Thomas: 8 months

I couldn't get him to lie still for this picture for longer than a second or two, so this is the best I've got. It's amazing I've managed to do as well as I have for the last few months since he started rolling.

8 months old! It's been a great month for Thomas. He took another airplane trip, this time for us to spend his first Christmas with Tim's side of the family in Massachusetts; and he got his two first little bottom teeth, as if his smile weren't cute enough.

He still won't eat any solid foods I offer him; he just kind of worries them around his mouth a little before letting them fall out. So silly.

He's wrapping up his second week (of six) of ISR lessons, which teach him to self-rescue in the water. He's a stubborn little man and he wants nothing to do with it, but he's coming along in spite of himself. For several days the instructor was not able to get him to settle into a back float, so she decided to move to the next phase of training anyway, which was submerging his head for a couple seconds. He kicked his way to a back float and then for the first time, kind of rested there, as it must have felt like a relief after having his head underwater! The instructor explained that some babies need to see the "bigger picture."

He has two naps a day -- we dropped the third nap at some point I'm not sure when -- but he still acts like he could use it a lot. He's typically going downhill pretty quickly from about dinnertime to bedtime (around 8).

Sometimes I can snap him out of a bad mood by reading him a book. He has a lot of books. He gets one every time we go to the pediatrician, and we are also signed up for the Dolly Parton Imagination Library. I love those surprise books in the mail every month, and they are very good quality, both in terms of their content and their construction. I have ones I read to Joey over and over again, and they're still in good condition. 

I have NO idea what was going on here!

What else...? He's babbling a mile a minute, getting into things he shouldn't, and judging from the way he looks at me and smiles, he knows he shouldn't. He loves baths and hates being changed, especially when it's his clothes. He still protests being buckled into his car seat, but fortunately doesn't cry for entire car rides usually. He signs milk now, but never to me (i.e., the one person who can help him there) -- to Tim and Joey so far. We all just love this little man and can't get enough of him.