8 Months

Guys.

Brandon is 8 months old.

It's been a pretty busy month for this little guy (and all of us).  He rode on an airplane for the first time, met lots of cousins, aunts, and uncles for the first time, mastered crawling, and tried to walk.

Last month Brandon was making his first attempts at crawling with his belly off the ground, after a while of successful army crawling.  Now he's a master crawler and has moved on to cruising.  Not only that, but he also loves to walk while pushing a toy around.  We bought him a walker and he loves getting around while pushing it, or he just uses a big toy truck and pushes that around.  He seems to think he's a big kid and tries really hard to keep up with Andrew.

We've started to introduce the sippy cup to Brandon this month.  He's not terribly interested in it though- he prefers his bottle for sure.  I gave him some juice in a sippy though and he loved that, but only as long as I held him like I hold him when he has a bottle.  He's done okay when I put some formula in it and have him sit in the high chair but he sometimes just chews on it instead of holding it up high enough to drink.  We'll have to keep working on it if we want to stop using bottles at a year like we did for Andrew.

No sign of teeth yet.  Aaron seems to be a little anxious about this.

And no haircut yet either.  I think we'll do that soon though, since Brandon's hair is getting so long in the front that little whisps are getting in his eyes pretty regularly.

New Things for Brandon this on Month:
Airplane ride

Sippy cup

Some new foods

Juice

Crawling

Cruising

Walking with walker

Seven Months!

Brandon is seven months old!

Brandon is such a flirt already (takes after his daddy!).  Most of the time it doesn't take much to get a cute little smile from this kid.  He's friendly as can be, and pretty much lets anyone hold him without making a fuss.

This month Brandon has been making huge improvements physically.  He is still usually traveling by army crawl, but boy has he gotten fast!  He's done some rocking on hands and knees too, and even a few timid movements in that position, but for the most part he prefers his speedy little army crawl.  His other preferred method of movement is walking.  Obviously he can't do it on his own yet, but he will gladly walk, one foot in front of the other, holding on to my hands.

I was hesitant, but we introduced Brandon to a few finger foods this month.  He has had a couple flavors of puffs so far, and watermelon chunks.  He seriously loves being able to feed himself.  He's still working on his pincer grab, but he can really shovel that food into his mouth!

He pulled up to standing.  Yep.  I wasn't expecting it at all and then it just happened.  (Un)fortunately we don't have much in our main living area that's the right height for him to pull up on, so it hasn't happened many times yet.

Brandon had his first injury this month.  Thankfully it was minor but it could have been really bad.  Brandon was standing up between my legs while I was sitting on the couch.  He was holding on to one of my hands with both of his.  He got brave and let go.  He kind of twisted as he fell and landed face first on a toy.  He ended up with a cut on his eyelid.  If he had fallen slightly differently his eye could have been in bad shape.  The toy in question has been banished to the top of the refrigerator for the time being.

Brandon is using the pacifier less often both during the day and at night.  He still uses it often (and sometimes I pop it in to keep him from eating everything else in sight) but I'm hoping the decrease in use means it won't be too hard to break him of the habit later.

New things for Brandon this month:

Pulling up to standing

Finger foods

More talking

Initial crawling attempts

First injury

Brandon- Six Months!

In some ways, these six months since Brandon was born have totally flown by.  But I mean it when I say that it also seems like he has always been a part of our family.  Weird how that works.

This month Brandon has really been working on his motor skills.  He can now hold up his bottle consistently (for basically the whole feed if it's a small bottle, or part of a feed if it's a bigger bottle).  He's also been practicing sitting up without support!  He started out using the boppy for help but now he can do it on his own for several minutes at a time.  I think he's really enjoying his new vantage point.

Brandon can crawl!  Well, crawling with his cute little baby belly still dragging on the ground.  It's not really an army crawl since he does use his legs too, and he can make it pretty far when he's going after something.

I love to see my little boys together... usually!  When they're both in good moods, Andrew and Brandon can just sit and giggle at each other for seemingly no reason and it's pretty much the cutest thing ever.  Brandon adores his big brother and usually lights up when he gets some of his attention.

No teeth yet, but that's not too surprising since Andrew didn't get his first one until he was almost 8 months old.

Brandon is now eating solid foods!  Not consistently (not even every day yet) but so far he's had applesauce, rice cereal, carrot puree, peach puree, and banana.  He's done really well with all of it so far.  He even made a really good attempt at getting my pizza the other day.  Sorry buddy, I don't think you're quite there yet!

New things this month:

Sitting up unsupported

"Crawling"
Solid foods