Dear Brennan,

Today you are 8 months old! These eight months have flown by and with the holidays quickly approaching, I feel like you'll be one in the blink of an eye! Here's a little bit about what you've been up to this past month.

You are wearing mainly 6-9 month clothes still. You can already fit into some things that say 12 months, which blows my mind. I think I need to buy you a winter coat. I think you have some hand-me-downs that are too big. But I guess I need to check your closet before I go out and buy you something new! You are wearing size 3 diapers and should be in those for quite a long time. You squirm a lot more during diaper changes now, so changing you is a little more difficult.

You are getting more used to restaurant high chairs. You are almost sitting up by yourself. You seem to be even better at it just this morning. I thought you were ready to do it several months ago, but that was just a fluke. Now you'll sit for a little bit and then fall backwards. At restaurants I will sometimes stuff a blanket in the high chair with you to help keep you from sinking down. We just went out to dinner Saturday night with Beth and Luke and you were great there! You love your high chair at home, so that's good. You continue to do great in your car seat and stroller. You like every stroller I've ever put you in. In the Chicco stroller, you like to sit up straight and not be buckled in, so I leave the feet raised up so you can't fall through. It makes your legs all swished up, but you seem to like it. We try to go on a walk around the block each night and you love it. You also do pretty well at Stroller Strides in the mornings, but you start to get tired and usually end up fussing a little bit.

You are still a pretty good eater, but I think having an ear infection recently made you not quite as hungry. You usually still eat four times each day and get solids at three of those meals. You've continued to add more fruits and veggies to your diet and you definitely prefer fruits! Sometimes it is hard to get you to eat your green veggies, but just last night you ate all green beans without spitting any out! We've been trying to get you to eat some puffs or Cheerios the past month, but you haven't been interested until just the past few days. You haven't put any your mouth yourself, but when I place a puff in your mouth, you don't freak out anymore. Just yesterday I watched your mouth move and up and down as you were "chewing" it up. You still don't have any teeth (where are those suckers??). You use your sippy everyday with water in it. I still don't think you drink that much out of it, but you do like to chew on it, so I guess that's something. Occasionally you will get a bottle, but not very often.

Sleeping is still going well, although again the ear infection (I'm assuming) has affected your naps some. You usually go to bed for the night around 7-7:30. I feed you, give you a bath, read you the book Time for Bed and your Bible story, sing Jesus Loves Me, and then lay you down. You don't get swaddled at night anymore!!! I am glad because I was beginning to think your college roommate was going to have to swaddle you! I decided to try you unswaddled during naps one day because you kept busting your feet out of the swaddle. Your arms haven't been swaddled down for months, so I figured it was about time. It went so well at naptime that I decided to try it at night and it worked too! You usually wake up for an early feeding between 6-7am, but will go right back to sleep afterwards and wake up between 8-8:30 most days.

You usually take two good naps during the day and maybe a short one before bed. Stroller Strides interferes with your first nap, so those days you usually only take two. Last Thursday you took a 3 hour and 45 minute nap, but that is NOT normal! The past few days I have been swaddling you again during naps just to see if you would sleep a little longer. I'm not sure if that has anything to do with the length of your nap though. I think you are starting to extended your wake time, so I need to watch your cues more closely so I don't lay you down too early. Sometimes it takes you longer to fall asleep and I will hear you in your crib just babbling to yourself. It is very cute!

Let's see what else...you started swim classes and really enjoy those. You're a champ in the church nursery on Sundays most of the time. You're hair sticks straight up most days now even if I try to brush it down flat. Your face breaks out in hives (or something similar to that) if Ringo licks you in the face, so we have to be extra careful of that now. Speaking of Ringo, you LOVE him and cackle when he does lick you. You also love the cats. As I mentioned earlier, you had your first ear infection and still seem to be recovering from that. You still have never rolled over from your back to your tummy. You aren't crawling yet and do not like to be on your stomach, but Mommy makes you do it for a little bit each day. You love being outside. You picked out your first pumpkin just the other day. You still love bath time. Your workbench is your favorite toy. You say "ba ba ba ba" all day long right now. You still spit up a lot and Mommy is hoping you outgrow that soon. You have the greatest laugh and you laugh a lot!

Goodness that is a lot of stuff! It's wild to think how many more things you'll be doing just within the next month. In just a week and half we are traveling to Atlantic City to see your Ga-Ga and Ge-Ge, so that will be exciting. Everyday is exciting though! You are such a good baby and I love you so very much!

Love,

Mommy

Brennan back at 7 months!

Brennan today at 8 months!