My Food Chain Gang

Today my son is 8 months old – how time flies!  Gone are the days when I could cradle him like a newborn baby and sing him to sleep.  There is no better way to relax than that, and I really miss it.  Yesterday when I was in Walmart, I literally almost cried when I  saw the itty bitty baby outfits.  Why do they grow so fast?

So anyway, today is Christopher’s 8 month birthday, and he’s been growing by leaps and bounds lately.  He popped his first tooth a few weeks ago, and I swear, every day that tooth gets a little bit taller.  He just has the one tooth so far, like a snaggletooth, so we’ve been calling him “snagglepuss”.  I don’t think that nickname will stick though, it’s not quite as cute as his nickname of “Beeber”, which is how our 2-year-old used to say Christopher.

Here is “Snagglepuss” – note the little tooth on the bottom:

And he is finally sitting up!  A little late, but  it seems as if now he’s doing everything at once!  He can scoot on  his tummy, roll from his back to his tummy and his tummy to his back, and he can also sit up by himself when he’s laying down.  Now that he’s sitting, he can be busier because it’s easier for him to play.  Here he is sitting up:

And of course, after all of this activity, he gets tired, and sometimes, he doesn’t quite make it up to bed:

HAPPY 8 MONTH BIRTHDAY CHRISTOPHER!!!

INSERT DISK HERE:

My son Christopher passed his 6 month baby checkup at the pediatrician with flying colors.  If only adult physical tests were this easy – pass a block from hand to hand, pick up a raisin (which was promptly taken away because he’s too little – where’s the reward in that?), a turn of the head when your name is called…  He has mastered all of it and is right where he should be developmentally.  Except for one thing – sitting up.  No I didn’t forget the ‘p’ – he has mastered spitting up…  haha.  But he can’t sit up unassisted yet, and he doesn’t even seem to be close to doing so.  The problem is that he refuses to bend at the waist.  If I can get him into a sitting position, (and that’s a big IF!) he arches his back immediately and tries to stand.  I tried to explain this to the nurse so she wouldn’t think he is physically slow, but he lost points anyway.  Never mind that he can use his legs to jump vigorously in his bouncer that hangs from the doorway, or that he can single-handedly pull and move a heavy dining room chair with his iron grip – he still loses points for not being able to sit unassisted.  Oh well, if that’s how they score it, that’s how they score it.  It’s not like it bothers me at all; I actually find it amusing.  I think he might be crawling and walking before he sits…

Other news from the doctor appointment is that he weighs 16 lbs. 13oz. which is in the 30 percentile for weight.  An easy explanation of the percentile comparison is this:  If you take 100 babies my son’s age, 30 of them would be at his weight or lower and 70 of them would weigh more than he does.  He is 27¼ inches long, which puts him in the 75th percentile for height.  His head circumference is 45.2 cm which is exactly average.  I think he is probably our most average-sized baby; our oldest was always small for her age and the two in the middle were huge – Disney was once in the 100th percentile for height!  Just another example of how different kids are, even ones in the same family.  My 4 children physically remind me of each other, yet it’s so fun to watch their differences emerge as they learn and grow!  Here are Disney and Christopher, my two youngest: