8 months

- He's still in love with mirrors.  He loves it when I sit him in front of the mirror and let him play.  He will sit and smile at himself.  Lately he's also started trying to eat the baby in the mirror.

- I love watching he examining things.  He is such a curious little boy.  My favorite is when he puts both of his hands on my face and just looks at me.  He is so solemn about it.  And then he breaks out in a huge smile.
- Nathan has reverse separation anxiety.  He loves to go see other people.  He will smile and coo and just act happy as can be.  Until he has to come back to me.  When he gets handed back he usually starts crying.  Little stinker.  He loves people and loves attention.

- Nathan loves tags.  It started with his favorite toy, is little giraffe snuggle toy.  His favorite part: the little blue ribbon tail.  He will find the tail and will suck on it.  It used to be just his giraffe.  Now if another toy, blanket, or bib that has a tag or ribbon, he will start sucking on it.
- He is a great eater. New foods this month: cauliflower, bananas, red pepper, avocado, mashed potato, carrots, green beans, blueberries, and yogurt.  I am really surprised by the things he does and doesn't like. I didn't think he would go for green beans or cauliflower, but he likes both of them.  But then things like mashed potato, bananas, and carrots he won't eat.  Go figure.

- We started finger food and it is so cute to see him pick up food with his pincher grasp.  He is so proud of himself.
- I love it when I hear him saying, "Mamamamamama."

- He has been rocking back and forth on his hands and knees for about a month now.  I keep expecting him to start crawling any day, but he seems content to keep rocking.
- Started using a sippy cup.  We're still working on getting him to tip it far enough back to get the water out.

- His laugh is the best sound in the world.  I love it when he just starts laughing at himself.

Sweet Dreams

DC Day Trip

Ever since we've lived in Philly I've wanted to make the quick trip to DC.  I've been there a few times and have loved every visit.  And now we live only 2 1/2 hours away.  We've talked about visiting, but have never gone.

Until a few weekends ago.  Brad really wanted to see the space shuttle at the Air and Space Museum.  It has been Brad's dream to see one of the space shuttles launch, but since NASA has stopped the shuttle program just going to see one of the shuttles would have to suffice.

I was really impressed with how much Brad knows about all this Air and Space stuff.  Some guys know cars.  Brad knows about airplanes and rockets.  I felt like I had my own tour guide telling me about the exhibits.

And since we were in DC, I made Brad drive around to see the sites downtown.  It was late or else we would have tried to see a few.  But word to the wise.  If you want to go see DC, don't do it the same weekend as an inauguration.

Peekaboo

7 Months

We celebrated Nathan's 7 month mark with colds for everyone.  We were a miserable lot.  Then, Nathan had to one up us and started throwing up.  Everywhere.  There were literally puddles in his crib.  And then he started dry heaving.  Poor little guy.  Luckily a bath and some cuddles made him a feel a little bit better.

There were plenty of good milestones though to celebrate at 7 months such as:

- This kid loves to move.  He's a little spastic with his arm flaying, body twisting, and leg kicking, but it's pretty fun to watch.
- He's gaming up for crawling.  He's already really good at moving around his crib, but he's starting to lift himself onto his hands and knees.

- He has a new found fascination for his feet.  They are his new favorite thing.  He loves to grab onto his toes and, like everything else he can get into his hands, he starts sucking on them.
- We started fruits and veggies while we were in Utah for Christmas.  I just bought baby food from the store and Nathan seemed to think they were ok.  When I tasted them they seemed a little bitter.  Perhaps it was the brand.  Now that we're home I started making him homemade baby food and he loves it.  He kinda dives in for bites of food.  He's tried sweet potatoes, peas, butternut squash, pears, peaches, and apples.  He isn't really a fan of prunes however.

- His curiosity has grown so much!  I love seeing him being much more interested in everything around him.
- Bathtime has taken on new excitement since he can now pull himself up to sit in the baby bathtub.  He likes swishing his hands in the bubbles.  Also, he's decided it's pretty awesome to splash mom.

- Nathan got a jumperoo for Christmas and he goes crazy in it.  It looks like he is doing a jig since he has to click his heels together every time he jumps.  Brad thinks he looks like a puppet on strings when he bounces.
- He is finally getting good at putting himself to sleep.  He usually plays for a little bit, decides to suck on his fingers, and then drifts into dreamland.  I'm loving it.

Merry Christmas to All

We had a wonderful Christmas in Utah with both of our families.  Brad's brother Ryan bought a house in my hometown so we were literally 3 minutes away from the Packers.  Doug and Janet were able to fly out for Christmas and we loved seeing them.  Even Grandma Packer made it down.  Nathan loved meeting her for the first time.

 Alissa's amazing Christmas Eve dinner

Christmas was everything it should have been.  We had our white Christmas.  I was able to go see my best friend and her new baby.  I even snuck in a visit to see my old work friends which I wasn't able to do last time I visited Utah.  There was oodles and oodles of delicious food.  We got to spend lots of time with our families.  We do this every year, but I will say, Christmas was definetly better this year with Nathan.

Longwood Christmas