8 month old

I've got an 8 month old son today!! Wow how time flies! Gonna do a quickie post just to update:

What's new on the 8 month old agenda? well we've got an army crawler (not really new), we've got a major 'opihi (he whines whenever mommy is out of sight) (I'm chalking this up to me being a stay at home mom, so he's not used to being apart from me), we've got a child who loves to eat finger foods more than baby food, but is still really finicky with most foods, he likes breads, cheerios, rice and rice noodles, he hates cheese (threw up both times I offered it to him), he is picky with which strangers he'll go too, he appears to like some more than others and usually only girls, he wears clothing that is made for 12 month olds or older, he weighs 20 pounds, loves to make noises by banging things together or crackling paper or plastic bags, loves to be put in a standing position and bouncing (we chalk this up to his bouncer), loves to be in water but has recently started to dislike baths, still sleeps with us in bed for most of the night which is driving us/me crazy (I really need to figure out how to ween him from this bad habit, or actually how to ween myself from this bad habit), still breastfeeding him, but am supplementing with formula at least 1x a day b/c my milk supply does not seem adequate for him, he is a distracted nurser and will stop and relatch himself fairly frequently during nursing sessions, he still needs to nurse to fall asleep (but I'm working on phasing this out without a pacifier, which he still wont accept), he literally SCREAMS in a very high pitch whenever he is unhappy and even sometimes when he is happy, we've switched from his infant carseat stroller to the fancy schmancy umbrella stroller (He loves being upright more), he is more handsome than ever, and the best thing in both my and DH life (hands down).

i start a new temp. job tomorrow for 3-4 weeks. Good company, decent pay, easy/mundane job, am hoping this leads to a new career and/or a permanent future job. Dh and I are hoping to move out and are looking for a place to rent.

two teets and an army crawler

Kaua now has two teeth (two teets, which is what I've been calling them) poking through! His bottom two teeth are coming in. Still not big enough to really see when he smiles, but when they are, I'm posting a picture of his new "toothy" grin. (If I can find my camera that is! Ugh!!)

He is also now a fairly efficient army crawler. I think that crawling really is coming around the corner. I better get ready, because when I put him down, he wont stay put for long. For instance, I usully put him down when I'm in the kitchen, and when I turned my back on him, he started crawling towards an outlet socket. That really made me realize that baby proofing is definitely in store. Yikes, I haven't read up on these things and really need to get prepared!

Gummy bear no more!

So yesterday, my little guy did this:

He stood up on his own. He's still not crawling (but trying really hard to army crawl!), but he's very very into standing up. So sometimes, I'll prop him up on the couch so he can watch the "action" in the kitchen. He's been feeling really sturdy lately, so I decided to let him go and he was able to balance himself standing up for a short time. I made DH run to get the camera to capture the moment. (Of course I'm there to catch him should he fall, hence my hand in the picture.)

And TODAY, my little gummy bear is no longer.......his first tooth is just barely poking through! I've been feeling his gums for what seems like months now, expecting a tooth and nothing. I was beginning to think he'd be a gummy bear for life. But nope, this morning, I discovered a change in his gums. We've got a little tooth! You can barely see it (when you get a very short lived glimpse into Kaua's mouth), but it's coming! I'm excited, but at the same time nostolgic. This is the end of an era. I wonder if his whole life will be like this....excited that he's making it to the next milestone, but nostoligc that my little boy is growing up. I'm a little surprised he's toothing. He didn't seem more fussy than normal, but then again, when I think about it, he has been a little whiny lately. I had just chalked it up to him becoming more needy of me. Maybe it was the tooth?

Summer is going well. We're having TONS of fun doing outdoor activities. Going to the beach or the pool on a weekly basis at least. Lotsa travel plans too. We already did one short trip and are doing two more over the next month interisland. Still on the job hunt, but am not letting that damper our fun!

And now for more cutie patootie photos:

Finger foods

So remember my last post when I was all.....we made progress in the eating baby food department? Yeah, not so much. Kaua has been antifood again. bleh! What is up with this boy? He is more fickle about food than an anorexic teen! So today, I tried just giving him finger foods during his "meals." Breakfast was soft whole wheat bread and a couple slices of strawberries. Man did he enjoy that! Enjoy playing with it I mean. He took that bread and smooshed it all over the place. Perhaps a crumb or two may have made it into his mouth and got swallowed, but that was it. He did get a teeny slice of strawberry down too, and let me tell you, the shiver he gave afterward (likely due to the tartness) was cute. Lunch? pssh...the ever so easy to clean pasghetti and tomato sauce (dont think we've graduated to the meatballs yet) and two small slices of pineapple. Boy that was a blast with Kaua too.....did anything make it to his mouth? Not quite, but it was a lot of fun to watch him try to get the noodle all covered in sauce to his mouth. I swear, he must have gotten sauce everywhere but in his mouth. Still trying to figure out what to give him for dinner. Thinking of avocados, cheese and/or softened veggies.

I figure, if he's not going to eat baby food, maybe he's ready for finger foods. I got this brilliant idea when I was eating breakfast and he kept reaching for my bagel and keeping his jaw clamped shut like steel when I tried to give him his pureed peaches, bananas and oatmeal. We'll see if we make any solids food progress with the finger foods diet. Maybe if I can make eating food "fun" he'll be more receptive to anything other than breast milk. And the adventures in foods continues.