Kaden 8 Month Update

Our eight month old boy is starting to fill out! He weighs over 19 pounds and is now wearing 9 month clothes. You can tell by looking at his face that he's putting on some weight (which is a good thing)! He's also got some adorable leg rolls going on. Now that it's warming up, I've had an excuse to let them show. Love it! He's also starting to get a lot more hair. It doesn't really show up well in photos because it's blonde. But in a few months I think he'll have a good head of hair.

Look at those leg rolls!

He's also continuing to get more mobile. I have to be careful about watching him because he gets into mischief every time I turn my back. The photos below illustrate this point. Hahaha.

Window blinds make great toys, mom!

He still can't crawl yet, but he can push up on all fours (sometimes all the way up on his feet in a high plank position). He still prefers to barrel roll from place to place. But we're working on forward motion. He will scoot forward to grab a toy I put just outside of his reach.

He is much better about sitting up unsupported. He's still working on getting down gracefully. (He still flops over backwards sometimes). And his new favorite activity is clapping!

We are still encouraging his musical talent. He enjoys playing the piano with us and often directs our hand movements as we play with him. I also give him plastic kitchen tools and let him bang on them like drums. I suspect I'll regret that in a while... But right now, it's cute.

One new thing we've started this month is cloth diapering him during the day. Diapers are SO EXPENSIVE here on base. It's like $10 for a pack of 30, which lasts about 4 days. Cloth diapers have come a long way in the last few years and so it's actually pretty easy and cost effective, even for someone who hates messes like myself. We waited this long to start them because the brand we chose are rather bulky and would not have fit under smaller clothes. But now that he's grown into them, I think we're saving some green (the environment and dollars!)

We've started some new foods this month. I've been trying to introduce some new vegetables, without much success. He HATES green beans. But he will eat mashed potatoes if I mix them with peas, and he doesn't seem to notice that some of the organic fruit and veggie mixes I buy contain spinach. He also loves mashed bananas and pureed blueberries! Not a fan of mangoes, but at least we know he's not allergic so I can give him some pre-packaged fruit mixes containing them.

He's getting close to the age where he can start feeding himself, so I've been giving him large rice wafers to chew on. They're designed to dissolve easily in a baby's mouth so they can "chew" them without teeth. The idea behind starting with these types of crackers is that, when he gets to the bottom and it breaks apart, he has to try and learn how to get the small left-overs into his mouth. When he can do that consistently, he'll be ready to pick up small pieces of steamed fruits and veggies and feed himself.

One challenge has been getting him used to new stimuli and textures. He seems to be very sensitive about his hearing and touch. Now that he's so big, we decided it was time to start bathing him by setting his baby tub in the big tub and filling it with water instead of setting him in the infant sling it came with. Our first time setting him down in water was a huge disaster. He absolutely freaked out. I realized maybe that was too much of a change at once, so the next day I filled up a baking pan with about 1 inch of water and tried standing him up in it so he only got his toes wet. Still had a melt down. So the next day I sat him on the ground in front of the pan with the idea that we'd only get one hand wet. He immediately started panicking and would not face the pan. He twisted away and whimpered while clawing at my shirt like a cat around water. UN-believable.

So I had to intentionally work with him every day, getting him reacquainted with water. First he sat a ways back and just watched me play with some bath toys in the water pan. Eventually he was willing to come closer and try to grab the toys. When he did and got wet, he'd cry. But slowly the cries faded to whines. Then one day he accidentally set his foot in while trying to turn away - but kept it there without complaint. So I draped both feet in and slowly poured water over his toes. I showed him how fun it can be to splash around and move the rubber ducks around on top of the water. Eventually he gave in and started playing. Within about a week, I was able to set him in the bath tub and fill it up around him until he was submerged up to his belly button without him crying. What a feat! Now he loves bath time (as long as we start him out in a dry tub). The next step will be setting him down in water!

 Now we love to splash!

He also apparently hates sitting in grass. Something new we'll need to work on. Till then, here are some cute Easter-themed pictures commemorating his 8 month birthday!