8 Months Old Today

Today Bradley turned 8 months old! We celebrated having family dinner tonight which is a first, usually Bradley eats a little earlier than Nathan and me but I've been trying to push back his dinnertime so we can all eat together. We also let him try feeding himself puff cereal for the first time last night and by today he was a champ. If it involves food he masters the skill quickly. If it involves milk however ... Mommy is still best. We've been letting him play with a sippy cup in hopes that it will be more of a hit than the bottle. So far he really likes chewing on it and acts surprised whenever he manages to get a little water out.

He's also been much less clingy since my last post. I guess he's feeling better. Thank goodness, my patience was wearing thin. I'm sure I'll laugh at this when he's a toddler causing mayhem but in the meantime it's been very taxing. It's nice to be wanted but oh my gosh, I'm okay with some limits.

Bradley has a few new quirks that are rather amusing. I've been taking him into the bathroom with me while I take my morning shower and fastening him into this cute baby rocking chair contraption with toys hanging from it. This has worked like a charm for about the past month ... until he decided he was no longer interested in the chair and was going to dedicate his life to trying to get at the bathroom cupboards. These cupboards are not actually within reach of the chair (I'm no fool) so one has to do some serious contortions to even get close. Yesterday I was almost done with my shower when I heard some loud sounds of distress on the other side of the shower curtain and when I looked out I saw my son dangling from the front of the rocking chair, unable to pull himself back up. I had to haul him up by the back of his shirt (he was not a fan of this treatment) and quickly rinse myself off so I could get out of the shower before I had to rescue him again. He now gets to play in his pack n play during my showers. This is lonely and he doesn't like it. Stinker.

He also has two teeth now and likes to test them out on mommy at the end of mealtimes. Not okay. I was told in my parenting group that you're supposed to smoosh their faces into you when they do this so they can't breath and learn that this is not okay behavior. My son GRINS when I do this to him. Like we're playing a very fun game. How did I end up with a little imp? I just have to be watchful now and when he slows down the eating we call mealtime over. Stinker.

But he's getting to be so much fun - Nathan and I love how we're getting to see more and more of his personality. If he can tell that one of us is teasing him he gets SO excited. I sometimes lay down next to him and pretend to snore and open one eye to look at him and quickly close it and he will get a huge smile on his face and cackle when I open both eyes and look at him. And he gets so excited when Nathan gets home or walks in the room. Nathan is in charge of bath time and those guys have a ball. And he loves the kitties, especially Layla. He grins whenever he sees her and when she brushes against his face (with some help from Mommy!) he giggles. He lives to grab her tail. I'm so glad our cats are sweethearts, I have zero concern about any of them taking a swat at him. Still, we're trying to teach him to be gentle.

And here are some pics from our Christmas card photo shoot we did at my parents' house!

Aunt Nancy got some snuggle time.

And so did Grandma and Pa. Bradley likes being properly appreciated by all his fans!