G'n'R Out West

8 months old – YIKES!  He is so big, when he nurses now there is hardly any room for him…let alone his big sister who often insists on getting up for snuggles at snack time!

Sleep:
Sleep is pretty good.  Simon sleeps in his own crib now (sniffle…i miss him in our bed a bit).  He goes down for the night at 7ish, is up usually at midnight, 3am and 6am.  If he only has 2 feeds in the night, or 3 and the last one is closer to 5am, then he will usually go back to sleep until 7am.  If he eats around 6…he’s up for the day.  I’m pretty well rested, because he isn’t much work when he does wake.  There have been 2 nights where he has only woken once, and I was so well rested and felt so good that I was pretty sure I had super powers.  I can’t wait until that becomes more normal.  Of course, by then he’ll probably be moving around more and so he’ll tire me out during the days, so I’ll need the sleep at night!!

He usually naps 2 times a day, a short morning nap (about 1/2 an hour) and a longer afternoon nap (1-2 hours).  I’m not gonna lie, I pretty much love naptime.  He still loves to sleep all snuggled up with us.  But he also has gotten pretty gifted at sleeping in his crib.  The swaddle blankets are finally gone, and our little dude is a tummy sleeper…he’s pretty cute when he is sleeping.

Eating:
Simon has really started to love eating.  We’ve learned that he doesn’t really like mushy food.  But if you chop up whatever we are having for supper he’ll eat for quite some time.  He doesn’t even fuss when we put him in the highchair anymore.  His favorite meal is afternoon snack!  He can eat for a good hour sometimes.  He is relatively indifferent to most foods, although he LOVES blueberries.  We have many an outfit stained by those delicious little sugar bombs!

Getting Around:
He’s on the move!  He started crawling a little while ago, but he hasn’t had much energy to work on mastering that craft.  He is just obsessed with walking.  He can pull up on furniture now and has been known to do some cruising for just a few minutes.  He’s getting quite good at it.  Although, it usually ends in tears as his sister is never far away, and she definitely LOVES to ‘help’ him.   He loves to walk around holding our hands.  It cracks me up when he does this because he lifts his feet up so high you’d think he was in some fancy marching band!  He is also determined to figure out the stairs.  He loves working on them…he can get very determined, although, often his efforts seem devoid of any joy…which is a little odd and sometimes depressing.

Hair:
Same old same old, lighter still, he might just be blond in the end.   

Eyes:
Browny-greeny.

Language:
 He is finally making consonant sounds!  Yippee.  Da-da-da was first, he usually says it when he is happy, mamamamama is sort of a whiny wimpery noise he makes.  Occasionally it sounds like he is making some other noises, but they aren’t consistant.

As far as sign language goes.  He certainly knows the sign for food and milk.  He ignores them when he isn’t hungry and gets all squirmy if he is hungry.  I thought he might have made the milk sign yesterday, but when I offered him milk he looked at me like I was from mars…so clearly he was simply opening and closing his hand!

Personality:
Most relaxed baby ever.  He can get frustrated, but it is rare.  He can get excited, but not all that often, mostly he is just content, perhaps indifferent, often tired or hungry.  Simple man.

Stuff that happened this month:
- he pulled up
- he had his first trip to folk fest…well ex-utero anyway
- he learned to crawl
- he tried blueberries for the first time – and they are currently his favorite
- he tried camping, – and he is camping crazy, just like his sister
- he had his first ride in a canoe, exciting and exhausting all at once

Our big boy

Simon finally cut his first tooth.  I am pretty sure it is his bottom left hand middle tooth (I’m not allowed to see in his mouth, so this is based on feel). 

We are pretty impressed.  Yesterday he slept in until 8am  had two enormous naps (close to 4 hours in total), and still went to bed at 7pm.  If that is what it takes to cut a tooth, my friend Simon is welcome to cut another one as soon as he’d like!  In fact, I encourage him to do so.

The kids and I folk fested this year sans Greg.  It wasn’t quite as fun without him…but frig, it was still pretty fun.  Adelle did amazing.  I am so proud of her I can hardly stand it sometimes.  She had a total blast, we got there at 8am…and she was disappointed to learn we were leaving at 9:30 pm.  Although, we left because she was just exhausted and showing no signs of falling asleep. I was starting to feel guilty for keeping her there when she was clearly so very tired.

Anyway, we left on a high note, so I think we left at the exact right time.  Those days when the timing just works perfectly are awesome.

Spiderman made a quick appearance, but then quickly melted away in the heat and the mid-day splash park break.

Simon got so tired, that he was agreeable to sleeping on the ground.  Not wanting to take any risks, and knowing a long afternoon nap would help secure a chance at a fun evening, I quickly borrowed a friends wrap and tied him onto me for a proper nap…I think he passed out for a good 2 hours…didn’t even wake up when some kids splashed water on his legs at the pool.

I was taking video of Simon hoping to catch him pulling up. He pulls up all the time now and Greg even saw him shuffle from the couch to the living room table tonight. I decided it was time we catch it on video.  He was determined not to stand up while I had the camera pointed at him…the little bugger.  However, I inadvertently caught our little dude’s very first crawl! It was super exciting. He’s never been a tummy time kid…but he has started to get up on all fours from sitting. Tonight, he took it to the next level. We are so proud!

In other news, it appears as though our children like blueberries.

We spent the weekend camping in some serious heat.  There wasn’t really a good swimming option for the kids (apart from a very muddy river), so instead we opted for Tupperware swimming pools.   The campground sits on a river and a tiny little creek.  4 days before our arrival most of the campground was underwater in a flash flood.  They had to evacuate the campground and lost a pedestrian bridge.  They did a fabulous job of cleaning up and apart from basically having to camp on the road, and a swamped in fire pit we had a fabulous time with some fabulous friends. 

Both Simon and Adelle were in heaven in the Tupperware.  Adelle can spend hours in the water, and as it turns out her little brother is becoming quite the little fish as well.  Adelle, true to form, got in and out of the Tupperware so frequently that by the time she was done with each of her baths it was basically mud that she was sitting in.  Before one of her baths she took a big tumble in the mud at the back of our campsite and got covered in mud. Greg and I are both in agreement that this is the first time she has ever been bothered by being dirty.

Simon had a great time camping.  He is becoming much more demanding, as he feels that he has the right to walk regardless of his body’s ability to fully participate in the activity.  I can’t beleive how fast he is growing up!  He has also become quite the little eater.  The last day or so he hasn’t even been fighting us about going in the high chair.  He is getting better at eating purees (although, they often make him shiver in disgust).  Where he really excels is the finger foods.  So, he is starting to eat what we eat already, which makes life pretty easy!

We finally got our little guy out in the tent this past weekend.  We took off on Friday morning to meet up with my cousin Kevin and his family.  It was a fabulously relaxing weekend spent with family and enjoying our children!

Simon was a little high maintenance around the campsite.  He isn’t one to happily sit still and if he is happily sitting still, you can be sure there is a chocking hazard in his hand.  Despite the joy of being outside with our family, I think next years camping trips will be just a little bit more relaxing than this year.  Although, next year Simon will be mobile and so I suspect that will bring on a whole new set of concerns!

Adelle was the oldest child and the self proclaimed ruler of the trip.  She and Aidan get along pretty well.  Although, I think she tends to get a little frustrated when he doesn’t understand her complex games (I’m not even certain she understands some of her games!).

We bought Adelle a little paddle for the canoe.  She has told me on a number of occasions that she LOVES it.

Simon HATES sitting down.  It is a struggle to get him to sit on the floor and play (mostly because he is pretty certain he already knows how to walk).  It is a struggle to get him into his high chair (although, once tricked into sitting he quite enjoys a good meal).  It is a HUGE struggle to get him into a swing…but there are few things he loves more than a good swing.

This week I put Simon in his crib after a diaper change while I went to wash up.  When I got back he was standing, VERY confused and scared by what had happened to him.  Since that first independent pull up he seems much more excited by the prospect.
 

This weekend we took the kids out in the canoe.  It was Simon’s first trip. He was extremely excited…and then quickly fell asleep.  He woke up just moments before we were done.  Perhaps next time he will enjoy more than a few minutes of canoeing.

Adelle is really sad…two days after they left she had to live their departure all over again.  She woke up, got dressed for the day and then excitedly went to the basement door to go and wake them up.  She was not pleased when I reminded her they had left.  Adelle had so much fun and loved all the attention she got over the last few weeks.

Of course Greg, Simon and I were all spoiled too.  It is such a treat to have 2 extra adults in the house. And as always it is hard to see family go. I do love a lot of things about living out west…being far from our family is certainly not one of them.