8 months!

I can't believe my little boy is now 8 months! I echo the millions of moms before me that have said "wow that went fast". I REALLY love the stage that Conner is at right now. He is constantly making me laugh and he is learning so quickly.

Conner loves to play peek-a-boo. Sometimes it's me or Mark hiding behind something and sometimes he plays and does it himself. He's understanding object permanence really well now which is good and bad. Not so good because it means I can't just put something under my leg and make it disappear and good because it means he's developing :)

For some reason Conner refuses to crawl. Instead he turn himself to the right angle with his arms then roll wherever he wants to go. Sometimes he fakes us out and will be up on all fours but then when we encourage him to move forward he falls on his stomach and acts like he's swimming. If we stand him up he will hold onto chairs or his crib (as seen above) and has even taken a step or two. I'm thinking he's just going to roll around till he walks. He loves it when his daddy helps him practice walking all over the house and he can move pretty quick if you're standing above him holding his hands. His walk does slightly resemble a soldier though.
Conner is a little ham! He already loves smiling for the camera. Every time I get the camera out he puts on the gummiest smile and I have a million pictures of him doing it. Maybe it's because he's trying to imitate me as I'm smiling at him with the camera....does my smile look like that?

Conner recently showed more interest in "real" food. Meaning not pureed mush or baby cereal. While he still enjoys the pureed baby food I make him he also loves eating finger foods especially strawberries, shredded chicken, puffs, noodles, mandarin oranges, scrambled eggs, and bread. It's been a lot easier to make dinner lately because I'll put him in his high chair with food on his tray and he'll eat and sing to me while I cook. He also started drinking out of a straw and sippy!! We were pretty impressed when he started sucking all by himself especially since he has refused to take a bottle since 4 mo.

Conner loves playing with his cousins. He always rolls over to Carson or Audrey and will grab their faces or lean on them. Carson and Audrey are really good with him. Carson is always giving him loves and kisses and Audrey thinks Conner is the funniest thing in the world and she'll push him around when he's in the walker. Every time she see's him she just goes off laughing and talking nonsense like we understand her. I love it!

This is about as close as Conner gets to crawling. He'll go up from here on his knees but then just fall on his stomach. He's been doing it for a couple months now and nothing has changed.

Another classic cheeser smile!
Conner will play for the longest time on the ground by himself. He rolls around and pulls out his toy baskets from under the coffee table. One day I was on the phone and I heard him crying and I looked all around and found him completely under a big arm chair!

While he is usually content to play by himself he would much prefer to be held and played with. When he's being held he loves to be touching or grabbing your face. He thinks it's funny to put his fingers in your mouth or put both hands on your cheeks.

I'm a little embarrassed to admit it because this was one of the things that I hoped Conner wouldn't get from me, but he shakes when he gets excited... I always used to get made fun of for doing it and I'm afraid Conner is going to face the same fate. He does it when he's excited or frustrated with a toy, when you pick him up, when he sees grandma or grandpa or someone he's familiar with, or when he's excited about eating. Poor kid.

Conner loves jumping in his bouncer! And he loves being in the walker at Grandma Kings house. We also have a walker but it's not as maneuverable and doesn't go as low to the ground as Grandmas so he's not as good at maneuvering it. I don't understand why the made the walker so high??? It's adjustable so I put it on the lowest setting but it still barely works!! I mean who do they make these toys for Conner is in the 80% in height so it's not like he's a shrimp-o!

Conner still doesn't sleep through the night. Every time I tell myself I'm going to exercise some tough love and let him cry it out he gets sick and I don't feel right doing it then. Something about hearing that little cough makes me give in every time!

He goes to bed at 7:30 and usually wakes up in the morning anywhere from 7:30-8:15. He usually wakes up at least once a night sometimes twice. The first time is around midnight which I don't really mind because with him going to bed at 7:00 I start missing him and I enjoy cuddling. It's the 4-o-clock feeding that I definitely need to get rid of! As far as naps go he'll take 3 naps a day if his first nap is under an hour but if it is over an hour an a half then he'll only take 2 naps.

I've really tried to get a solid schedule down but every time I think I've got it he switches things up on me. I'm okay with that though because his flexibility allows me to go run errands and things like that without a problem.

Being a mom has brought a lot of changes but fun and difficult but I would take them all in a heart beat because I can't imagine life without my little Conster J!