Matthew's 8th month

Matthew is 8 months old!


Movement: If I picked one word to sum up this past month for Matthew, "movement" would be it.  He has been rolling places for a few months now and started scooting a little over a month ago but now he is really moving.  He rolls, he scoots, he army crawls, he regular crawls.  He'll do them in succession, too, so it's fun to watch.  For instance, he'll take a couple regular crawls, roll over, scoot a bit, then army crawl to his final destination.  He is getting better at regular crawling all the time, which is great, although it will be a little sad if he stops doing all the other forms of movement. He can get places pretty quickly these days and will go anywhere that Megan does.  He has also started pulling to standing.

Scooting like an inch worm

On his hands and knees

Yogurt: Matthew got yogurt a few weeks ago.  It was actually Megan's yogurt, but the spoon went to him instead.  He liked it.  He liked it a lot.  Since at that point in time he wasn't eating solids well, we decided to give him a little bit more.  He ate it right up.  And then we noticed the hives.  Everywhere the yogurt touched his skin, he got hives.  And Matthew did a good job of spreading it all over his arms, his face, his head.  Poor kid!  Needless to say, he got a quick bath, some hydro cortisone cream and Benadryl and hasn't had yogurt since.

Eating solids: Since the yogurt experience, Matthew has decided that eating solids is ok.  In fact sometimes he quite likes it.  He often likes to feed himself--we give him the spoon and he puts it in his mouth.  This makes a really big mess!  He has also started eating Cheerios a bit.  He'll grab them and try to put them in his mouth although they don't always end up there.

Messy eating

With his spoon

Teeth: Matthew is now the proud owner of two teeth.  The bottom front two.  

Showing off his first tooth

Running: I think this should just be a standing entry in any blog post about Matthew.  His running legs are still running.  This month, he has figured out that when they kick into something it makes a cool noise.  He'll basically kick anything around him--the walls, couch, car seat, people (this doesn't feel good although U says if he kicks your back it is a nice massage....).

Bottles: Matthew loves bottles.  I don't think I've ever seen him move as fast as I have when he's crawled to get one of Megan's bottles.  He likes playing with it and chewing on it.  He'll make funny faces when he gets a taste of formula.  He has forgotten, however, how to suck from it.  Guess 5 months is too long to go between bottles.....

Babbling: Matthew continues to babble a lot.  It seems like he is giving a running commentary on what is going on in his world.  Now if we could only translate I'm sure we'd learn a lot.

A few other random things:  Matthew is still super flexible.  He seems to enjoy being all scrunched up and having his legs over his head.  When he sits, he has a very small footprint--his legs are often right up along his body.  Sometimes when he starts crawling, he puts his hands forward from this position and his legs are still crossed.  Looks pretty funny but he manages to make it work.  He has started doing scrunch nose smiles, which are really cute.  He is also a pretty sensitive kid.  If one of the girls starts crying for some reason, he'll often join in.

Scrunch nose smile

Playing with rings

Sitting at the counter--why is it they look so much bigger right at the counter/table?

Playing with shark in the bath

Remember, fish are friends, not food (guess he'd been taking lessons from above-pictured shark)

Hmmmmmm