All Things Ian - 8 Months Old!

Our little man is eight months old today! I really can't believe it. Seems like just a few weeks ago we were getting everything out to set up the nursery! (Haha - now we're constantly trying to put everything up.)

Ian has definitely taken an interest in solid foods this past month, especially foods that aren't pureed. For a couple of days in the middle of this past month, he actually went on a pureed foods strike and wouldn't eat anything with that super smooth consistency. He got over it after a couple of days though and decided he liked his Stage 2 foods after all. This past month he has tried quite a few new foods: apricots, mango, avocado, pineapple, banana bread, wheat bread, waffles with berries on top, mashed potatos, green beans (cooked with onions and seasonings, not the pureed kind), chex mix, fettuccine with marinara (he wasn't a big fan of this), and I'm sure a few others I am not thinking of right now. He loves his breads, just like his Momma!

He is so funny when we feed him food off of a regular fork. He loves to help guide into his mouth! He almost gets cross-eyed looking down at it, but will carefully wrap his little fingers around the fork before bringing it to his mouth. A lot of times I will just tear off a piece of bread or green bean and feed it to him with my fingers and he likes that too. But, he has to see what it is before I put it into his mouth! I can't blame him - I like to know what I am eating too.

Ian still loves to play with bags. He is fascinated by all things that crinkle (except leaves - those scare him to death!). If he gets lucky enough to find two bags together, he will sit there for quite a while banging the bags together to hear them crinkle. Even though he's pretty good about not putting them in his mouth, we still keep a real close eye on him whenever we do let him play with a bag.

His little muscles are getting stronger and stronger everyday. Remember how last month I said I loved it when he would tuck his little legs up and curl up against our shoulder when we picked him up? Well, this month, he will stick them straight out when we pick him up so his whole body is parallel with the floor! If he can keep that up, he'll make a great gymnast!

He is getting much more proficent at rolling over. In fact, it's hard to get him to try and crawl because he keeps rolling over every time I put him on his tummy! It gets comical sometimes. It's almost a game between the two of us - whether he can roll over faster than Mommy can get his hands and legs moving in a crawling motion.

He also loves to bang his toys together. One of his favorite combinations is a rubber spatula and his little toy basket.

Ian has always been quite the little chatterbox. He has been very verbal from the time he was born. It's so cute to listen to him talk and I love hearing his little baby sounds. About three weeks ago, James walked into the room and Ian said, "Aye Dee-dee". Sure sounded like "Hey Daddy!" to us, but we figured there was no way he could really be saying that. But then we were telling some friends about that over New Year's lunch and Ian repeated it twice! I never thought about it, but James pointed out that I do say "Hey Daddy" quite a bit on the phone and to greet him when he comes home. Maybe Ian has picked that up. As I wrote about in a recent post, he also seemed to say "ohh bohh" (oh boy) the other night. He says "mama" or "memamamama" too - the latter more when he is upset. We have yet to get much of this on video, but hopefully we'll catch him talking for the camera one day soon.

Ian now likes to sleep with both his froggie and puppy on his arms. It's the cutest thing to see him all cuddled up. And, of course, he still loves all of his lights/sounds paraphenalia - his glow worm, seahorse, aquarium, and mobile!

Good night, little buddy. Sleep tight and may all your dreams be sweet. We love you and are so blessed to have you as part of our family.