8 months!

Cole is 8 months today!  He weighs 17.4 lbs and is as sweet as ever.  He started crawling (for real crawling- using his hands and knees) on Sunday.  He has been army crawling for a while and so close to really figuring it out, so it was fun to see him actually do it.  I even had to put up the gate for the first time for his sake.  For some reason, the other day he was just very interested in crawling through the kitchen to get back in the mud room.  Not sure what the draw was, but I had to retrieve him from back there twice!  After he gets up on his hands and knees sometimes, he then gets up on his hands and feet.  He also pulls himself up to a standing.  Such a silly boy- though growing much too quickly!

     

Cole still only has the two bottom teeth, but from the constant fingers playing with his gums, I imagine more will be popping through soon.

As I am typing this, Cole is sitting on the floor near me talking and responding to Phil (they are both making silly noises) and he is grinning from ear to ear.  He is so cute!

We are now up to three meals a day and he has liked everything I've fed him except plain avocado.  I tried mixing that with banana the next time I gave it to him and he ate it just fine.  Otherwise, he is a good eater and seems to like eating.  He also really enjoys trying to drink out of a cup and feeding himself puffs or other soft bite sized foods.

A couple days ago, we couldn't find Cole's paci, so I grabbed some Nuks from downstairs that I got when Caid was born that were never used.  Of course, I found his paci a few minutes later, but now Cole prefers the Nuk to his Tommee Tippee brand paci!  How funny after all the hassle he gave me not wanting to take any pacis or bottles at the beginning.

Cole sleeps pretty well, through the night mostly, unless one of his siblings happens to wake up and he wakes up.  Then he wants to eat in order to fall back to sleep, which is not really a big deal to me.  He eats and goes back down super easy.  It has become a little more difficult to actually get Cole to sleep now because he squirms out of his burrito-style-wrapped blanket and pulls himself to a standing to play and talk with his brother and sister or play with the blinds.  He still hasn't quite figured out how to get back down from a standing position and then Caiden and Ellee end up calling for me to tell me Cole is standing up or that Cole has fallen backwards and bonked his head on the crib.  I do miss the convenience of those days of just being able to lay him in his bed to go to sleep, but I will try and enjoy the time I have, nursing and cuddling him to sleep in my arms. 

I brought out a bunch of 12 month summer outfits that Caiden wore to try on Cole, and many of them fit him really well!  I love the one piece outfits, so I'm really glad I tried them on him!

He still fits in size 2 diapers, but since I ran out of those this week and have a surplus of size 3 (thankfully Ellee is only wearing a diaper at nap and bedtime these days!!!) I have been putting those on him.

Cole is not very interested in many baby toys, but loves playing with the big kid toys his brother and sister enjoy playing with.  (Or else normal things like camera cases, remotes, phones, laptops, guitars, etc.- all those things you don't want your baby playing with...  )  He also loves music and has started rocking his head to the sound when he hears music.  He really loves it when his daddy plays guitar.  He climbs right over by him and tries to play along.  Pretty adorable!

Today I had a big scare with my baby boy.  Along with his increased mobility and curiosity, he has been getting into everything!!  I try my best to keep things picked up and to make the kids pick up their things so Cole won't get them.  He has tried to eat paper, stickers, and leaves, but thankfully I have been able to retrieve them before they have become a problem.  But today he got ahold of one of Ellee's hair rubber bands and choked on it!  I heard him gagging so I turned him over and thumped his back and he puked up his dinner and a pink hair band.  It scared me pretty bad, especially since those are so hard to see on the ground!!  Thankfully, I got him calmed down and cleaned up, and then got to work on scrubbing the green beans out of the carpet...

Cole has started showing a little bit of sensitivity.  The other day he pinched one of his aunts and she gently told him she didn't like to be pinched.  Immediately he started frowning and within 30 seconds, it looked like she broke his heart, and he started crying.  It was the saddest little face you could imagine!  Then yesterday, he bit me while nursing, and I gently told him not to bite mommy, and he did the same thing again.  He was so sad and just snuggled right up on my shoulder for comfort.  I felt bad for him but it was also so cute to see.

  

I can't imagine my life without our little Cole William Lee.  He is the most good natured baby and one of the sweetest and happiest babies I have ever known.  He is very friendly with other people, but it makes my heart happy when he looks to me for security and calls out, "Mama!"  We are so blessed to have him in our lives- I love him with all my heart.