Eight Months.

Well...I pretty much no longer have a baby. I have a tiny little boy. We have had such an awesome month together and I swear he is more and more fun every day. He was sick for most of the month which sucked. It started out as a common cold. We took him in to get checked out by his doctor and found that he had a sinus infection and infections in both ears. They put him on Amoxicillan and told us to give him Tylenol and Ibuprofen as needed. I felt like I was constantly drugging him or suctioning his nose. He was so congested and miserable. After a week of antibiotics, he still didn't feel better. We went back to see his doctor and he was given a more powerful antibiotic. Tomorrow will be his last day of that (day 10) and he finally seems to be feeling better.

He is so amazing. Even when he was sick and miserable, he was not fussy. He laugh was all scratchy and his smile was under a swollen, red nose...but it was there. He is such a trooper! I'm just so thankful that he is finally back to normal and can start having real fun again!

My mom bought him some stacking cups to play with a couple of weeks ago. He loves them! He will pick two up and bang them together over and over and over again. He will also take one and lift it to his mouth as if he is pretending to drink out of it. This was hilarious to me because he hadn't used a sippy cup (correctly) before so he was just going off of what he'd seen us do with cups. We introduced a sippy cup again last week and he is slowly getting the hang of it.

As far as food goes, he is a whole new baby. We started really introducing solids on Sunday, October 14. We went to Olive Garden with my dad and Peggy and Nolan was sitting in the high chair. I broke off a piece of my breadstick and put it near his mouth to see what he would do. He took a bite, chewed it, swallowed it, and went back for more like he'd been doing it his entire life! That night when we got home, I gave him some sweet potato puff cereal with his dinner and he started pinching them between his pointer finger and thumb and lifting them to his mouth. He has also been drinking water out of a cup with no lid (with assistance.)

He typically wakes up between 8:00 and 9:00 each morning. We go downstairs and sit right down for breakfast. Right now that usually consists of yogurt and maybe a little oatmeal. Then he sits on the floor and plays with toys for about an hour or until he starts acting hungry again. At that time, he gets a bottle and takes a one-two hour nap. The rest of our day is spent playing it by ear. We run errands, meet up with friends, play, snooze a little bit, cuddle, and hang out. He isn't scheduled much again until around 7:30-8:00 in the evening when it is time for dinner. He eats a fruit or vegetable puree with either rice cereal or oatmeal mixed in. Then we do his bath, bottle, and bed.

On Monday, October 20, we moved him to his crib for the first time. Up until then, he'd been sleeping in his Rock and Play next to my side of the bed. We noticed he seemed to be outgrowing it and looked uncomfortable. The first night without him in our room was really hard on me. I cried and cried and cried. All I could think about was how he was going to wake up alone for the first time in his life and have no idea where he was at. We hadn't spent much time in his nursery before that night (besides the occasional rocking and book-reading.) He hadn't spent any time in his crib.

He did just fine! He cried a little bit, but not nearly as much as I did. The second night was quite a bit harder, but I think he was overly tired. He ended up crying for a lot longer than I was comfortable with and I wasn't able to calm him down in the way I wanted. I caved and brought him to our room for the night. Last night, I was at work and Chris decided to try the crib again. Nolan did awesome! He didn't cry going down and slept all the way through until almost 9:00 this morning. He even woke up and played with his toys in his crib until Chris got up with him instead of crying for someone to come get him. He is in his crib again tonight so hopefully he does just as well.

He is getting very good at sitting on his own and isn't as wobbly as he used to be. He hardly ever loses his balance. He started grabbing onto my hands and pulling himself to standing about a week ago. He couldn't take steps (while holding our hands) until two days ago, but now he is so good at it! He will hold our hands and walk clear across the room. It is so adorable. He isn't making any progress in the crawling department and I'm starting to think he isn't going to. He rolls like a pro and uses that to get where he wants to go. I think he'll use that as his means for getting around until he starts walking...eek!

He talks all the time. So far, his regular babble has consisted of lots of Mamas, Dadas, and Babas. He throws in a few other sounds every now and then. If I am not giving him the attention he wants, he will yell "Maa! Maa!" over and over until I look at him, then he will start laughing. I don't know if he fully realizes he is calling me yet, but it is adorable nonetheless.

We went to the zoo for the first time yesterday. He seemed to be more into the people watching than the animal watching. He had a blast though! He did have quite the conversation with a friendly gorilla through a really thick window. Nolan really wanted to make sure he knew about everything else going on in that crazy zoo.

He is still in size 3 diapers and he is kind of in between clothing sizes at the moment. His 6-9 month clothes are getting snug while his 9-12 month clothes are still too big. I'm not worried though because the kid is growing like a weed and will be outgrowing his 12 month clothes before I know it.

He laughs at everything. Seriously. He has this deep belly laugh where he has to stop and catch his breath because he is so out of control. His armpits are super ticklish and nothing makes him crack up quite like being tickled. However, he also laughs if he is sitting in his swing and I look over at him and smile. There isn't much that doesn't entertain him. He is so well-natured and genuinely fun to be around.

He is 2/3 of a year old and I literally can't believe it. I know I will be writing his nine month post before I know it...

Nolan, you and your daddy are the loves of my life. Thank you for being mine.