Eight months with Javier Cash.

Time is flying by! I CAN’T believe Javi is 2/3’s of a year!

Javi is loving crawling, sitting, standing, pulling up, and walking while holding onto furniture. He loves his toys, banging things together to make sound and is babbling away. He bumps his head often (he’s just so brave we can’t keep him still) and he cries for a second until we say “you’re okay!” Sometimes he needs a little squeeze and then he happily goes back to doing whatever he was doing right before he fell!

This month he did lots and lots! We celebrated Mother’s Day, went to a 5K, played outside, moved from an infant car seat to a convertible car seat (he’s just SO heavy to carry!), went out to dinner in Boston, had his first slumber party with his grandparents and had his very first fever! He pulled through like a champ!

Since his very first fever, he’s had a fever a few more times and I think it’s due to teething. He has 2 teeth! He was so strong while those chompers poked through and now he’s working on the next few. I think at least 2 more will poke through any time now! Even when he’s not feeling his best, he’s typically still a positive and happy guy. He’s always smiling! He’s learned how to clap and he LOVES to show off that skill! He just thinks he’s so cool. 🙂

He’s had a variety of different baby foods. He’s had apples, apricots, bananas, peas, broccoli, sweet potatoes, prunes, peaches, strawberries, carrots, parsnips, mangoes, green beans, blueberries… the list goes on and on! At first I thought he didn’t like bananas but once I realized he was playing into my facial expression (I really HATE bananas) and I put a smile on my face… well, he loved them! He also had an ice cube for the first time. In a little net pouch so he couldn’t choke. He was definitely a fan!

This past month we also started putting him in his crib from 7PM-7AM. After his last bottle at 6:30PM, he gets in jammies, and plays a little (sometimes he just falls right to sleep) and then we put him in his crib. Before this, we would hold him while we sat on the couch and watched TV from 7-10PM but we realized that was more for us (we just love him so!) and the move into his crib was disturbing his regular sleeping patterns. Some days he wakes up before 7AM and other days he wakes up at 8AM. He tends to know when it’s the weekend and those days are closer to 6AM… funny how that works out!

He still goes to school twice a week and my family watches him twice a week and then he’s home with Sean on Wednesdays. They do fun things like walk on the bike path and do errands and send me pictures and I get very jealous! When he’s home his schedule is sort of like this:  7AM: wake and bottle then play 9AM: fruit/veggie then play 10AM: nap 11:30AM: wake and bottle and play 1PM: fruit/veggie then play 2PM: nap 3PM: wake and bottle then play 6:30PM: jammies, bottle maybe play 7PM: bedtime

He’s a pretty independent “player”. He typically plays with his toys alone and every once in a while wants one of us to sit with him on the floor. He likes to crawl on us and make us into his own personal jungle gym. I have set up his toys in a Montessori-way and he tends to clear the shelves (my Montessori heart breaks a little bit each time) but I know it’s all part of what he’s supposed to do. His favorite toys are his stacking cups, and anything that rolls. But if he could have his way he would have our cellphones and the remote controls over anything else.

He loves bath time. We’re still bathing him in the kitchen sink and he’s getting too big for it! But he’s still a baby so I justify it. I think we’ll have to switch him to the real tub soon because I can tell he’s itching to splish and splash! 

He’s not really a fan of contraptions. The walker, jumper, pack & play… he doesn’t like to be confined (my Montessori heart smiles a bit). So I think that’s why he’s making so many strides with his movement abilities. He’s typically out and about at our house and our living room has turned into a “yes-space”. 

I could type and type about him all day but I’ll stop here! I can’t wait to see what the next few weeks bring!