Colin at 8 months

What a difference a month makes! Colin has transformed from a mostly stationary boy to a speed racer in the crawling department. It was really magical to watch the progression. He began the month with a military crawl, really struggling to keep his bottom in the air. He worked very hard to get some momentum but wasn't getting anywere.

In the process, he learned how to move from the crawling position back to a seated position by pivoting on one knee. In the last five days or so, he has quickly made progress and is now crawling all over the place. Baby gate time! In addition, he has also learned how to pull to stand in the last week. He gave Mommy quite a fright the other night - he was crying in the middle of the night and a half-awake Mommy stumbled into his dark room but couldn't find him in his crib... finally I realized he was standing in the back corner!

In other news, Colin is finally warming to the idea of solid food. He is not quite as ambitious as his sister in that department, so we've been busy tempting his palate with different food and making vigorous airplane and helicopter noises. It's starting to pay off. This month we've introduced carrots, plums, mango, and quinoa as well as some rice crackers and flavored baby "puff" cereal. In the past week we've started giving him small chunks of food, like bananas, lentils, tortilla and shredded cheese. Colin does seem to prefer finger foods so perhaps his early reluctance was a rejection of purees. He seems to be working on cutting additional teeth at the moment so he'll soon be able to chomp a little harder!

Colin's verbal skills are improving steadily. His "mama" and "dada" are improving in frequency and clarity and he has added "Anna" in the past week, though to be fair he does not seem to use it to greet his sister. He can be coaxed into a "hi" when he's in the mood. He has a garbled version of "no" that occasionally erupts when he's upset: he tried it out on both Mom-Mom and Grandma Jean on our visit back east! A couple of times he's even attempted a pretty convincing "all done," but we haven't seen that in a couple of weeks so we're starting to wonder if we dreamt it. He's developing an infectious belly laugh, usually reserved for his sister's antics but can be conjured by Daddy throwing him in the air. He can also clap his hands together, along with smashing together whatever is in his hands. Of course, he must give that object a taste as well.

Anna continues to blossom, especially with her imagination. She does a lot more pretending, making up stories about dinosaurs and dragons, seeing shapes in the clouds, etc. We told her the story of the boy who cried wolf to try to encourage distinction between real things and imaginary things. She took the story to heart: now her stories involve lots of pretend wolves. She still likes to hold her little brother, although since he has closed the size gap so much that has become a lot more difficult for her.She continues to be a big help to her brother. In fact, when Colin resists eating we'll often invite Anna to give him a spoonful, because more often than not he'll accept it from her - not us! I am working on the invitations to her 3rd birthday party tonight, which is really difficult to believe. Time really flies!


Click on the picture below to see more pictures of what we've been up to this month:

Colin at 8 months