8 Months Old

March has been a month of milestones for Will! I'm simultaneously bursting with pride and feeling a little sad over how quickly he's progressing through infancy. He's an amazing little guy (every parent says this, right?), and I love seeing how he changes literally every day now.

A few highlights from the past month:

**We started teaching Will needs-based sign language. So far it's limited to "more", "eat", and "water". He hasn't started signing back yet, but he seems to understand "more" now- hopefully he'll begin signing instead of aggressively smacking his high chair tray :) **

**Will figured out how to get to a sitting position from his tummy, can sit unassisted, pulls himself up to standing, and can crawl around quite capably on both carpet and hardwood! There's no stopping him now!**

**We had Will's first real injury...bleeding and lots of crying. While trying to master all of his new moves, he had some slips. I guess it comes with the territory of gaining mobility and being a little boy, but I doubt I'll ever get used to hearing his the sound of his "hurt-cry". I think he recovered before I did.**

**Will has both of his bottom front teeth now. They've broken through and are still making their way out, so you have to wait for a big laugh from Will to get a real look at the chompers.**

**Eating is still the highlight of Will's day, and he's on all fruits and veggies now, as well as finger foods (diced banana, mango, pear, fruit puffs, blueberries, wheat toast, rice cakes). He mastered the pincer grasp this month and can get pretty much anything on his high chair tray into his mouth- including a sippy cup with water.**

**I've been waiting for Will to shift from screeches and giggles into consonant sounds, and it happened this past month. He very consistently says "nanana" and "mamama", and less often "bababababa". The latter usually is a result of mimicking me.**

"I need a break. I think I'm gonna step down."

"Almost there..."

"Hi, Mom. Oh, am I supposed to be in the chair?"

"Uh, I can stand, but climbing back in isn't really in my skill set yet."

"My legs might be skinny, but they sure are strong!"

Chomperwatch 2011

We were convinced that Will would be one of those babies to pop out a tooth quite early. He was showing all the signs: excessive drooling, putting everything in sight right into his mouth. I even checked my baby book to find out when I popped out my first tooth (6.5 months, for the record, and I got a second two weeks later). We have the pediatrician check his gums each time we're there. Nada.

Until today!!

Sitting in his high chair this morning, screaming at me for more tiny chunks of banana to jam in his mouth, I spotted it! A little white speck poking out of his bottom gum. I started screaming ("YAY!" "BIG BOY!") and he stopped screaming to stare at me like I'm a complete loon. He let me get a good look and feel, and sure enough, the bottom right tooth is starting to break through, and from the looks of his gums the bottom left is coming right behind it.

It may be hard to believe, but I'm pretty certain he'll be even cuter with two little teeth in that gummy smile :)

On The Move!

Will rarely wants to be in his jumper these days; I think it's too confining for our little man on the move. A few days ago, I snapped this pic of him happily chewing one of the toys on the jumper.

More often than not, he's on the floor moving from one toy to another. The only thing that slows him down is the fact that we have hardwood floors, and they are pretty slippery for him. With bare legs or bare feet, he can get a bit better traction. Time to get the baby gates up on the stairs!

7 Months Old

We spent the better part of the last month in hibernation mode! At that start of February, Chicago faced a tremendous blizzard that had everyone snowed in for days. Of course, the day after the blizzard, Will was running a fever and clearly sick. As soon as we could get out, we headed out to see his Dr. who confirmed it was a bad cold. I didn't fare as well and ended up with a sinus infection that turned into an ear infection, then another sinus infection, and finally a double ear infection. 4 weeks later, and I'm on my last day of antibiotics. Thank goodness Will didn't get sick from me over and over again. We're both itching to get out of the house now!

A few highlights from Will's 7th month:

**Will's culinary adventures continued with sweet potatoes (he likes them now!), butternut squash, apples, and mango. As we get into his 7th month, I can start preparing more interesting foods for him, which is exciting.**

**We had the biggest blizzard in Chicago in decades! Unfortunately, it was too cold to take Will out for photos (and he was sick), but we snapped a couple from the front door. **

**We hosted GeeGee's 83rd birthday party at our house, and Will got to hang out with his 2 yr old second cousin, Matthew.**

**Will has been going to the day care center at our health club, and he's such a big boy when I drop him off... no tears, ready to play. They give out pagers so that parents can be alerted if their child is crying or needs a change, but Will has been fine each time I've left him for about 45 minutes.**

**Houston: we have a crawler! The little guy can get around pretty quickly now, and he's easily pushing himself into a sitting position. He also gets pretty ambitious pushing himself up on his toes. It looks like he might just stand right up! Usually, this results in him falling and then crying though. He'll get the hang of it soon.**