8 months old

Our little boy is 8 months old today!  He is changing by the day.  He has pretty much mastered sitting up on his own.  If he gets down on the floor he is able to maneuver around pretty quickly.  He continues to roll sideways and scoot backwards.  He is often up rocking on all fours--especially in his crib--but hasn't quite figured out how to move forward yet.  This leads to him getting stuck in some precarious positions sometimes.

Lincoln has started pumping his fingers in a "bye-bye" gesture but has not associated it with saying goodbye.  He has also caught on to turning pages of board books.  His favorite books are touch-and-feel ones.  He has to compete with Emily sometimes, though, because she knows how the books go and tries to turn the pages right away or tries to turn back if you accidentally skip a page.

Lincoln now has two teeth (click on picture to zoom in and see) and usually takes two naps per day.  The transition period of dropping a nap is not always fun, but I think we're almost through it.  Sometimes Lincoln is in bed for the night by 6:00pm, which is before Austin even gets home for supper.  Although not always the ideal schedule, it makes for a somewhat less hectic mealtime when you only have to deal with one child. ;o)

Speaking of meals, Lincoln is down to four nursings and up to three meals.  I think this is the most time and labor-intensive feeding period.  We've made our way through most of the 1st Foods fruits & vegetables with mixed results.  We've also started with yogurt and some finger foods.  Pears seem to be his favorite, but with any food at anytime he may stonewall after only 2-3 bites.  It takes an immense amount of patience to sit and wait for him to give you an opening to shove in another spoonful.  Since that opportunity only occurs once every minute or two you end up constantly hovering with a spoonful of food within an inch of his mouth.  I don't remember it being this hard to get Emily to eat for this long.  I hope that doesn't mean Lincoln will be a picky eater!  The one thing you can always count on, though, are the flavored baby puffs.  He inhales those.  He also is very capable of drinking out of a handled sippy cup on his own.  We've still just stuck with water because he sometimes looks like a football player who takes a big swig and then projectile spits it out again.  Therefore, we've moved on to vinyl, pocketed bibs.  Meals are messy enough that he could stand to take a bath after almost every one.  At the very least, he needs a change of clothes.  Thank goodness for stain remover!

Lincoln LOVES bath time.  He squeals with delight whenever I start filling his bathtub and undressing him on the bathroom floor.  He'll spend up to 20-30 min. playing with bath toys and splashing around.  It's a lot easier now that he can sit up well and you don't have to have a hand on him at all times.  One of his favorite toys is the rubber duck.  Just like Emily did, he can--and does--like to stick the entire head in his mouth. :o)