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.**

A Glimpse of Spring

It hit 57 degrees yesterday. In February! Only a couple weeks after over two feet of snow fell all over the city. Crazy, right?!

It was wonderful to get outside without having to bundle up and just enjoy the fresh air. We pulled out the stroller, ditched our mittens, and hit the road.

Yeah, that's not us. But I wish it was.

This is more like it. While I can't wait to get Will out in the jogging stroller, neither of us are quite ready for it yet.

Our Little Herbivore

It has been about a month now since Will started on "solid" food, and as we suspected, he loves trying new foods! More often than not, he's kicking his legs in his high chair, waiting for his next bite and grabbing for the spoon.

We started at 5 1/2 months (Jan 14) with rice cereal, which he stayed on for a week until we moved onto fruits and veggies.

Following rice cereal, we tried avocado, figuring he could use the extra fat in his diet. And WOW- he goes nuts for it! At this point we were convinced he'd eat anything we put on a spoon and in his face. You know, like his Dad. But we were wrong. As usual, Will changes things up at the last minute to keep us on our toes.

Sweet potatoes were a huge failure, as were bananas. He loves carrots and pears as much as avocado, and lately peas (though he prefers his peas mixed with oat cereal).

I've been having a lot of fun making his meals for him, and during a couple of his nap times each week I'm steaming, pureeing and freezing organic veggies for his upcoming meals. It's so nice to have the time to prepare his food myself! Not only does it make me feel better to know exactly what's going into his body, and the quality of the food, but it's also a huge savings over jarred organic food.

6 Months Old

Will seems to be changing every day now, and I'm sure the next 6 months will be as action packed as the first 6. I look forward to each day with him, watching him learn and experience new things. The cold weather has kept us inside much of the last few weeks, which has been a great time to play new games and work on some new milestones.

A few highlights from Will's 6th month:

**Will LOVES to eat! He was ready to start solids at about 5 months, but we waited until our return from vacation. Cereal, avocado, pears, and peas were all a hit from the moment the spoon hit his lips. Sweet potatoes and bananas, not so much. But we'll try again on those. He looks so tiny and adorable in his big highchair! I'll post videos soon.**

**I've never seen a baby quite as active at 6 months as Will. He moves all over his crib within moments of being placed inside, when left on his activity mat he rolls across the room in mere seconds, his arms and legs are going, going, going! He was this way as an inside baby, too. **

**Will still loves being read to and I find myself buying new books often just to keep up variety for myself! We easily read 10 books a day, and a new favorite is Chugga Chugga Choo Choo- he's fond of my cool train noises.**

**He's getting so close to crawling! On the carpet he can go backwards, and gets up on all fours to rock back and forth, but he can't quite make himself go forward yet. On the hardwood, the best he can do is a pretty impressive Army crawl.**

**Will loves Peek A Boo these days. I think Grama was the first to get some smiles from his with this game, but it's now a favorite...especially on his changing table.**

**Will is pretty close to sitting on his own. Right now, he'll still topple over if left for more than about a minute, but he's getting stronger. We practice sitting during playtime each day, and he loves to sit with his little laptop in front of him. He is fascinated with so many of his toys now and can play on his own nicely.**

**Bath time is still his favorite time of day and splashes up a storm! We've had to move him from the countertop to the tub to keep the room from getting soaked...so instead, Mom and Dad are getting soaked.**

**Will is finally on a regular nap schedule, with a long nap in the morning and another in the late afternoon. He's in much better spirits when he gets the sleep he needs, and it gives me a chance to clean up, make dinner, and regroup.**

**Have a mentioned that the kid is pretty flexible? And reeeeally into his toes?**