I know I say this every month, but seriously, where did the time go? I blinked after he turned 7 months, and now he is 8 months! He is growing up so, so fast!!
Baby Stats
Haven't weighed him recently, but I'm guessing he's around 17-18 lbs now. He's definitely gaining weight as his clothes are getting tighter and tighter. :)
He is still wearing some 6-9 month clothes, but he is growing out of those now and is wearing a lot more 6-12 months clothes too.
He currently eats 5-6 oz of soy formula during the day (every 4 hours), and will eat 7-8 ounces of food twice at night (once before bed, and once around 3-4 AM).
We introduced dairy to Caleb this month (cottage cheese and yogurt). He is a big fan! He still loves his veggies and fruit too! We also gave him some pureed turkey (and that was a big FAT NO!). Oh the face he gave was priceless, and then he started crying. I wasn't going to torture the kid. So then we tried a mixture of chicken and sweet potatoes and he liked that MUCH better. We are aiming for some bigger chunks of food this next month to get him to use those teeth and used to other textures, etc.
The boy now has 6 teeth! Say what?! You get 20 teeth up through turning 3 years old, and this boy has almost 1/3 of his teeth! I was shocked!
He still sleeps from about 8-8:30 PM to around 7:30-8:30 AM. Since he was sick, he has had a harder time getting used to being back in his bed, though he is doing better. I also think he gets separation anxiety sometimes. But we're getting through that. It's hard to know though...because sometimes it is teething too! He may wake up as little as once during the night, and as much as 3-4 times. But for now, he's not teething and he's not sick! So that's good!
OH boy does our boy talk like crazy! :) He says Nna Nna a lot now for food...and we know that means food. It happens everytime he knows it is time to eat! We think that he says that because everytime I would feed him, I would say "Num Num!" And so we think that is where he is getting that! Such a smart boy! He also says Da Da a lot! I mean a lot! We don't know that he is associating Todd with Da Da, but he is definitely saying it! He also has said Ma Ma once (I think).
He does a lot of jumping and babbling...even if he is just sitting on your lap. He is sooo active! He will jump and jump and jump! All by himself.
He has started to crawl and starting to climb up on things and standing! Yes - it's true! He took his first crawl step this past Friday! And just yesterday, he crawled 2-3 crawl steps to me! He also crawls backwards too! He gets up on his knees and moves his body front to back like he is ready to go! It's soo cute! It's sooo amazing to watch him learn these things. He is also climbing up on furniture. In fact, this week, he climbed our ottoman and stood up! What's so cute is that everytime he tried to do that, he would look over at me to make sure I was watching him! So cute, and I'm so proud! And also scared because that means baby-proofing. We used to be able to put him down to play and walk to the kitchen to grab something and know he was okay. Now, he could get into some trouble! LOL! So he is definitely MUCH more mobile than just a month ago!
Cutie pie crawling...
Crawling
Standing up!
He is so smart...he knows when I say "give me Mommy kisses" and he opens that mouth to give me kisses. He is learning so much everyday, I am having a hard time keeping up with him! :) He has figured out more of his toys and how to make the beads in his bead maze go from one end to the next. He used to "eat" the books when I would try to read to him, but now he sits like a big boy next to me and listens to me read and looks at all of the pictures so intently. I love it! I hope he always loves books!
Music - Not sure if I have mentioned this or not, but this guy loves music! He will hear a theme song to a TV show, and he will stop to listen. He will stop everything to listen to us sing Jesus Loves Me to him or really any song. He loves singing! I think that's because I sang to him a lot when he was inside me during my pregnancy. But he definitely loves music!
Random but cute - He loves Jeopardy (the show)! If it is on, he will sit there and listen to intently. Sometimes he will yell out something as if he knows the answer! It's too cute!
I love feeding him. He does this thing where he has to hold my face or a piece of my hair when he is eating from the bottle. I think that is a security thing, but it's so precious!
We rang in the New Year as a family because Todd had a second surgery two days before New Years! This surgery was to remove an infection he had gotten on a small part of his elbow. But since then, he appears to be healing really well. He hasn't been told to start therapy exercises yet, but they just want to make sure the incisions heal well. I hope here in the next week or so that he will be able to start working on his arm. We just want to return to normal again. So your continued prayers for Todd are appreciated.
So even though we didn't get to spend New Years with all of our friends, we still had a nice cozy New Years as a family. My favorite photos are shown below from New Years:
Other than that, this month has been low key. We have spent a lot of time together indoors because of the cold temperatures and ice. Makes me long for spring actually because I can't wait to take Caleb to the park again (since he will be much older since the last time) and we can put him into the park baby swing! Or even just out to see trees (which he loves)! He is such a curious boy that I know the park will be so much fun to him again! And he will be mobile, so his curiosity is going to be even more! But until then, I look forward to watching Caleb learn more and more new things! It is such an amazing thing to watch him learn! So awesome!
Life has been tough, and Todd may have ANOTHER surgery. But we are thankful for all God has been doing in our lives. Even if it is just the simple reminders of faith that we see in our child. I wish my husband was doing even better than he is or able to go to work or able to pick up Caleb and change a diaper, etc, but he will get there. I wish that we didn't have to deal with Doctor's bills, but God will provide. I wish that our cars weren't so old and, but God has allowed them to work this long, and He will continue to provide their functionality. We don't have answers for all the challenges that we have been dealing with, but we know the One who does. Maybe Todd's fall was a chance for us to come together as a family and hold tightly to God even more than before. Maybe this is a way to strengthen our faith in Him? I don't know. But it's true in the sense that we are leaning on God more and more each day, and each day, God gives us reasons to be thankful!
We appreciate your love and continued prayers for Todd's recovery. We really do. And if you could pray for us this next week especially, we would greatly appreciate it! Thank you! We appreciate having that support behind us!
Much love!
The Tabers
