Big developments

I can't believe this sweet boy is 8 months old tomorrow!

Brooks is sitting by himself, playing on the floor of the nursery with a box of colored plastic block shapes. He's a lot more excited about trying to get the entire box in his mouth (futile effort, little one!). It's so cute to watch his brain trying to figure out how to handle the different pieces and figure out what to do with them. These blocks and his jumperoo are his favorite activities these days. Brooks in the jumperoo is hysterical. He just jumps up and down and up and down, and grins and giggles and laughs, it's really cute...

As I was tickling and playing with him today, I saw him laughing and said "what's that!?" Surprise surprise, he has two more teeth! The top two front teeth are just peeking through, and I can't believe they snuck in on me again! :) I thought I'd notice as he was cutting these, since he struggled so much with the first two and these are so much bigger. Thankfully he's been a really happy and not too upset by them ... just a little bit of extra drool.

However, I think he's starting to hit another milestone this week too... When we were at small group on Tuesday night, he got really upset when he was approached by one of the guys that he didn't know as well. At first, we thought it was just the feel of facial hair, but actually I think he's starting the whole "Stranger Danger" phase... He usually isn't clingy at all in social situations and he seemed to bury his face in my shoulder a lot more than normal, even as different people tried to make him smile. Perhaps he was just tired and not at his best?

He's doing really well with food... In the last week we've added chicken, plain yogurt, chunks of banana, avocado, a pretzel, blueberries (cut in half), a sippy cup with diluted juice, and he had tastes of lemon and mac n cheese. He still prefers sweet potatoes to all else and would rather go hungry than eat green beans, but he's generally agreeable to trying a few bites of each new taste. Tonight he'll get his first taste of beef - look out!

I'm getting a little bit of ribbing from those who know all about our move, etc, specifically about trying to prevent Brooks from crawling! :) Don't worry, I'm not actually tying him down anywhere or fitting him with a ball and chain! I'm just not showing him how to get up on his hand and knees just yet. He's already going backwards quite well. He gets excited when he finds himself up on his knees and then his arms push his body back. He does that pretty quickly, but then gets frustrated because he's moving away from what he sees! I'm watching him like a hawk, not just for safety (our condo isn't babyproofed since we'll be here less than three more weeks) but because I don't want to miss those first successful efforts.

Our days are much more routined now that he's taking two consistent naps, and he continues to sleep very well at night. I think we've been blessed with one of the sweetest, happiest, easiest babies around. Thank you, Lord!

We plan to celebrate his 9 month "birthday" by flying over to London, so we're savoring every moment of this last month in the states.