Eight Months

Just so I don't forget what Thor can do at 8 months:

*Thor is crawling all over the place. Last weekend he was scooting around backwards--he hadn't quite figured out how to crawl forward. Then sometimes this week he got the hang of it.  This weekend he was all over the place--hard wood floors facilitate fast crawling and boy, is he fast! This kid is never slow.

*He has his first 2 teeth, the bottom front. They popped through about January 25. And they get sharper every day. Yesterday he tried sharpening them on the beautiful end table that Grandma Vilda gave me!

*He still wakes up 2 times a night: once at 1-2am and another time at 4-5am. He used to sleep really well until he got sick and he's never managed to stay asleep very long after that--his nose is too stuffed up.

*Thor is babbling a lot. Sometimes he says "dadadadada" but I don't think he knows it's a word yet. He will say "mama" but only when he cries. I can't tell if that's just the sound he likes to make when he cries or if he realizes I'll come faster if he says my name. It is really cute when he gives me a baby-monkey-hug, thumps his head on my chest and cries "ma ma ma ma!" Other than that, he's said random words, but not consistently.

*Thor can now stand up in his crib and jump and yell for us. Gary found him standing yesterday morning. He is so proud of himself for learning how to pull up.

*And speaking of pulling up, Thor pulls up on everything now. He can pull up and scoot along furniture and then drop down and crawl after what he wants. He's tried to walk on his own (he thinks he can and only remembers that he can't when he biffs it). He has many little bumps and bruises on his arms and head from falling. He is still genuinely surprised when he falls down. He looks up like "I could do this yesterday, I swear! what happened?!"

*Thor holds his breath underwater. He has only blown bubbles once or twice (probably by accident). He never cried doing a back float until yesterday.  Jenn showed me how to hold his head so he can't flip his feet up in the air or he sinks and he doesn't like that. He can cling to the side of the pool and can shift his weight to one hand to push over a toy on the ledge. He can scoot his little hands along the side of the wall and he's trying to crawl out--that will take a while because it's a lot of coordination. Occassionally, he will fall in from the edge on the count of 3, but most times we still have to nudge him. He loves being in the water. He laughs and splashes and kicks. He pushes away from us holding him like he thinks he can swim on his own.

And those are the major milestones we've reached so far. We sure love Thor!