Edmund is now 8 months old. We can feel the slide into the end of his first year coming. We think that tends to happen when you are over the 2/3 mark. Heck, we typically round up as soon as we reach the ½ way mark. There are always so many things that happen each month at this stage. It’s amazing to see how much Edmund is learning each month and to look back and see how much he has grown.
little bear loves to go on walks now that it is spring
This month we were blessed to have both sides of the family come visit us for Edmund’s Baptism. It was so much fun for Edmund to be surrounded by friends and family and an amazing blessing for him to be welcomed into the church family. Click here to read the post.) He mainly just had a great time getting extra cuddles from everyone. Edmund also had his first trip to the zoo. He had a great time looking at all of the animals.
little bear wants to be a panda
This month has been marked by TEETH and lots of them. Edmund got a whopping four of them this month bringing the total thus far to six. They are all on top and started with his left incisor (3/5), then his left lateral incisor (3/9), then his right incisor (3/16), and finally his right lateral incisor (3/20). Phew! We should have known that they were coming by the amount that he was drooling, but we were shocked to see them come in one right after another. We were also surprised because he wasn’t grumpy and took it like a champ. He did much better than we would have if we had objects cutting through our gums. (Ouch!)
edmund playing with his new teeth in his mouth, can you say blue steel?
With all of the above mentioned teeth, it has become even more important for us to brush his teeth, which we try to do twice a day. Edmund loves it, which is great. The problem is that he cries when we stop and take the toothbrush away. We have tried letting him play with the toothbrush for a while, but the longer we let him play with it, the harder it is to take it away. Now, we just do the switcheroo and give him another toy as soon as we are done to take his attention away from the fact that we are no longer brushing his little teeth.
This month was also characterized by moving. Edmund has become a master at getting wherever he wants to go since he as learned how to artfully turn himself. He rotates himself like the spinner from the game Twister. Combine that with his barrel rolling skills and it spells trouble. He can get into anything. His favorite thing to get into is electrical cords. We don’t have many of them in our apartment, but he knows where they are, and he wants to pull on them. We are not sure if they call out his name, but he finds them. Our living room looks like an middle eastern palace with all of our pillows all over the floor, blocking them. He sometimes still is able to shove his tiny hands underneath the pillows and pull the cords out. His second favorite object to get into is mom’s breast pump. Perhaps it is because it smells like milk, but he wants to play with it, pull on the tubes, suck on the bag handle, and claim it as his own. We put pillows in front of that as well to block it, but he is quite determined and is able to pull them out of the way. He also likes destroying his play gym.
what guys? it was like this when i found it.
Edmund wants to crawl. Actually, Edmund wants to walk. If he could just figure out how to stand up, he would be thrilled with himself. Rather than getting on his hands and knees, he gets on his hands and feet and will stay there trying to stand up until he falls down. We have tried showing him hands and knees as well, which he is starting to do. He just wants to move so badly. We are sort of relieved because it is hard enough keeping this master of rolling in once spot the way it is. He’s already rolling into things and has more head bonks into the coffee table than we can count. Luckily, it has rounded edges and he has a hard head.
Edmund is learning how to talk. This comes in two main forms. Edmund has learned how to blow raspberries. I am not sure where he learned it from, but he loves to do it while he is in his crib and he thinks that nobody is watching him. It’s so darn cute, it takes all of our effort not to giggle at him since we are trying to discourage him from doing it because he has started doing it while we are feeding him, which means food all over mom. Thankfully, he has only done that twice and we are hoping that it will end soon. Edmund is also a war crier. For those of you who have kids that like to belt out a good war noise, you know what we are talking about. We haven’t quite figured out what brings it on, but when he does it, it is loud. As long as he doesn’t do it in church, we just talk to him as if he is saying something really important.
With the beginning of spring and the amazing weather, we have been able to enjoy plenty of walks with Edmund. Mom takes him on walks in both the morning and the evening every day that it’s not raining. Edmund used to just sit there, but now that he is getting bigger, he is very interested in the world outside of his stroller. He leans forward, holds onto the front tray and watches the world with his big brown eyes. We take him around our little neighborhood and sometimes walk to the nearby park to lay in the grass or go swinging. Also, with the onset of warm weather, we finally took Edmund out of his car seat at the store and let him sit in the cart. Before, he was all snuggled in his car seat with his car seat cover and he played quietly with his toys. Now it takes so much longer for us to get out of the store because Edmund makes eyes at people and every woman we pass by notices him and wants to talk to him. It is also a good learning opportunity as we let him look at and touch the produce as we put it into our cart.
the only thing better than going to the store is playing with the paper towels
Bath time is now an adventure. Edmund has a hard time sitting still and loves to splash. We have started sitting him up now in his bath tub. We areso glad we got the one we did because we have a garden bathtub and it would be impossible to hold onto him in it. Edmund loves his Sassy bath toys and would sit in the tub all day if we would let him. We just wait until he gets a little pruney.
Edmund has cycled in and out of patience with reading. Some days, we can read him four books and he will sit there attentively and listen. Other days, he keeps trying to hit the book or close it the second we open the first one. My sister bought him a book while she was here that has different sections that you can feel. It has quickly become his favorites. Edmund loves feeling the different textures with his little fingers, which now makes it our favorite because we love seeing him concentrate and touch all of the different objects.
Edmund wants to read this book
We are adoring seeing our little boy grow up. We love seeing him master different activities and struggle with others. This is such a curious age, we are sitting back and trying to take it all in. We anxiously wait to see what new milestones he will meet next month. Until then, we try to just enjoy every day that we are blessed with him.
