Another Milestone (Already?!)

DJM reached the eight-month milestone just over a week ago.

We all love him more and more each day.

His cousins are spoiling him.

He’s growing quickly – and so is his appetite for table food. (I’m especially thankful! We’re now down to two – and sometimes only one – middle-of-the-night feedings!) To the previous menu of prepared oat cereals, bananas, apples, carrot-sweet potatoes, and squashes, he’s now added whole wheat & bran bread, bits of cheese, and small servings of meat: chicken and – most recently – BEEF! I’m having fun pureeing everything!

On his own initiative (i.e. before we could stop him!), he also added coloring-book paper (complete with a bit of crayon!) and diaper liner to his list. Maybe he thought he needed more fiber?!

With the new tooth that appeared on the bottom right, he now has five showing. Two more on top look like they might appear at any moment! He seems to teethe quite comfortably; based on what moms post on FaceBook, I’m realizing I should be very thankful for that fact.

Look at that new one poking through!

He isn’t crawling yet, although he did start getting up on “all fours” and rocking back and forth right after I wrote the seven-month milestone post. In all fairness to him, he doesn’t spend any time at all on the floor. (It’s winter here, and the floors are truly frigid!) He does manage to roll and wriggle across a bed or pack & play to get where he wants to go.

And he has found another much more creative way to get around, too:

We call it the Nas-Chair! DJM can really cruise around in it!

In the realm of communication, he very obviously shows that he understands specific phrases such as:

¿Dónde está Papá? [Where’s Daddy?]
¿Dónde está Elizabeth? [Where’s Elizabeth?]
¿Dónde está Danielito? [Where’s Little Daniel?]
Mirá a Mamá. Mirá los ojos de Mamá. [Look at Mommy. Look at Mommy’s eyes.]

His understanding of the latter became very apparent when, after biting my shoulder, he tried very hard to avoid looking at my eyes when I was reprimanding him!

He also has a very distinctive cry that we’ve now come to understand as The Dirty Diaper Alert. He absolutely hates to have a dirty diaper! Maybe he’ll not only look exactly like his Daddy but will also (just like his Daddy did) be potty-trained by the time he turns two!

Life promises to be exciting!