eight months with our man

1. He's become such a good sitter.  He loves to sit and play with a few toys in front of him now and I'm not nearly as worried anymore about him falling backwards and hitting his head.  I've noticed that when he's tired of sitting, he lunges forward and gets on his belly, which leads me to the next thing.
   
   
2. He is crawling!  Well kind of.  More like army crawling.  His belly is still on the ground, but he uses his arms and legs and quickly crawls toward whatever he has his eye on.  This is usually a water bottle, computer cord, or a ball of some sort.  Oh and my toes.  He has been crawling toward me for the last few days just to grab my toes or get my attention--I haven't figured that out yet. He started his crawl on Christmas Eve and he really got his stride on Christmas morning--such a great Christmas gift to us. 
   
   
3. He is napping! Consistently. I can't even believe I am typing this because I honestly thought it would never happen.  I didn't do anything different, but over the break I decided to try to put him in his crib for naptime again and see how long he cried (I tried this off and on for months and he would always cry for 30 minutes at least and never feel asleep.) Well the day I tried it again, he whined for 2 minutes and before I could grab the monitor and see what strange position he had gotten himself into, I saw that he was asleep. Asleep!! No crying, no rolling from one end of the crib to the other, no trying to shove his head between the crib slates--just asleep.  And he slept for a little over an hour.  I thought, "Surely this is a fluke."  He had only done this once before about 2 months ago and I got my hopes up then, but when tried it again the next day, he cried and cried and cried.  BUT when I tried it again this time, he did the same thing as the day before--whined for a bit and then fell asleep for an hour.  So now he is taking 2-3 naps a day and I am bursting with free time.  Now, I understand how people are able to get things done at home with a baby.
   
   
4. He sleeps in the funniest positions.  Speaking of sleep, our favorite position that Judah does is when he is on his back and puts in two hands behind his head with his elbows above his head--the epitome of rest and relaxation.  He takes his naps like this everyday and occasionally sleeps like that at nighttime.  At night, he usually ends up on his belly and tucks his knees underneath, so his little bottom just sticks up in the air. Joel and I crack up looking at the monitor all the time. Video monitors are the best! I feel like they make me more a lazy parent since I can just see if I need to go in instead of going in and seeing for myself, but they are awesome because of how much fun it is to spy on your child.  :)
   
   
5. He gives kisses and hugs.  Wide, open-mouthed, wet kisses and head-on-shoulder, arms-wrapped-around-neck hugs.  And they are the best!  Every day when I get him from his nap, he throws his arms around me and just rests his head on my shoulder for about 10-20 seconds. Oh how I wish I could just freeze time during those moments!  And then when he gives his kisses, I don't even mind that I have to wipe off all the slobber from my chin, cheek, or eye. :)  He pulls your hair or ears toward him with both hands and then plants a big one on your cheek usually.  It is so sweet!  He also has done it to a few other ladies and friends, so I'm glad I'm not the only one to experience it.