Dashiell at eight months
Oh, boy, Dashiell is on the move! He's crawling his one-knee and one-foot crawl (it's so funny but effective!) and is across the room and trying to eat the Christmas tree in the blink of an eye. His new mobility has certainly changed our morning routine. I can hardly believe we used to be able to leave him on the bed while we got ready.
Dash pulls up on everything and is learning to sit down but isn't very graceful yet. On a few occasions he's has been able to stand upright unassisted but just for fractions of a second.
Two top front teeth are poking through and other teeth are close behind. I'm so sad that his gummy smile will be gone soon but I know he'll be so cute with a toothy grin. Teething has also meant some set backs in sleep, bummer! We had a week or so of 4+ hour stretches and it was ah-mazing. We also haven' t been getting those glorious 1.5 - 2+ hour naps. Hopefully when these teeth come in he'll get back to that. In the meantime: coffee!
Dash loves books, grabbing and throwing a big ball with us, knocking over block towers, shaking a maraca, and banging bowls or tupperware lids on his high chair or on the kitchen floor. When he's not doing those things he loves to sit on my hip and "help" me cook and do things around the house. He perches quietly and watches what I'm doing so intently. He also loves looking outside, especially if there are birds, and going for walks or runs in the BOB stroller.
He very much dislikes being on his back for a diaper change and will twist away so fast that I now change him on the bed. Somehow I am frequently not stronger than a baby and suddenly a bare bottomed boy is crawling away from me across the bed. It's actually pretty cute but risky! (I make sure Chris's pillow is closer than mine, wink!)
Just in the past couple of weeks Dashiell has become more vocal and lets loose shirll shrieks when he's really excited. He also makes the sound "ba!" and I swear I heard a "mama"-like sound but I haven't heard it repeated yet.
Dash continues to love food and eating. He usually eats one or two ounces of solid food three times a day in addition to nursing or bottles of breastmilk at daycare - so hungry! We're enjoying making our own baby food for him including: sweet potato with coconut milk, lentils and onion, kale-banana-quinoa, oatmeal with apple, and yogurt and fruit puree. We try to do a mixture of purees and some small, soft finger food that he can feed to himself.
What a fun, busy month!