Baby's nearly 8 months old

The lengthy time span between the last post and now pretty much sums up how busy we've been with our little bug.

In mid-August he flipped from front-to-back.
Mid-September, he did the reverse.
Mid-October, started sitting up (sloppily) while unassisted.
Mid-November, he got really good at it.
Early December, crawling like a champ.
Mid-December, pulling self up on knees.

He's got 2 teeth in his lower gums. So while we slept blissfully through the night in August-Sept-Oct, we are now back to 1,2 and sometimes 3 wakings per night.

He waves and reaches for everything. Loves looking at lights (Christmas tree, ceiling light, ornate fixture, pretty much anything with a glow.) He's really social. Ready with the big smiles for everyone. The other day at Nichols for lunch I had him over my shoulder for a sec and he made the entire booth of ladies behind me audibly swoon. Flirt!

His vocabulary is "Dah" "Duh" "Bah" and variations on the theme. A lotta cute babbling and cooing going on at all times. Wonder where he got the chattiness?

So, yeah, here we all are. Happy Little Family.

Lapses!

E was born on 4/28/09. Now he's 3 months + 1 week old. Crying much less frequently, holding his head up, smiling ALL the time, pushing up & looking around on his tummy...

Will say this: if I had truly KNOWN what that first week was going to be like post-c-section with a new baby...might have been a deterrent from parenthood. Glad I didn't have the information in this particular case. He's the best and while we are tired, we are very happy.

Nearly 24 weeks...

Today we get to hear the baby's heart beat. Our appointment is in a few hours. He's quite the kicker or stretcher or whatever he's doing in there. I've noticed that when the action is on the left side of me, it tickles like crazy...and when it's lower, it feels like he's pinching my bladder (or some other relocated organ--I'm not really sure where they all are at this point.) He almost never goes to the right side.

We're in the pre-nesting stage. Cleaning stuff out of the guest room to take to the Jewish Women's Council Thrift Store, where they mail you an itemized receipt with the value of your donation listed for tax purposes. After we go through the closets and pick out all the clothes we no longer wear/want/need, we'll make that trip. Turns out that upsizing the storage space will actually only cost about $20 more a month, which is a nice surprise.

I have a recommendation to anyone pregnant who has a dog who pulls when you walk him: get the Gentle Leader. In 2 days, this has changed the dynamic of walking Oscar completely. Instead of the abject terror of being pulled over during one of his duck/squirrel/other dog chasing spurts, it is now a delightfully pleasant experience that I no longer wish to avoid.