8 and a half months

Well Carter is nearly 8 and a half months old now and he is moving right along in spite of still being sick. I think his ear infection has returned from the way he's tugging on his ears. He has a cough, gooey nose and can't seem to get rid of the mucus. I take him to the Dr. tomorrow so we'll see what happens.

What else is going on with him? Well, he's started to make cool sounds with all the congestion he has. He is growling and blowing raspberries. He is becoming a lot more verbal, but I still have not heard mama or dada yet.

He is also a lot more personable and happy go lucky with us, although still completely deadpan serious around strangers unless they make some silly face at him. He usually needs about 5 minutes of being around someone before he will return to his normal self.

He's definitely discovering more cause and effect things from light switches, to dropping things from high chairs- I swear he can say uh oh in his own little way! He is enjoying reading with us and is really working at separating the pages so he can turn them himself with out me separating them for him. Yesterday I noticed that he seems to be understanding that his thumb is pretty handy for that purpose. I gave him a puff this week, but he has trouble getting them into his mouth, so he's not quite ready to start feeding himself, but we practice every day. I hope that when he starts feeding himself he will fight me a lot less when I feed him. I have a small bit of dread every time it's time for a feeding. That and changing diapers. He is so fiesty and squirmy!

My favorite thing is how he is kissing things if he sees me kiss something first like a stuffed animal. He still opens his mouth to kiss, but it's a different looking action than him simply mouthing something (which he does all the time).

He is able to stand on his own briefly now and is cruising furniture. He learned how to turn a corner while cruising this week.

He also knows now what is prohibited in the house and goes right to those things. He turns around and looks to see if I'm noticing him and when I do, he smiles. Today he was heading toward the bathroom and when I started trying to go get him, he scurried so fast- I have never seen him try and escape me that quickly. It was cute.

New sights: He saw a monarch butterfly on our milkweed plant and fish last night at a Chinese restaurant and was enthralled.

New favorites:

1. the goose sound
2. books- finally he seeks them out- yay!
3. hair
4. sniffing sound
5. having sweet nothings whispered in his ear
6. rolling balls and formula canisters
7. watching cars
8. peeking out the small window and banging on it when we leave in the morning.
9. the cool air toy that Szenka found at a garage sale
10. turning the radio on