Crawling, and Eating, and Teething - Oh MY! 8 month Update on Uriah L. Taylor ("ULTRA")

Let's just get this party started with a shameless plug for how cute my baby is.
Seriously! Look at him! Ugh, it's painful how cute he is!

Well, well, well, here we are again, TWO MONTHS later, having flashed by, really, with Uriah now at 8 months! EEK! (also in related news: this body of mine had a baby 8 months ago and excuses are no longer valid!) It is amazing how so much of my day to day is repetitive, much like the movie Groundhog's Day, yet so many huge changes are taking place  with Uriah underfoot (literally)!

Some big landmarks for Uriah since last post:

-Uriah, who previously did not particularly enjoy eating, starts showing his Kimokeo roots and now LOVES and looks forward to eating food! A lot of times after he takes a bite he will say, "MMMMMM!" His favorite food by far is sweet potato, with sweet peas coming in a close second. Surprisingly, he does not care for fruit yet! I wanted to make sure I got him accustomed to eating vegetables before introducing fruit since fruits are so sweet and yummy, I would assume that kids would naturally prefer the sweet over veggies. At this point, he does not need breastmilk or formula added to the veggies and can get them straight with the exception of green beans. Honestly, I get it. Green beans without butter, salt or pepper? Sure go ahead and add some milk to that! We tried first with applesauce, and next with bananas, and on both, he makes some pretty funny faces! Like anything, I'm sure it will take a few tries to get used to new flavors.

My homemade baby food - it's crazy how much brighter the colors are!
Sweet potato, green beans, and sweet peas.

-SPEAKING of loving food, when Uriah sees food coming, he will wave his hands excitedly! So anything that he finds exciting elicits the waving hands. It is super cute and makes me chuckle every time I see it, even though I see it all the time. He also does a chewbacca type gurgle when he is excited, which I don't find quite as cute, but it still makes me laugh, just the same. The chewbacca gurgle as we have nicknamed it usually manifests itself during mealtime or bouts of extreme laughter. Rob gets the most chewbacca gurgles when he is tickling Uriah.

-CRAWLING! At my last update, Uriah was mysteriously moving backward, but with no visible sign of "crawling." Well, Uriah is now doing a modified crawl! It is more of a drag, really, but he can move - and BOY DOES HE. It is quite exasperating because he is curious, and naturally wants to see everything, and nothing looks quite as exciting as our laptops, playstation controllers, cords, and cable box! We will literally have toys playing music, with lights flashing, and he B-lines to our same electronics. *sigh*!!! Maybe this is how I will start to lose some of my last few pregnancy pounds! I spend a good amount of my day saying "NO no!" and removing him from the same areas, over and over. 

All day mischief. Lucky he's so cute!

Oh sure, it's all fun and games until you get stuck!! HAHA!

aaaah, yes, another favorite "toy"

-HAIR! You may notice that all of a sudden, Uriah's formerly patchy hair is getting curlier, fuller, and fluffier. I could not be more THRILLED with this! I love love love curly hair, and Uriah's hair is not disappointing! It is cute that when he is tired and starting to fall asleep, sometimes he rubs his own head or gently caresses his own hair. LOL.  

Fluffy :)

 

Seriously, lady, how many sleeping pictures do you need?
MILLIONS. I CAN'T STOP.

-While we're on the subject of sleeping, I NEED to record one of the sweetest, most endearing things that I love about Uriah when it comes to sleep: He always needs to be cuddling up with someone's hands or arms for comfort. Hopefully he grows out of it later, but for now, I am enjoying that sweet and tender moment! I jokingly call him my little koala bear because he reminds me of those little koala pencil decorations from elementary school, where they had bendy arms that wrapped around your pencil. 

Needing to be touching BOTH of us.

It should be noted that while every picture shows the same outfit for Uriah, rest assured, they were all taken on different days! (see: subtle differences in hair).

-Noticing extremities. Uriah is noticing that his hands, fingers, and feet are attached to him! A lot of the time he will be playing then all of a sudden stop to stare at his hands with a very serious and concentrated face! To this end, he also loves taking this newly discovered fingers and gouging them into our eyes, mouths, nostrils, etc. 

-Communication developments. Uriah shakes his head "no" when he doesn't want anymore food, and when he cries, he says, "mama, mama, mama." Not sure if he links Mama to me quite yet but he says both mama and dada.

-Uriah still loves books and reading. He now recognizes the titles to some of his favorite stories, and even where they are on the dresser. If he is fussing, for example, I will say, "Should we read 'A Sweet Smelling Garden?' " And he will stop and look to the dresser where I keep the story. What a smart boy he is!

---And now, for one of the biggest, updates to date---

-Uriah is TEETHING! I started thinking he was going to be the toothless wonder forever, but all of a sudden, he had two teeth erupting on the bottom! It does mean he is fussier, and more drooly, and less sleepy, but we are doing what we can to make him comfortable! He is still nursing and luckily, those new additions have not equated to me getting bitten yet.

 

and lastly, we know that Uriah will take great care of his teeth, because 

-he LOVES helping us brush our teeth! I think the fact that the sonicare buzzes is intriguing to him, but as soon as he hears the whirring of the toothbrush, he is reaching for it!

Uriah continues to delight us, exasperate us, and keep us on our toes! We are so blessed to be his parents and just love our little family!