Robert’s first Chanukah/progress at 8.5 months

Gosh!  As the holiday slips farther and farther away, what will I remember to record?  Sheesh.  No time to write is serious! 

THIS is what I was scared of prior to having Robert.  I was scared that I wouldn’t have time to do all that I wanted to do.  Well.  Yup!  That’s exactly right ~ but people were right also in saying that I would WANT to not do those things. I choose time with my baby over doing my thing now.!!  And it isn’t hard at all!   Baby time is slipping away.  He is already almost 8.5 months old!

Let me tell you about his progress first, then I’ll try to get to Chanukah. 

MOTOR SKILLS: He is pulling himself up on EVERYTHING now!  The bookcase, the couch (and then he travels alongside it – "walking" while holding onto the couch), someone’s LEG who is nearby,  the TV (which we took off the entertainment unit and is now against the wall on the floor.)  He finds his highchair and climbs up it with his hands.  He stands against the new flat screen tv box.  Dylan’s chair… You name it.  Turn around and he’s standing somewhere else!!  In his walker he still mainly scoots backwards, but I did see him make a couple of forward steps today.   I just bought him a "playpen" which is really a wood fence that will get put up in the living room to keep him confined!  He just does NOT stay in one place for a second anymore!!! 

TOUCHING STUFF/TAPPING:  He has taken this fascination with touching everything with the tip of his thumb – either thumb!!  It’s so cute!  He just taps on stuff with his thumbtip!  I need to get a picture of that!!  And tapping on stuff with other stuff is his fave, too!

TALKING:  He says "Hi" or "Hey" and he waves (not at the same time!)  He says Ma! Sometimes I will hear a random "MOM" but I’m sure he doesn’t know what he’s saying.  He still says Dada all the time.  Sometimes it sounds like he says a phrase (like "I LOVE YOU") but I’m sure it’s just sounds that sound darn similar! 

EATING:  He loves bread!  and his little veggie puffs (like cheetos only not with cheese or a bunch of crap hopefully).  He likes to "chew" on stuff.  He bit into an apple slice today.  And took pieces of banana too!  I grind up our table food sometimes and give it to him, but he doesn’t take much.  Except for ice cream!  He LOVES that!!  and yogurt too!  He loves to drink water from his sippy cup.  Just today I noticed that he doesn’t do the "water fountain" thing out of his mouth when drinking water from his sippy cup anymore.  He used to take too much water, and get overwhelmed and let a fountain of water pour out of his mouth.  He doesn’t seem to be doing that now!!  (how QUICKLY he progresses, let me tell you!)

Last night I bought the "Your baby can read" stuff.  $200, but I’m hoping he will be reading before school even starts!  We’ll see.  Maybe I could find the link…there it is!  Amazing stuff, check it out and tell me what you think!!  I got TOTALLY sucked in!  (Roy too!)  Roy even said today he thinks we waited too long, cuz we got rid of Robert’s swing.  So he may get bored of the dvd and wander off.  We’ll see.  Maybe we should have started at 6 months old.  Hopefully he sucks up the info and learns to read early on.  We shall see.

ok.  Notes on Chanukah.  Robert was so cute with these big ol’ presents in front of him.  He mainly liked to hit them or tap on them or throw them around.  Dylan would usually help Robert open his presents.  Robert liked the wrapping paper! 

I have so great shots fromn Chanukah, so when I get them uploaded to snapfish I’ll include them.  Maybe I’ll try to do that now.

Roy has been pretty much working on the property.  He’s not working much for his dad.  I have a feeling we’ll start selling soon on eBay!  OK.  Let me go upload…