This month has been CRAZY with the many, many changes Kye has gone through. I love that every day brings something new!!! It’s such an exciting time in his life!
Ball: While at Disney we got Kye a ball! He’s had a little plastic one but it didn’t roll very well and he also has had a football that (duh) doesn’t roll well either. Even though I hate basketball it was the best ball and it was Disney!!! He LOVES it! Zach will play catch with him which is cute as he will semi-catch it (with some luck) and will (also with luck) roll it kinda back to Zach to do it again. The best part though is how he CHEWS on the ball. I guess he thinks it tastes good? This video shows him going to town on it…so funny!
Reading: Kye isn’t reading as much as he used to anymore 🙁 He does still really love the books and has learned to enjoy them sitting up and is starting to master turning the pages. Here’s a video of him doing this! While he may not be as into reading on his own, he is starting to enjoy it more when we read to him. He will sit in my lap and actually pay attention to the book instead of just trying to eat it the whole time! This makes it a lot more fun and makes me excited for the many, many books he’ll be getting as Christmas gifts this year!
Boo-Boo: Kye had his first real boo-boo. By real I mean that it drew blood 🙁 He was playing in his room and I stepped out for a few minutes. I’ll do that from time to time to throw in some laundry or something like that as his room is pretty baby proof I don’t really worry. I heard him BAWL as if in pain so of course I raced in there to comfort him and he had a little dot of blood below his nose. I guess he was pulling up on the little table in his room and fell just right to hit it. I felt guilty for leaving him alone poor thing but these things will happen more and more as he gets more mobile! You can see the boo-boo under his nose!
Naps: Kye has been doing MUCH better adjusting to not having his 3rd nap. We actually have sort of rearranged things a bit to accommodate him. I let him sleep longer at his 1:00 nap if needed and we feed him early for dinner. He now eats at 6:30 instead of 7 and is asleep by 7:15 instead of 8. So far that’s really helping! We also just try to keep him VERY entertained around 5:00 because he’ll still sometimes get a little fussy because he’s tired. His other naps have really benefited from the 3rd one being gone though! He goes down at 8:40 (doesn’t fall asleep sometimes until almost 9:30 because he’s too busy playing!) and will get up around 11. For the 1:00 he may wake up around 2 but typically will put himself back to sleep. I can no longer use the shush-pat method if he wakes up as at this age that will only make him wake up MORE. All I can do to help him go back to sleep is give him the paci and hope for the best. So now I never go in his room during nap time unless he’s bawling his head off! And now that he can put the paci in by himself (amen!!!!) life is so so so much better! He really is a Babywise Baby as he puts himself to sleep at the beginning of his nap and if he wakes up during it…all that hard work was welllll worth it 🙂
Car Seat: Kye’s infant carrier car seat seems to be getting heavier and heavier while also looking smaller and smaller. He’s such a big boy! When we went to the dr. recently and she said he’s 20 lb 5 oz I decided it’s probably time to start thinking about moving him to the “big kid” car seat. Our infant one only goes up to 22 lb and or 30 inches long. With a full belly and dirty diaper and fully dressed I’ll bet he’s almost 22 lb! And I’m sure by now he’s about 29 inches since he was 28 almost 2 months ago! We haven’t installed them yet but I’m so so so nervous about it. Kye LOVES the frog toy Aunt Ashley got for him. He adores that thing and it’s our savior in the car…what will we do without it??? Any suggestions for car seat toys would be great! I’m going to buy him a tray that you can hook up to the seat so he can put toys in that and we have a portable dvd player we’re going to hook up so he can watch Your Baby Can Read on road trips! Here he is enjoying that car seat and frog before we say goodbye 🙁
Sitting on Own: I remember with LL (Kye’s friend who’s a month older than him) that it seemed like she hit a million milestones at once…well we’re at that time right now for Kye! A couple weeks ago I was packing for the Disney trip and walked in his room to find him sitting up playing with a toy. I realized that he hadn’t been sitting up when I walked out so he must have done it on his own. I walked in again a few minutes later and he was on his belly and looked up at me with this little look in his eyes. So I told him to sit up for mommy and he did it! He went from his belly to sitting! I was so excited! I grabbed the camera and caught his 3rd time doing it on video! Yay!!! I am honestly more excited about this than crawling as it really helps with his independence. If he falls over from sitting he can just sit himself up again! It’s really helped him with his independent playtime and now he’s up to over 20 min per session! It’s also so sweet when I walk in from his nap and he’s sitting up in his crib! Such a big boy!
Mr Monkey: Kye has started to become attached to his monkey blanket thing that he sleeps with. We wanted to kinda choose his attachment item so we’ve been having him sleep with it for awhile now. As he’s getting older he really does love Mr. Monkey! I’ll hear him all the time on the monitor playing with him during his nap time. When he’s about to go to sleep I hand him Mr. Monkey and he’s sooo precious with him. He’ll hug on him and give him kisses. And whenever I wake him up from his nap (or go in there to get him because now he’s typically awake) he is usually loving on him! In this video he kissed Mr. Monkey on demand! Such a sweet, loving baby!
Chewing: I don’t know if it’s because Kye loves to eat or because he’s learning to make lots of different sounds, but whatever the reason Kye loves to chew. He’ll just chomp down over and over again making smacking sounds all over the place! This video is so funny of him chewing the pole in our front foyer. It looks like he’s pole dancing haha!
Weather: The weather in south GA is always strange, especially this time of year. Some days I lay out because it’s 80 and others I’m all bundled up freezing. I haven’t let this affect our walks but it’s hilarious how I have to dress Kye! The kid doesn’t have ANY winter clothes so I bought a well-worn out fleece outfit on Ebay for 99 cents just so he could wear something when we go out in the cold! Courtney gave me an old sweatshirt of Colts with a hood and I put a tight baby hat on him to help keep his head warm. Top it off with some socks and ugly shoes I got at a garage sale awhile back (he doesn’t own any shoes yet either…I’m going outlet shopping the end of the month and want to wait for some deals!!!) and we’re good to go. I’m so glad I don’t run into a ton of people while on my walks (other than construction workers) b/c I’d be pretty embarrassed at how my kid is dressed haha!!!
Talking: Kye’s been making vowel sounds for a long time now (“eh” being the favorite) but he’s just starting to really learn consonates! So far he’s able to make the “d” “s” “g” and “b” sounds! His first word was on October 30th (same day he went from tummy to sitting, I’m telling you it’s all happening so close together!). He was in his pack and play having independent playtime and I walked over to help him clean up. He looked right at the basket for the toys and said “bud.” Random! I am not one of those moms who thinks he actually meant to say “bud” I know that it was just him putting together the sounds he knows but still, it’s a word so I’m counting it. It caught me off guard because up until that point I’d only really heard him say “eh” haha!
Then the morning of my birthday (a couple days later) I was in the bathroom getting ready and I heard him, clear as day, say “dada”! I was so thankful Zach was there to hear that even though, again, we know he didn’t actually mean “Daddy” it’s still very exciting! Here is a video of him saying “dada” along with making plenty of raspberries. I know “mama” may not come for awhile so I’m enjoying the “dadas” for now 🙂
It seems like EVERY month Kye invents some new annoying sound. We’ve had the shrieking, the grunting, and now we have the choking. I loathe this sound as it really does seem like he’s choking. I’m glad I capture videos of each of these sounds as they really do come on strong then just disappear. Here’s the video of the latest one which will hopefully be gone any day now!
Goodbye Bouncer, Hello Chair: While I was reading through the instructions for the car seat to see when he was too big for it I stumbled across the ones for the bouncer and discovered that once they can sit on their own they are too big! Oops! We just love the bouncer and I hate to see it go as Kye adores it, especially the little owl. Oh well! I washed it and we packed it up for baby #2 someday! Along with it I told Zach to go ahead and pack up the swing. He doesn’t use it and hasn’t ever really liked it so why keep it out? It’s HUGE. I did end up keeping the seat part because it converts into a little chair for him and he really enjoys it! I’m thankful that I found a use for the “swing” as I hated that it was $100 just wasted! Here’s pictures of him enjoying his bouncer one last time and now playing in his rocking chair!
Eating: Kye is still a great eater. He nurses very quickly and also kills a bottle fast! He’s down to abou t6 oz a feeding (which is 24 oz a day) so I think that’s okay. He eats all Stage 2 baby food now and loves all of it! Also instead of rice cereal I give him oatmeal and have started giving him whole wheat grain as well. I am still big on introducing him to lots and lots of new foods and our list has gotten pretty long! You can follow the foods Kye eats by checking out this link as I update this post whenever we try something new. He’s also doing great with finger foods and enjoys feeding himself. He can pick up the pieces with his index finger and thumb and get (most of) it in on the first try! Here’s a funny video of him pretending to eat. I guess maybe he thought it was in his mouth? haha I also let him have some apple juice for the first time in his life (mixed 1 oz juice with 1 oz nursery water and he only took a couple sips). I am not a big juice person but he was a little constipated so I thought it would help. Here’s a picture of his first time trying it!
Teething: Kye suddenly stopped showing any signs of teething. So strange! You would think by 8 months old that the kid would had least have one tooth poking through but nope! I hope they come in soon, it does make me a little nervous! However, I’ve read online that it’s a normal thing and even though pretty much all the babies I know had teeth by this age that he’ll get them eventually and even being toothless up to 14 months old isn’t rare!
Growing Boy: As mentioned earlier, he’s now 20 lb 5 oz! It’s so funny to me that I used to think that a bag of cat food at the grocery store was heavy. I bought some the other day and thought it was no big deal at all!!! Carrying around 20 lb all the time makes things seem a lot lighter. Maybe I’m building some arm muscles? 🙂 With his big boy size he’s now in size 4 diapers. He was leaking out of the 3s a lot during his naps so it was time. He’s also still in 9 month sized clothing but is wearing 12 month sized sleepers and ughhhh so annoying. Why do all the sleepers I buy (all different brand names) have such TINY arm holes? Grr! I actually bought him 18 month size pjs from Old Navy for him to wear Christmas morning and they already fit him! I guess pjs just run very very little for some reason. Even though he’s a big boy he still doesn’t compare to Daddy…I love this picture comparing their feet! hah!
Baby Things: When he was first born I was nervous about all the black thick hair he had! He had that junk on his ears and alll over his back and shoulders. I was worried I had a wolf baby! The dr told me that the hair may actually never go away, and so far he was right! The hair is all still there but is now blond so it’s a LOT less noticeable (thank God!) Also the dr. told me that the little bump on his thigh would be there forever as it was a scar. Well on this one, the dr was wrong! After putting plenty of Aquaphor on it over the past couple of months it’s now barely even a freckle!
Toy Box: I’ve started giving Kye a lot of blanket time which is great because it gives him a chance to explore and play with all of his toys. Of course, his favorite toy is the actual toy box I store the toys in! He LOVES that thing and especially loves taking out the bottom of it (it’s like a cardboard insert) and playing with that. He will hold that thing and “talk” to it forever!
Crawling: when Kye turned 8 months old he was not yet fully crawling. He prefers to get around by scooting but will take a couple “crawl steps.” I don’t consider this actual crawling though! To me crawling is when he gets from one place to the next JUST with crawling and not scooting! Here is a video of him almost crawling. He is very close to actually crawling, so close that he’ll crawl in his sleep! Zach says he goes in there sometimes (if Kye gets loud while sleeping) to put the paci back in and Kye will be up on all fours rocking while still dead asleep. I wish I had a video of that!
Your Baby Can Read: I know a lot of people don’t buy into the program, but I love it. Do I sit there thinking my kid is going to bust out reading? No! I just know that it is something he enjoys participating in and that it may help him with his education but even if it doesn’t help him it won’t hurt him either. Unlike most tv shows I don’t have to worry about something influencing him (like the new Sesame Street scandal!) and I know that he’s watching something that encourages a love of reading. What could be bad about that? We do the flashcards as well as watch the movies and I enjoy this time with him together. It’s neat because it’s a way I can really see him growing up. He used to just stare blankly at the flashcards while I read them but now he participates and responds when I ask him to read the word. Here’s a video of him “reading”
Play Pin: I was letting Kye have blanket time just on a blanket in the living room but now that he’s so mobile I can’t trust it! We got out the play pin gate thing we bought back when I was pregnant and it’s great! He plays in there and can’t escape so I know he’s safe. This also goes along with the Babywise principal of boundaries and not allowing him more freedoms than age appropriate. Doesn’t he look like a little caged monkey??? haha!
Laughing: Kye has always been a happy baby. He is growing up though and no longer laughs allll the time like he used to. He especially doesn’t think I’m as funny as he once did (I guess he’s figured out that I really am NOT a funny person which is true!) Now the only thing that he really cracks up at are the dogs. Occassionally he’ll be in a silly mood where making him go upside down or tickling him will get him going but for the most part the dogs make him the happiest! Just seeing them bring a smile to his face and a laughter from his gut!
Standing on own: This actually happened the day he turned 8 months old so technically it should go on next months post but whatever! Kye has figured out how to go from laying to sitting then from sitting to standing all within one week! He first pulled himself up at the window in his bedroom, here’s a video of that. While this was exciting for some reason I didn’t really consider it actual standing because he couldn’t stand up straight (the window is too low!). The other day I was on the phone with Ashley and he was in his play pin playing when I came over and he stood right up! Such a big boy! He’s now loving to stand and will pull up on everything. He doesn’t walk while holding on yet but I’m sure that will happen before we know it!
Discipline: I know Kye is only just now 8 months old. But I truly believe he is starting to understand cause and effect. Since he is mobile he has to learn that somethings he cannot have. Not just because they aren’t his but also because they can be dangerous. His favorite thing to scoot to get is the cord of the fan in his room. I will let him get to it then say “no sir” then move him away. When he keeps going back to it again and again I decided it was time to punish him a little more than just saying “no sir.” As a young boy Zach’s family used a switch on him, which basically means they went out in the woods and found a little twig and carried that around. Well, I’m not that country haha. I know some people use wooden spoons but I decided to use a wooden paint stick. The main reason is that they are FREE and you can get a million of them! Zach got me several from Lowes and I have them around the house where I may need them. I know some people will say “no no” a bunch of times THEN say “I’ll get my stick” and may or may not actually get it. That’s so annoying to me and I don’t believe in empty threats. The day I decided to start using it I watched Kye scoot to the cable cord in the living room. I went over and said “no sir” and moved him away but he came back again so I popped him on the hand with it and said “no sir” again and moved him away. It really does work! Whereas with just the “no sirs” he’d go back again and again he will now stop after getting popped. Zach even said he can tell that he’s learning what “no sir” means because as he’s heading towards something he shouldn’t we’ll say “no sir” and he’ll look back at us and stop! I truly believe that disciplining at a young age can help him to learn his boundaries and that it will help prevent him from needing lots of discipline when he’s older!
Summary: out of all the months Kye has been on this Earth, I feel like the end of the 8th month and beginning of the 9th month have been the most exciting. It really does seem like everyday he’s learning something new and growing up right before my eyes! It’s such a fun time and while it does make me a little sad to be seeing my little baby becoming not-so-little, overall it makes me so happy! This is the time where I can start to see my hard work pay off. From now on in his life a lot of the milestones he reaches will be in part from things I’ve done as a parent. It makes me proud for sure! I’m eager to see what’s around the corner…hoping for some legit crawling and some TEETH!!!
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We also started disciplining Stevie with a "rod" when she became mobile. While she still has her "moments" I feel that overall she is pretty obedient. I truly believe that starting young is best then they don't really know any different 🙂