Eight months

Oliver just turned 8 months old. I have a picture of each of my children at 8 months old on the wall. Why 8 months? you ask, as did Gary when I added Oliver to the wall this afternoon. 8 months is such a fabulous age as far as I'm concerned. They've just learned to sit up and have become very interested in holding things and exploring them. You can put your baby on the floor and they will sit there for hours it seems playing with anything you place in front of them. They can't go anywhere. They babble, smile and giggle and still drink mostly milk so there isn't any food issues. They still take two naps a day and sleep 12 hours a night without waking up. He's a joy to be with. This is the picture I selected for the wall.

I've started to notice a few changes in his little personality over the last week. He used to be so free with his smiles to strangers. Now he's not so sure. He might reward someone cooing over him with a half smile and glance in their direction but then he hides his face or just looks away. And if he gets excited or angry he balls his little fists up and literally quivers. Today he was in his high chair waiting on me to give him some banana. I was standing in front of him cutting pieces of the banana into chunks for him but he wanted the whole banana. He reached out for it and when he didn't get it, out came those fists and the full body shake. So I gave him the banana. I was really hoping for a laid back personality this time but I guess strong willed children is just my lot in life. Either that or it's an energizer bunny a la Nathan.

I also picked up Oliver's Halloween costume today. Nathan is a skeleton and I was going to have Oliver match him but then I saw the bat costume and I thought matching the black would be fine. He didn't seem too keen on it but it was about 80 degrees in the house this afternoon and the costume is like a felty material. Oliver also has a big head so even though I bought 9 months, the head piece is snug.

Here's a few more shots of the cutest baby on my street, and probably my entire neighborhood.

He's really filling out. Must be all those bananas.

I always find that being outside gets me some great shots. He definitely did not love the feel of grass and I had to work harder to get a smile.

Who knew bats were so adorable?

Such a helpful child. He was pointing out something I missed when I vacuumed earlier.