8 Months

Philip is 8 months old!  Does it seem like you are always reading Philip's monthly updates, because it seems like I am always posting them! 

We spent the entire month waiting for him to crawl.  He would constantly get up on hands and knees and rock back and forth.  He started moving his legs, but hadn't figured out how to move his arms yet, so he ususally ended up on his face.

He all of a sudden started taking his pacifier one week.  It probably felt good on his gums as he was getting close to cutting his two front teeth.

He is babbling a lot more now and starting to say vowels.  Yes, I will admit that he is starting to say "Dadadadada!"  He also makes a lot of raspberries when he is frustrated.

Philip thinks it's funny when we impersonate his sounds - that is how I got him to smile for his giraffe pictures.

Blabber mouth

He continued to boycott solids, but started making progress in the last week of the month.  I finally gave up on the advice to introduce vegetables before fruits and he thought apples and bananas were okay.  My sister introduced me to Mum Mums and he started to eat those too.

This is what Philip looks like when he is tasting a new food for the first time:

And here is what he looks like after:

Here are a few more of the cutest pics this month:

These are his skinny pants.  For some reason this outfit has really form-fitting legs - maybe trying to keep up with the latest trend in jeans?

This is his Olivia smile (my neice always has these big open-mouthed grins)

I love hugs!

This is the smile he got from his Dad's side of the family

Giraffe attacking Philip!

Date Nights

My in-laws came to town for about a week and half and among the many things they did for us, they babysat so we could have date nights!  We planned their trip to coincide with a concert Andy and I have had tickets to since before Philip was born.  At the time we thought, "He'll be 8 months, we will definitely be going out on our own by then."  Ha ha!  Eight months have passed by so quickly and with a clingy, stranger-scared baby, we had not been out on a date since a couple days before his birth.

The concert was planned for the last night of their visit, so we figured Philip would have plenty of time to warm up to his grandparents before we left him.  But my mother-in-law insisted that we go out to a movie just a couple nights after they arrived in town.  They had just seen The King's Speech and wanted us to see it while it was still in theaters.  Unfortunately, the showings were at 6:50 and 9:30, so we had a delima.  To go to the earlier showing and risk Philip being awake when we left, or go later and come home after midnight.  In proof of just how much we have changed since becoming parents, we decided 9:30 was too late to go out!

We had to be out the door at 6:20 in order to make the movie and thanks to an afternoon nap gone wrong, Philip was ready for bed around 6:00.  I put him down right at 6:20 and he didn't wake up until long after we returned home.  We felt so much better knowing he was asleep when we left.  Just to prove that we weren't the type of parents that rushed home as soon as possible on date night, we stopped at Starbucks for a drink after the movie.  However, we didn't have the nerve to sit and talk while we enjoyed our drinks - we got them to go!

On Friday night we went to a John Williams concert (the classical guitarist, not the composer).  It was such a great performance!  I was so exhausted during the day that I was scared classical music might put me right to sleep, but I pulled through (with a few nudges from Andy when I would close my eyes to appreciate the music).  Philip was still awake when we left and he did great, although we got varying reports from the grandparents.  Grandma said he did really well, but Grandpa said he put up a good fight!  Guess it is a matter of perspective.  I was happy to hear that Grandpa was able to hold him and put him to bed, as he was so busy during the week he didn't have a lot of baby time.  And Philip just loved his Grandma and wanted her to sit by him on the couch while Grandpa held him.

Breakfast with Grandpa (sorry for the bad lighting)

Play time with Grandma

More details about their trip soon!

Family Portraits

Waaaaay back in November, a friend of ours from college generously took some pictures of our family.  I have been meaning to post these for a while now.  We love how they turned out and have some framed around our house now.  Here are some of our favorites:

House Tour Stop #3: Living Room

Here is what our living room is looking like these days

(minus tons of baby toys that I cleared out for the photo shoot).

+

Here is a pic of Andy as a little boy - too cute!

We bought some furniture from the previous owner for great prices. 

This TV stand/towers was one of the things we purchased.

Blogging station

7 Months

Philip is 7 months old! 

  

This has been such a fun age.   He can roll both frontwards and backwards, so he is now rolling all over the living room.  Now that he can sit up and "travel" by himself, he is getting a lot more independent which is providing a breather for me.  He is able to get up on his hands and knees and he rocks back and forth, so our days of baby gate-free living are numbered.  I am trying to enjoy holding my little guy as much as I can because I know he is going to take off soon!

He does "up" arms when he wants to be picked up and reaches towards whoever he wants to hold him if he is in the other parent's arms.  Stranger anxiety is still in full swing whenever people try to hold him.   Things are definitely improving on the sleep front.  Over the last few months, his bedtime has slowly crept earlier and earlier, and he now has a normal baby schedule of bedtime in the 7:00 hour and wake time in the 6:00 hour (with 1-2 wakeups in between).  He got his second tooth and we are eagerly awaiting the next set.  We put together his high chair and he thinks it is super cool to sit in the chair and play with his toys, but he decided he doesn't like solids after all.  We will try, try again! 

Some of this month's favorite pics:

Having fun with one of his favorite toys - a race track

You probably think he is smiling at Andy or I in this picture...guess again...

Philip loves his kitty cat!

He plays with his treehouse every morning

 

He knows how to pose for a picture- when he hears the beep of the camera,

he always lifts his head up high

He thinks his daddy is really cool!