8 Months Old

Today Drew is 8 months old. I can hardly believe that in four short months he'll be a year old already.  He's babbling more and more, and getting his whole body involved at times.  He sleeps from 7 p.m. until between 6 & 7 a.m., and he now naps twice a day for about an hour to an hour and a half each time.  I can't believe we've come that far with sleeping.  Thank goodness!  Drew is already getting better at crawling, even after just a few days. He is now eating 3 solid meals a day of baby food. He really loves fruit, especially bananas. Sometimes we have to trick him into eating veggies by putting them on the spoon with bananas or another fruit. He isn't eating table food yet, but he is very interested in whatever we eat and watches very intently. He loves Gerber Puffs- at least the sweet potato kind, which is all he's tried. He has gotten much better at picking them up and getting them into his mouth. However, we have to ration them and only give him one at a time because otherwise he just keeps stuffing them into his mouth before he swallows them. Rationing them doesn't even always work, as I found out yesterday. Zach, Drew, and I were out at a park to enjoy one of our last really nice days. We played for a while and then had a picnic lunch. After Drew finished his baby food, I was giving him Puffs, one at a time, while Zach and I finished eating. It seemed fine. Zach then went to play a little more before heading home, and Drew remained in the stroller. We were walking to our car about 10 minutes later and Drew started coughing- I figured he had inhaled his own spit or something. Zach stepped around to the front of his stroller and said, "Spit UP!" So I looked, and Drew had not really spit up- he had completely puked all over himself and his stroller. Thank goodness I had an extra outfit with me! Poor kid. It was gross.

So here's Drew getting his 8 month picture taken.  He was very happy this afternoon.

Here's his close-up.  Too bad it's a little blurry.  Again, very happy, which was nice.

And Zach wanted to be in one picture.  I had to wake him up right before taking these pictures, so he's still in his pajama shorts.  

Zach and Drew got their flu shots today. I gave Zach the choice between the nasal mist and the shot, and he wanted the shot. He does not like things up his nose! So we got to the doctor's office and Zach was being really brave about it, but he wanted Drew to go first. The nurse wanted to do Zach's first since she figured Drew would cry more, but she was fine with doing Zach first when we asked. So, we laid Drew down on the table, and I picked Zach up so he could help distract Drew. I could not believe it, but Drew did not shed a tear. He must have been too interested in watching Zach. He kind of lost his smile for a second, but that was as much of a reaction as we got. Next it was Zach's turn, and he decided to sit on my lap while the nurse did the shot. She did it and he got tears in his eyes and whimpered some. The nurse said she "really got him," whatever that means. She said sometimes you just get a spot and it creates a bruise and hurts more, and that's what she thought she did. As Zach was sort of crying I said, "It's ok, buddy, you're tough, right?" And Zach said, through his tears, "Yeah...kind of..." It was sweet. He felt better once he picked out 5 stickers and got his 2 cookies, of course.

I have not mentioned any political stuff on my blog because I get very conflicted about it all. I did vote for Obama, and I am happy he won, but I know plenty of people who were McCain supporters who had very strong arguments for their side. The thing I think is so cool, though, is that I am a witness to and a participant in this moment in history, when our country has elected an African-American president. If only we'd elected an African-American female president, then we could really say the barriers had all been broken down, but I'll settle for this. Obama has some big obstacles ahead of him, and a lot of promises to keep, and I hope he doesn't let us down.

This is Drew after I told him that our next president will be Barack Obama.

Ok, really, he was just doing that whole babbling thing where he uses his whole body to convey his message.  Shortly after this he was trying to grab the 8 month sign and he fell face-forward off the rocking chair.  I was right there and kind of broke his fall with my hand, and thankfully, he was unfazed by the whole thing.