James: 8 months!

It's unreal that we have an 8-month-old baby.  He is so, so fun and sweet and wonderful right now.  He is still happy almost all of the time, though two weeks ago he had four or five days that he just cried and wanted to be held all day without explanation, except that we had just returned from a week of vacation (no new teeth, no fever or sickly symptoms, no gas or signs of belly pain...).  It is funny to watch him as we return home from an overnight trip somewhere.  It doesn't matter how tired he is, once we walk in the door (and especially once we go up to his little bedroom) he gets so excited and kicks his legs all around and laughs so much. I think he's quite the homebody (just like his dad and mama).

Weight: unsure, though we weighed him on the airport scale on our way to Arkansas in late July and it read 16.5 lbs.  so, somewhere around there

Length: unsure, but he looks so long!  He is still mostly in 6 month clothes, though the footed ones are getting a bit tight at the toes.

Meals: 6-8oz bottle, four times a day on organic soy formula (though I would LOVE to get him off soy... Been looking into some milk banks/donation programs, so we'll see about that) and solids a couple of times a day:

Breakfast: oats with fruit and cinnamon

Lunch or later afternoon: lentils usually, with orange and green vegetables

Before bedtime: either some Cheerios for fine-motor practice, or avocado

Real foods: new are lentils, butternut squash and peaches, which he loves.  Next up we'll add in some fish and meat! And eggs! And leafy greens!

I help him practice drinking water from a sippy cup, which he thinks is fun, but doesn't really understand that he can actually get anything out of it yet.

Sleep: bedtime is 7pm, and he sleeps until 6:30-7am (so thankful he decided to sleep a little later... 30 minutes can make all the difference!) He went to two naps about two weeks ago, so we're on the 2/3/4hr schedule, where he's awake 2 hours after waking for the day, takes a 1.5 hr nap, then is awake 3 hours, naps another 1.5 hours, and is awake 4 hours between his second nap and bedtime.  So, naps are usually around 8:30 or 9am, then 12:30 or 1pm.

Loves: being tickled, rough-housing (especially with dad), reading books, toys!, his bird mobile, practicing animal sounds, singing songs, library story time, playing in the water, stroller rides/jogs, eating with his fingers

Hates: missing naps (though he is more flexible than he used to be), and not being able to crawl yet

New tricks: waving hello (sometimes even on command), sticking his tongue out, rolling to wherever he wants to go with surprising speed, and we've been practicing high-5s