8 months

Hard to believe little man is another month older. Not too long ago I heard someone talk about motherhood, and they said it is 'long days and short years.' Well, I firmly believe that saying. I cannot believe how fast 8 months has gone by...time flies when you are having fun!!

Callen is more and more active these days. He is still doing his push up and fling himself forward type crawling. He has not mastered up on all fours and staying that way while advancing forward. However, the boy can get himself where he wants to go! I left him in the middle of the living room the other day and left the room for about 2 minutes. I heard a loud thud, and found him by the front door with a flower power overturned and soil on his face!! The boy is into EVERYTHING and EVERYTHING goes into the mouth. He is climbing onto small objects that are in his way in order to get to what he wants. He is now able to go from sitting, to all 4s, and back to sitting. I have also found Cal using his crib bumper to pull to stand in the crib (yes, the mattress has already been lowered to keep him from falling out of it). 

Look at all that blonde hair! He is going to be a toe head like his daddy

I think all this activity has started (I say this very loosely) to tire him out some. Cal's naps are starting to be longer than 30 minutes at a time! He still fights a nap every time I put him in the crib, but once he falls asleep, he will sleep anywhere from an hour to 2.5 hours! This makes one happy momma!! And best of all...he has slept through the night (7:30-7:30ish) for the last week! Can I get a BIG WooHoo?!?!

He still has not said any words. Doug and I feel he is 'talking' lots more and throwing consonants in there much more often, but no distinguishable words. There are times I feel he says 'hey' when we walk into the room and greet him. There are also no signs of teeth. His pediatrician looked at his gums last week and said she didn't think he would have teeth for a while based on what she felt (I guess the teeth are way down in there?). 

Trying to get him to say Good Morning to Doug...I feel he said hey at the end, so I cut off the video!

Cal is still a happy smiley baby most all the time. He has definitely shown more outward signs when he is tired, and I have had to do major consoling in public a few times to make him not lose it. We have not had a major meltdown yet, but I also know when we need to start making our way home! One of his favorite games is peek-a-boo/hide and seek. We will hide on one side of a chair and pop out to surprise him. He then starts to look in the same direction for us...and then we pop out on a different side. He laughs and grins every time. He also loves being tickled. He gets the best belly laugh going when you tickle his belly! We are still experimenting with new foods and tastes. I spiced up some quinoa and zucchini with cumin the other day. I can't say he loved the flavor of the cumin. He loves salsa! I have given him medium salsa, and he eats it straight from the spoon without any worry for the heat! He is doing really well at eating straight from my plate. I had to share my pot of homemade oatmeal with him as well as my veggie burger the other night. He enjoys eating whatever I have that I will allow him to try. We are still being careful with the high allergy foods because of Doug's allergic reactions to some foods and my family history of allergic responses. So far so good for now. His new favorite food is watermelon! He gets so excited when he see me take the container out of the fridge. I can see many days this summer hanging out in the front yard with a sprinkler going, Cal playing in the water and then enjoying watermelon and then back in the sprinkler for a bath!!!! 

We have been going to the library weekly for 'Bouncing Babies.' We go with Cal's buddy, Wyatt and his mom. It's a program at the library where you sing songs, read books, and then all the kiddos play. There are usually 20-25 kids at the program. He seems to enjoy it; he really likes the singing and interaction portions, and then the time at the end when you can play. This morning I put him on the ground, and he was gone. He crawled around and played on his own or went to other kids for about 15 minutes.

Bubble time at the library!

So tired but will not miss out on anything!

Life is so great right now. We are having so much fun with our little guy, and loving all our new adventures. Things are so different than just last year, but we couldn't imagine better. It is so awesome to watch Callen explore and learn so much around him. I just need more energy to keep up with him. Once he figures out crawling...and then walking...it is game over!! Off to the races!