8 Months Old!

Everyone,

The boys are 8 months old today. Which means that they are as old on the outside as they were on the inside now. I can't believe how much has changed in 8 months. In ways I wish that I took pictures of them every single day and then I could have made a really cute yearly page(s) in my scrapbook (if I ever get back to doing that) but I didn't. I'm just glad that I have the blog and these monthly pictures! They have gotten more mobile this month and it has made for interesting searches some times. Professor has taken to crawling on top of Pirate. While Pirate normally doesn't care, Professor does it in their crib while Pirate is still asleep. And then Professor pokes eyes and wakes Pirate up who screams bloody murder for me. They don't do this enough for me to think about moving them into separate beds (Juice wants to, I'm hesitant). I don't want to because I do often find them snuggled together at night, arms across each other or heads next to each other. I think they sleep a little better because of it. They don't know any different! Plus, it's nice to have them both wake up happy in the morning and listen to them play. Yesterday I heard laughing from both of them and when I went in to see what they were doing, Pirate was rocking his head into Professor's belly and they were both laughing. Cute cute. They really do like to play together, and have what I call the great toy chase. One will have a toy, the other will make their way over to the toy and wrestle it out of their brother's hand. If it's Professor, he immediately rolls away and leaves Pirate in the dust. But Pirate does hop on over to him eventually and takes it back. So far the coveted toy for today was a small plastic girl with long blond hair and a bright pink shirt.

Pirate is 17.8 lbs (clothes on, on my scale) and 28.5 inches long by my measuring tape. (Take these measurements with a grain of salt...I don't know how accurate they are.) He has two teeth on the bottom and several on the top that keep threatening to come out. I was sure he had one of his front edge teeth about a week ago. Every time he smiled you could see a flash of white. It looked like a fang. Our little vampire. But it went back up into the gums and we are just at 2 teeth. He is starting to crawl, mostly hopping around like a frog. He moves his hands forward, then rocks his legs up to his hands, and does it over again. He is also doing real push ups. He gets himself up on his hands and toes and rocks as hard as he can. He still loves sucking his thumb and often takes breaks from rocking to just lay there and suck for a second. It's so cute. He has the greatest expressions and is always so interested in anything that I am doing. He cries when ever I leave the room. Okay, whenever anyone leaves the room, including Soot. It's hard to take sometimes. He has been very needy this past month, and I've been trying to spend more time holding him and talking to him. He had been loving the solid foods, but that has changed this past week. I'm not sure he enjoyed butternut squash or prunes. I'm going to do applesauce this week too so we shall see. He loves to be held and loves to give hugs. He grabs your arm, smashes himself into you and wraps his other hand around your neck or (if it's me) in my hair. He also tries to rub his face into my shoulder a lot when I pick him up. He is fascinated with Butterfly and the dog and really enjoys trying to play with her little people. She actually lets him too. He really doesn't like the exersaucer but loves our backpack or being in my sling. He looks so much like Butterfly. You can tell they are siblings no sweat.

Professor is 17.2 lbs, although .2 of those pounds could be the prunes I fed him tonight. He ate a ton of them. And yes, he needs prunes. (Side note, you should have seen the faces Pirate was pulling with those prunes! And Butterfly thought we were feeding them chocolate.) He is 27 inches long. He is just now starting to grow out of the 6 month old size of clothes so I've been taking all of them out of their wardrobe and moving onto 12 month size. He is Mr. Independent and always wants to be down on the floor exploring. He is seriously on the move. I have found him under the computer desk, in the kitchen, under a chair in the kitchen, and in my closet. He has a fascination with doors and loves to hold on to them and move them back and forth. He is very very close to crawling on all fours but often topples over. He is a master at army crawling and is starting to get fast. When he is happy, he smiles a huge smile and waves all of his limbs. He has a cute dimple like Butterfly does, but on the right while hers is on the left. He loves to be picked up but I think he loves to be put down more. He is always crawling out of my arms the minute he sees something interesting. He has 4 teeth, 2 on top and 2 on the bottom. Those top teeth are huge. I don't remember Butterfly's being that big. He is our loud one still. He has this great thing he does to his pacifier. He pulls it out of his mouth, looks it over, sings to it (a very long ha-aaaaaaaaaaaaaa), looks at it, sings again, and then puts it back in his mouth. It is so stinking cute it makes me smile every time I hear it. He loves to put both of his hands on your face and has funny or serious conversations with you. He is the bane of Butterfly's existence right now because he can get around and loves her toys. He also loves books, dolls, balls, and cars. Basically anything he can get his hands on he likes.

We are looking forward to their very first Christmas next week. I can't wait to see how they deal with wrapping paper!

Safire