8 months for brady!

happy 8 months, brady boy!

 

here's what brady has been up to this past month...

brady has mastered sitting!  he went from not sitting at all, to sitting for long periods of time within the space of about a week.  right now, he's working on gracefully getting out of the sitting position and within the last day or two has shown significant improvement.  i'm normally not looking exactly when it's happening, but from what i can tell, he does a sort of tuck and roll to get from sitting to laying on his back.

which only lasts for two seconds because this kid rolls like nobody's business.  the first several times he rolled, it was in his crib when he was fully swaddled.  within a day or two he was occasionally rolling back to belly but i never seemed to catch it.  and since then, it's been constant rolling all over the place.  i think it's just been within the few days that he's been rolling as a means of getting from one place to another.  i can put him sitting somewhere, leave the room for two minutes, and come back to see that he's five feet from where he started.  abigail thinks it's especially cool when he does several rolls in a row without stopping.  i'm loving the rolling because it makes him so happy and really keeps him entertained.  the only downside is that he'll get stuck under the coffee table or roll into the brick fireplace.  like yesterday when he was in his room and rolled all the way over to where i have his fan and he was tugging on the cord.  glad i found that situation before he pulled a fan on his head.  so many hazards with a mobile child.

brady got his first haircut.  which was really just a trim of the hair around his ears.  but still... i'm counting it.  speaking of hair.  it's lightening up.  in pictures it frequently looks dark, but if you look at the actual hairs on his head, they're all just as blonde as abigail's.  we'll see how that turns out.  

brady loves his binky.  he always has a binky when he sleeps in his crib and most often has a binky when he falls asleep in his carseat too.  and very frequently when he's just hanging out.  he is super stealth about getting it in his mouth too.  sometimes i'll be holding him and holding a binky and somehow he gets it off my finger and into his mouth without me even realizing it.  or now that he can roll, he just rolls on over to his binky and pops it in his mouth.

which brings me to one of my favorite things that he does... spits his binky out.  if there's something he wants in his mouth, he spits his binky out with such force!  i first noticed it when he was hanging out on the floor of his bedroom after a diaper change.  when i leaned over to pick him up, out popped the binky, propelled a foot away.  it kept making me laugh out loud so one night i showed chris.  "watch this.  he's hungry and ready to eat.  when i pick him up, he's going to spit his binky out as fast as he can... maybe before i even get my hands on him, but definitely before his body leaves the floor."  and then it happened... just like i said it would.  the only part of that that makes me sad it that i know he just sees me as a food source.  it's not like he stopped crying because he wanted me to hold him... it's just because he wants to nurse.  and he does it every time he wakes up during the night too.  and even though it's not as funny, he'll do it when i put him in his bumbo that has some food on the tray already.  or if he's sitting in his bumbo with his bib on and he sees me bring a jar of food over to him, out pops the binky... right into the catcher part of the bib.  seriously cracks me up.  although how so am i?!  when it first started happening, i kept thinking to myself, "i never remember abigail doing this!"  and then i realized... oh, it's because she never had a binky in her mouth.  this kid... he's mastered the binky.

as far as size... his onesies are size 6 months (they're carters though... and carters clothes magically fit for-ev-er).  he almost never wears sleepers because it's so hot but the ones he has... i thiiiink they're 9 months.  some clothes are 6-9 months and HUGE.  but he's got a handful of things that say 18 months that fit him great.  and the outfit he wore today?  size 3 months.  so basically, sizing in baby boy clothes means next to nothing.  he's wearing a size 2 diaper during the day and a 3 at night.

speaking of night time, that size 3 diaper still frequently leaks during the night because he still wakes up a million and one times and needs to nurse before he falls back asleep (except for an hour ago where i heard him wake up and cry for two minutes and he actually fell back asleep before i went up to check on him).  there's really no "normal" because every night is different.  this kid is the epitome of unpredicatable.  but, if i had to find a method to the madness, he frequently goes to bed between 8 and 9, sometimes wakes up during the 11 o clock hour, very often wakes up around 2:30 (give or take), and a lot of times again betwen 4:30 and 6:30, and then gets up for the day sometime around 10.  so a good night means he only wakes up that one time at 2:30, and a rough night means he wakes up at midnight, three, and five.  every time he wakes during the night, i nurse him.  at least half of the times he wakes up, he needs something else (normally a diaper change (when do they learn to stop pooping during the night?!) and/or a reswaddle).  it's always quick.  naps are good.  he goes down without a problem and sleeps for 1.5 to 2.5 hours.  it used to always be 2h20 (like to the minute sometimes) but ever since i started weaning him from the swaddle, it's varied.  normally he just takes two naps during the day, but if we started the day early or are out late and not home for a normal bedtime, there's a short (like an hour... give or take) evening nap in there.  i know i shouldn't, but lately, i've just been keeping him awake way longer than i should because he's actually happy.  so even though i know he'd go down great for a nap after a 2 hour wake time, i'll keep him up playing with abigail and myself because he's happy and it just seems more fun to not have to worry about napping yet.  i'm so much more lax about napping and schedules this time around.

nursing is so fast.  like five minutes.  and he never needs to be burped.  he rarely burps, and if he does, it's completely on his own.  spitting up is virtually nonexistent.  he doesn't do the windshield wiper thing while he nurses, but sometimes he yanks at my tank top strap while he nurses and pops it.  i'm not a fan and he knows it.  if abigail is around when i try to feed him, he will not eat.  will. not.  she is the ultimate distraction.  so when they wake up at the same time, i normally go to her room and tell her i'm going to get brady and that i'll be back in a few minutes.  that way i can make sure he gets a good first feeding.  it's tricky timing wise and whatnot, but it's worth it to go the extra mile eliminating distractions.  he's got good ears.

solid foods are going really well.  i never need to straight-jacket him anymore.  after the first several times i did that, he got the hang of things and realized that he preferred not to have his arms tied down.  since then, he his table manners have improved dramatically.  brady always eats in his bumbo.  one of these days we'll transition to the high chair but right now the bumbo is easiest (complete opposite of how things were with abigail).  he eats everything i give him but there are some clear winners and losers.  he really loves peas and green beans.  LOOOOVES.  like if i get distracted while i'm feeding him, he starts grunting at me with an open mouth.  from what i can tell, he's not a huge fan of the jarred dinner type meal foods.  stuff like "turkey vegetable medley" or "sweet corn and rice."  so i'm not sure if it's the combination of flavors, the texture, the meat, the rice, the corn...  and he didn't seem that keen on avocado.  but he really likes everything else.  squash, carrots, mango, sweet potato, peaches, applesauce.  applesauce it actually how i get him to eat other stuff he's not crazy about.  although tonight i gave him tiny chunks of peaches on his tray and when he slowed down in his enthusiasm for getting them in his mouth, i started putting a chunk of peach on a spoon with a little bit of green beans, and he was all over that.  as far as rice cereal, i've only done oatmeal.  i almost always mix it in with jar foods (or whatever food i've mashed up... like pears) to make them thicker and easier/less messy.  food is always room temp or slightly warm.  he's not a fan of cold anything.  also, he loves puffs.  i just use them to keep him occupied and give him practice with his coordination, but he's getting good enough that i'm already paring back because i know they're just flour and sugar.  giving him chunks of peaches tonight almost felt mean though, they're so slippery and tricky to pick up.  way more difficult than the puffs that stick to even the driest of tiny fingers.  oh... and the kid loves hummus.  like the rest of us.

as far as temperament.  when he's happy, he is the happiest kid i've ever seen in my whole life.  the smiles and laughs are out of control.  just making eye contact with a mischievous face will send him into a fit of giggles.  he loves the suspense of watching my hand as it comes to tickle him.  and he's ticklish on pretty much every inch of his body.  my current favorite is pinching his thighs, but he laughs just as hard when i go for his belly and his neck.  under his arms, his feet, his back, his cheeks, and every other random place (i'm pretty sure abigail has tried them all at least once) yields laughter of some sort.  it is absolutely incredible.  i love tickling him before naps/bedtime.  it's like he's slap happy or something because he can't stop laughing but he can't stop rubbing his eyes either.  so he's just laughing so hard while he's taking out his whole face with his sleepy fists and i just delight in every bit of it.  within the last few weeks, i've noticed that he wakes up super happy in his crib (there's a good chance he's done this for a long time and i've just never noticed) and just hangs out and babbles and coos until i come get him.  he's tolerant of abigail's vigorous affection, loves being in his carseat (probably more so than being held) and is just overall a really really happy baby.  he still has his moments when he's just plain angry at life but it's getting more and more infrequent and when it happens, it's almost always accompanied by a very good reason (normally a short nap or just lack of sleep in general).  when he's crying, it's often within four minutes of his laughing and me telling him that he's the happiest baby ever.  he only knows how to go zero to sixty.  there's a reason i call him my bipolar child.  he only knows the two extremes.  thankfully, he's on the super insanely happy extreme way more often than not. 

i know there's tons of stuff i'm leaving out and hopefully i'll come back and add more to the post later (and pictures and links to the stuff i've already written), but as of right now, this is my snapshot of brady at 8 months.  he's so great.  it is positively remarkable the transformation that has happened since he was born.  i am in awe of this sweet little spirit.  and so insanely impatient for him to grow up just a little more.  he is going to be a crack up... i'm sure of it.