The Halpern Home: 8 month update

To me, it feels like month 8 has encompassed some major developments. It feels a little silly to say that since he hasn't hit any so-called "major" milestones. He still isn't sitting himself up (i.e. pulling himself up into the sitting position), crawling or pulling up on things. His major mode of transportation remains the ever-trusty log roll. Yet, my little baby seems to be transforming into a little boy before my very eyes.

He has shown himself capable of holding his own bottle, even though he still refuses to do so 99.9% of the time. He only holds it when he feels like it, and he's never held it in his mouth longer than 10 seconds at a time. Don't get me wrong, he doesn't drop it. Rather, he pulls it out of his own mouth and give me a goofy grin.

     At the very end of July, I thought Ryder was on the brink of crawling. I'd caught him quasi-crawling in his crib a number of times (while spying on him via video monitor), and I'd even coaxed him into some pretty promising scootches while playing on the floor in the living room. That being said, it's now nearing the end of August and Ryder has made zero progress in the crawling department. He has great head, neck and chest strength (meaning he likes to roll onto his belly and push himself way up with his arms), which you'll know is something I thought Ryder may never do if you've read earlier blog entries. But Ryder has never lifted his belly off of the floor. The rocking on hands and knees motion that most babies do right before they learn to crawl is a foreign maneuver in the Halpern Home. Ryder has never "rocked" a day in his life. Oh well. As I've mentioned in prior posts, I'm honestly not itching for a crawler. I'm happy for Ryder to take his sweet time, which is good since he clearly plans to do that anyway.

     I can't remember if I've already mentioned this before, but one of the coolest things that Ryder does these days is turn on the mobile in his crib by himself. As far as I'm aware, he only does this in the morning after he wakes up but before I go into his room to get him. Almost every morning, I enter his room to find him ooched down to the bottom of his crib with the mobile going. In all honesty, it spooked me the first time I found him this way. For a split second, I was convinced that someone had come into his room to turn the mobile on for him. But within a matter of days, I caught him in the act on the video monitor. Sure, my almost 9 month old doesn't crawl, but he turns on his own mobile. Genius, I tell you.

     Ryder has also started mimicking a lot in the last couple of weeks. If you click your tongue at him, he often tries to click his back at you. His favorite mimicking activity is to nod his head yes or shake his head no. In fact, as of the last week or so, he likes to instigate head shaking and nodding without any encouragement needed. He prefers shaking "no" over nodding "yes." Either he's showing a propensity for being disagreeable or he just finds the physical exercise of shaking his head to be easier than nodding (I'm hoping its the latter, rather than the former). Once Ryder truly begins to understand what it means when he shakes his head "no," we're in trouble. He's already doing it ALL.THE.TIME, and he already thinks its funny.

     We've also been working on sippy-cup usage with Ryder. I give him the cup, filled with water, during lunch and dinner. He mostly plays with it and/or chews on the spout. But I think he's starting to understand what it's for. When I hold the cup up for him, he scrunches his nose and starts taking rapid, noisy breaths/snorts through his nose. I have no idea why he does this, but it's freaking hilarious. When I pull the cup away, water drips out of his mouth, so I know he's at least figured out how to draw some liquid out of the cup. Anyway, I'm really just trying to familiarize him with the sippy. He'll figure it out eventually, and from what I understand, there is no major hurry at this point.

     Ryder hasn't had an official "weigh-in" since his 6 month check-up. However, he did have a fully-clothed unofficial weigh in at a doctor's appointment a couple of weeks ago (when he was just over 8 months). He was 16 pounds, 13 ounces. My guess is that he'll weight at least 17.5 pounds (but probably more) at his 9 month appointment. He doesn't seem small to me anymore, and he definitely isn't scrawny. I'm very curious to see where his percentiles fall on the scale at his upcoming check-up. We'll see, I guess!

   Perhaps Ryder's biggest accomplishment over the past few weeks has been his ability to FINALLY sit unassisted. I'd say he had this mastered at 8.5 months. He'll still topple every now and then (which makes him M-A-D), but he's pretty stable. I think that the sitting is what makes him seem more substantial and less baby-ish. You can walk into a room, and Ryder will just be sitting there on the ground, playing with toys. It just seems so grown up!

    Another contributing factor to his less-babyish persona: teeth. He's got two of them (bottom center). They are super cute, but I'm in no rush for him to get more. We made it through the first bout of teething unscathed, but there is no telling how we'll fare with future teeth.

   And another factor (possibly the most influential factor) which makes Ryder seem less baby-ish: the hair. He has so much of it! And besides the sheer quantity, it looks as if Ryder has a hair-do. Numerous people have asked whether he's had a haircut because of the appearance of a "do." Nope. No haircut yet.

    Ryder still thumbs his nose at formula most of the time. These days he's taking between 15-22 ounces a day, which is far less than most 8-9 month olds. He just doesn't seem too interested. He still prefers solids. I feed him three solid meals a day: fruit and oatmeal or yogurt for breakfast, a veggie and/or veggie mixed with grains at lunch, and a meat/veggie mixture for dinner. In the past week, I've given him some finger foods to try. He's tried bananas, peas, grapes and carrots. The bananas were a huge hit. Since they are soft and mushy, Ryder had an easy time with the banana chunks and shoveled them into his mouth as fast as he could. The other foods were more challenging. He liked them and was good getting them from the tray to his mouth, but because they weren't as mushy and soft, he gnawed on them for forever and didn't manage to swallow much. The carrots were particularly tough, but I think I'll just try to steam them longer next time so that they are softer. It may be a slow process, but I'm sure he'll pick up on the finger foods over the next several weeks.

    Finally, here are some pictures from the last month or so: