Eight Months Old

The boys turned eight months old last week and since we were on vacation, their monthly post is a little late. With some tremendous help from the grandparents, we were able to slip away south of the border for a four-night re-charge in Puerto Vallarta (see photos). We both missed them very much, but knowing they were in such capable hands and wouldn’t even know we were gone made the trip much easier.

It’s starting to sound like a recurring theme, but this past month was a great month for both of them. Each day brings more and more recognition of their daily surroundings and each other. One of them (usually Jake!) will wake up between 6:00 and 6:15 and start the conversation going. It’s usually a slow squeak and jabber which builds into a full blabber by 6:30 or so. At this point both of them are up, blabbering away and giggling at each other. When you put them together looking at each other, they smile and laugh while reaching and grabbing each other. The both reach and grab for everything and a lot of times it’s each other or whoever happens to be holding them. We’ve caught them a few times holding hands in their stroller as we go for a walk.

Neither has started crawling yet, but they both seem to be on the verge. You can sense their frustration starting to build from lack of mobility when they are on the floor. They rock back and forth on their stomach and kick their legs trying to get their body to move and finally have to roll over to grab something. For the most part you can put them into a seated position and they can sit by themselves without falling over. They don’t have it completely down yet, so we’re either right next to them or their in the pack-n-play where they have a soft landing if they tip over.

Although both of them seem to enjoy the presence of Scout, Colin is really taken by him lately. We feed them some oatmeal first thing in the morning and as soon as he is in his highchair, Colin is looking for his dog. He gets fixated on him and smiles every time Scout does something. Ever since he was a puppy, Scout liked to bring a mouthful of food from his bowl in the kitchen into living room to eat. The other night Colin was in his swing and Scout was making his food trips back and forth in front of the swing. Each time Scout passed him, Colin would giggle and smile. The dog meanwhile was completely oblivious to this entertainment show he was putting on.

Jake finally got his front two teeth this past month catching up to Colin. What he lacked in the tooth department he made up for in his hair, compared to his brother. While both have always had some hair, Jake has started to grow a pretty bushy head of hair.

It’s been interesting to watch their mental development his past month. You can almost see the wheels turning in their head when they are really trying to figure something out. It hasn’t happened too often, but Jake sometimes will play a little yelling game with us. He’ll give out a little “Ahhhhhhhh”, then we’ll double it with an “Ahhhhhhh….Ahhhhhhhhh” and he will answer with a double yell too. For whatever reason he really gets a kick out of Adrianne saying “God bless you” after he sneezes. He won’t even sneeze and if we say it, he’ll just giggle and laugh. Just this morning, I swear he faked sneezing so we would say it. The first time I could have chalked up to coincidence, but after he did it again, I’m thinking we have a little jokester on our hands.

That has been the best part of this past month. There is starting to be a real give and take interaction with each of them. They are starting to be able to give back love to you more and more each day. Not that they weren’t loving before, but they recognize your enjoyment in them now. If they are playing or doing something alone and one of them catches you watching them and smiling, they’ll look up and smile back at you. There is much on the horizon for them in these coming months leading up to their “official birthday” and we can’t wait to see what’s next.