Jude, Eight Months

Jude is 8 months old!

Weight
Still not sure on this one. He'll weigh in again at his 9-month appointment. I'm a little worried his distractedness during eating has meant verrrry slow weight gain over the last two months. And he's super crawly and active, so he's burning extra cals. Eep!

Height
While his weight gain has slowed, I'm nearly positive he's still going to be in the 90+ percentile for height. He's a string bean these days.

Sleep
Jude naps 2-3 times a day. Morning nap is typically 2 hours, afternoon nap is usually 1 hour, and if he does an early evening nap, it usually only lasts 30 minutes at the most.

Overnight sleep has vastly vastly improved! This little dude can now sleep through the night about half the time. Usually that's 9pm to 6am. We're still working on getting him to sleep 8pm to 8am, but I'll take what he's giving in the meantime. If he does wake up in the night, it's never at a predictable time, and it's either because he wants some snuggles or I didn't have enough milk at bedtime, so he wakes to fill that tummy a little more. Are we finally at the end of this lonngggg sleep deprivation tunnel??

^^baby model, casual hand in pants pocket

Firsts this month
-SLEEPING THROUGH THE NIGHT WAY MORE! Praise!!
-Lots of screaming and growling to gain our attention.
-Real deal crawling. So fast!
-Repositioning himself from crawling position to sitting up and back to crawling.
-A tiny bit of cruising along furniture!! Ahhhh! Will we have an early walker?!
-Getting down from standing position with ease and no head bonks on the floor.
-Transferring while standing from one thing (furniture) to another (mom's leg).
-Wayyyy way way more clingy with mama. Cries when I leave the room. Cries if daddy goes in to soothe him at night instead of me. Cries if someone else holds him for too long.
-I swear he's trying to wave and do the "all done" sign and sometimes he mimics our intonation when we're talking to him. But maybe I'm just thinking he's super advanced and can do these impressive things early because: mom.
-Finally swallowing lots more solid foods. Has stinkier diapers to prove it!
-Popped his second tooth. Look how cute . . .

Nicknames
Juju and Trash Panda. Juju is just a play on Jude. But Trash Panda. Ohhhh Trash Panda. This little boy gets into EVERYTHING, including our trash, recycling basket, floor crumbs, the toilet, the dirty dishwasher. You name it, he's played in it. He digs around until he finds something that looks edible and then, without hesitation, tries to eat it. I pull paper/fuzz balls/floor food/small objects out of this baby's mouth constantly. So yeah, Trash Panda.

^^ oh, those sweet baby cheeks and lashes

Other things to note
-Jude's current favorite foods are green beans, sweet potatoes, and one time he sucked all the juice out of a piece of steak. He'll basically try anything we give him. Including kale, which is always hilarious because he can't chew it, so he just nom nom noms on it like a giraffe eating a leaf.

-This kid regularly disappears on me. He can crawl so fast now, that if I turn away for a minute, he's already in a different room all the way across the house!

-Jude LOVES to play with toys now. He's SO grown up to me these days, the way he interacts with the world. He's so curious and it's so cute to watch.

-He is giddy watching his big brother play, especially when John Paul is playing with something fast and on wheels. So when John Paul rides his bike or pushes his toy lawnmower, Jude squeals and yips and it's oh so adorable.

-While I don't have a picture to prove it, Jude loves sticking out his tongue. It'd say it's out about 25% of the time, especially if he sees something he wants to eat or if he's concentrating hard on something.

^^ the many faces of Jude

Happy 8 months, little man! Thanks for being so wonderful. <3