one!

Look who's sitting up

Ok, so he's been sitting up for the greater part of a month and half now, but considering how I am still trying to catch up on laundry from our summer travels and blog posts since spring break (back in March), I'm posting this now in an effort to catch up.  Besides, this boy is cute, cute, cute!!  My favorite part about Zaby is his smile - it is so contagious.  He has so many different kinds for different occasions.  He pretty much sits around all day with a grin on his face.  He does the funniest things with his lips.  I want to capture them all to always remember.  You couldn't ask for a happier little man.  Without further ado

 

 He looks so grown up in this booster chair.  However, this captures his biggest smile.

 His smile of adoration - I get this one a lot!

 I love this face!

Now that he can sit, he doesn't like lie down.  If I lay him on the floor to say, change his diaper, or put on his pants, he tries to do a sit up.  He has been successful a couple of times. 

 Of course, he likes to reach for the toys that are just outside his reach, so he still falls over a lot even though he is pretty good at sitting alone. 

 Did I mention that his favorite toy, thing, food, etc. is paper - any kind of paper will do.

He always manages to find it and get it no matter its location in the room, and his proximity.  I don't think I have ever pulled as much paper out of any number of people's mouths as I have his.  

 Alas, since sitting is old hat to him now, he isn't really content to just sit anymore. He has tried to crawl (has successfully scooted forward on occasion), and he's really into standing. He doesn't pull up on his own, but if you rest him against something, he can stand for quite sometime. His favorite place to stand is against the bathtub. Something about the tub makes this bud-the-bud extremely happy.

 

4th of July

We found ourselves celebrating Independence Day at the Robert Moses beach on Long Island, NY with our great friends the Wheelers whom we met during our time in Illinois.  Arriving around 8:00, we beat the traffic and the crowds.  However, within an hour of claiming our place on the beach, it became packed with people and umbrellas as far as the eye could see in both directions.  Eli and Eliza quickly became friends.  The parents of these two cute munchkins were secretly happy that they hit it off so well.  If marriages could be arranged....

After a breakfast of original New York bagels, we claimed our spot on the beach.  After I finished laying out the blanket, I looked around for Eliza.  I found her sitting on this red chair belonging to our neighboring beach bums.  Not knowing these people at all, she waltzed right over, stepped over their blankets, and made herself at home in "my red chair."  When my initial shock died down, our new acquaintances (who happened to be from another small suburb of Philadelphia), said she could sit there as long as she liked.  Hilarious!!

 

It didn't take Zaby long to fall in love with the beach. He quickly became a bonified sand baby - covered in head to toe with grains of sand.  I'm not sure how much sand he ingested, but based on the handfuls and handfuls we thwarted, I'm sure he managed to eat A LOT. 

 

We played in the sand, ran through the water, played in the sand, tried boogie boarding, and built sand castles.  Brooklyn became very adept at boogie boarding.  I managed to catch a few good waves.

 

 

I am so in love with this picture - it just melts my heart.

 

 

In all that sand playing, Zaby managed to make friends with baby Annika (1 month younger than him)

 

Eliza's favorite part of the day was running through the water as the waves came in.  If only a camera could truly capture the joy.

Some of us took a snack break, others took a nap, then we were right back at it again.

 

 What a silly girl!!  Whenever I ask if I can take her picture, she either closes her eyes and smiles or turns away!.  I totally love this girl!

 

Around noon, after four packed hours of beach fun, we decided to head back to the place we were staying.  Traffic was much heavier coming back.  So many people decided to venture out to the beach that some of them closed because there were too many people.  We were super glad we got there early. 

 Hopefully the beginning of a blossoming friendship!  How cute!

Bruce took this picture of me (proof that I was there) on the way back while we were at a standstill on the road.  At this point, Bruce, the driver, was the only one awake.  Maybe it was a good thing we were stuck in traffic - the kids and I got a good nap in!

 

After a fantastic lunch prepared by Kara's mom, we spent the afternoon in her aunts pool.  I was a little surprised at how eager Eliza was to get in the pool - she is usually hesitant because the water is often cold.  She did manage to fall off of the floating pool recliner.  Luckily I was right there to quickly pull her back up.  It didn't seem to phase her a bit as she eagerly jumped right back on it.  

 Later we rowed out on the private lake in Kara's aunt's backyard.  Eliza sure does look cute in a life jacket. 

 What a relaxing time on the water - for me anyway, Bruce did all the rowing.  Baby Zaby was taking a nap and missed out on the rowing fun. 

 We ran ourselves ragged that day - packed full of so much fun, it was almost surreal.   A wonderful BBQ with friends, and fireworks over the lake, what a great way to celebrate our country's Independence Day. 

 Thanks Wheelers for the fun weekend.  We sure miss hanging out with you, and are glad that we got the opportunity to spend this holiday together.