Happy Eight Month Birthday Cavin!

Cavin's 8th month was pretty much like his 7 month except on overdrive. He doesn't have many more motor skills to add to his list; however we did catch him standing on his own for about 5 seconds just before his 8 month birthday. Other than that he has just become stronger and stronger on his legs, he cruises around a lot more, crawls a lot faster, and sits up on his knees a lot.

Taking after his dad, Cavin has become quite the talker and has increased his vocabulary this past month. He's consistently saying "dadadadada" and "mamamamama" (the "mamamama" only comes when he's upset or tired...typical), "ooooohhhh" (while making the so-called "O lips" that his Aunt Amy S loves so much), "yayaya", "babababa", and "thathatha" (only in a whisper...if you can figure that one out let me know). As you can tell he's well on his way to becoming a literary genius.

Between 7 and 8 months, Mike and I experienced a bit of a challenge in the solid foods category. We tried everything! Serving the foods warm, serving them cold, before his bottle, after his bottle, after his nap, in his high chair, in our lap, mixing the foods, separating the foods, fruits, veggies, rice, oatmeal...you name it we tried it. Cavin would take a couple bites, clamp his lips shut, and eventually cry in protest. After about 6 weeks of this we figured it out. It wasn't that he didn't like pears, or squash, or sweet potato. Or that it was too warm, too cold, not the right time of day, or not the right color spoon. Nope. None of that. It was that he didn't like mommy's cooking. That's right. All this time I was making his baby food and thinking I'm such a great mommy making his food from scratch. When all he wanted was jarred foods. That's just great. In my defense I think I wasn't pureeing the food enough because at this point he will take some of my foods - the more liquid-y ones such as pears and squash. I will also blame teething because...well...that gets blamed for everything and by Cavin's 8 month b-day he had two bottom teeth and was working on his two top ones (which he now can mark off his list as well).

This month's Elmo picture proved to be like last month's. He can sit on Elmo for as long as he wants. Unfortunately, since he's a 'man on the move' he chooses to sit for.....about 5 seconds...just enough to get one picture. I think this has become some sort of game to him. Look at those devilish eyes!



Then he was off and on to better things like:

Perfecting his swing using his Astros bat that Auntie Adrienne and Uncle David gave him...



Pretending he is Sandy...

Turning around to play with Elmo himself...

And grabbing mommy's camera.

As you can tell we've got our hands full with a very playful baby boy! Cavin has proved to be so much fun. Gone are the days when we place him on the play mat and hope he engages with the toys...now he rips the toys off and turns the mat upside down. Mike and I truly have a lot of fun engaging him in various activities and watching our little guy figure out the world around him.

Now on to his stats!

This month Cavin had a doctor's appointments so they are more official. However, what is strange is they are less than my unofficial measurements from last month. And since I don't make mistakes :) I will blame it on the nurse that took his measurements very quickly. That being said, here's what is being recorded in his medical records:

Weight: 19 pounds, 2 ounces (25-50th percentile)
Height: 28.75 inches (90th percentile)
Head: 46cm (80th percentile)

I was originally concerned with his slight drop in weight and height percentiles. The doctor said she is not at all worried due to how much he moves around and how he started crawling earlier than the average age...therefore burning more calories. Who knew that Cavin was already on some sort of exercise regime. Since then, Cavin has increased his solids intake so I'm interested to see his weigh-in come his 10 month check-up!

Happy birthday little guy!