Eight Months!

Our boys are now 3/4 of a year old! To celebrate turning eight months, they both sprouted teeth (Noah has one on the bottom, and Micah has two coming in on the bottom too). Teething is going mostly well, though there were were a couple of nights where Micah woke up crying from the pain before his teeth broke his gum. Noah's first tooth came out of nowhere it seemed (no fussing), but seemed to have some teething pain last night. In all cases, a dose of infant Motrin seems to really help. Other than a little teething pain now and then, the boys sleep well at night and during the day. They've pretty much dropped their cat nap and take a morning nap and afternoon nap. In between all that sleeping, they are just so happy and fun. They are playing with each other more and more, and love to steal toys from one another. Lately, they've started sitting in front of a box of toys and pulling things out. Sometimes, we stand them up across from each other and have them "hug" and bat at one another. It's really cute! The boys have also gotten upgraded to convertible car seats, as they were barely fitting into their infant car seats. Hooray for riding around in comfort and in style!

The boys are eating more and more solid foods at their meals. No real finger foods yet, but they've started with some puffs at breakfast as practice. They generally eat some yogurt with fruit puree and cereal mush for breakfast. Then at lunch and dinner, they'll have some combination of veggies, fruits, grain, and sometimes meat. They generally eat whatever we feed them, but they (Micah especially) aren't crazy about mixing textures (we learned the hard way). They still get plenty of mama's milk, but I can see how in the next four months, they'll eventually wean off of it.

Noah seems to enjoy meeting new people and can be a big flirt. It's pretty easy to get him to laugh and smile in the presence of strangers. He loves exploring textures and new things, and will observe what's going on around him in a new setting intently. He's always reaching around to touch pillows, our faces and clothes, the rug, his high chair, etc. He loves to sit and to pull up to standing. He LOVES jumping in the exercauser and jumperoo. His look of pure joy is priceless. When he's on his tummy, he's been lifting his bum in the air like an inchworm, and rollicking on his arms and legs. Noah is not crawling yet, but definitely showing an interest in it. Time to finish baby proofing!

Micah is a little more wary of strangers than his brother. He will give you a serious stare while he decides if you're worthy of a smile or not. But once he gets comfortable, he will laugh and laugh and laugh! He has the biggest, cutest grin and he loves to look at you in the eye when he's getting excited and laughing. He really makes you feel like you're the funniest person in the world with his giddy looks. He (and Noah) loves it when mama and dada make funny noises and faces. Peek-a-boo is always a treat, as are storybooks with songs and music. Micah's been moving a little more in his sleep, and we've found him sleeping on his side we've gone in for wake-up a few mornings. That's not a problem, since sans teething nights, he and Noah sleep 11.5 hours usually. Sometimes they wake up before 7 and it's like "aw man!" until we realize they slept 11 hours straight. Then I feel silly and spoiled. Hopefully, the boys feel as lucky as we do to have them in our world!