8 Months

Oh little one, how you make us laugh. You bring pure joy to this house. 8  months old...my goodness. Parke is learning all sorts of new things and growing so fast (2 more inches and we have to move to a Big Boy carseat). He isn't crawling yet, I'm not worried about it. He will take his time plus I think it's one of those "first child syndrome" things. He has too many people around him that will hold him or get him what he wants! He did get a little barking dog for Christmas that moves so it might motivate him to chase after it. He also watches as balls roll away from him obviously thinking about if he REALLY wants to go get them or not...

He says momma, dada, and then jibbers different things including the "buh" sound. It's so fun to hear him talk to himself or others. He laughs more when tickled then he has in the past and if you tickle his feet he will stretch them out again towards you once you are done, simply asking for more.  He will stretch as far as his little body will let him to reach toys he wants without crawling to get there.
He loves to take all of his toys out of the basket one by one, examining them on the way out. I would say his favorite toys right now include this little turtle, this seedling boy doll my aunt gave him and then anything he can get in his mouth.

We haven't ventured very far in the food realm. He had a REALLY hard time a few weeks ago with constipation. It was plain awful. SO, we've gone back to basics and for Parke we have to make sure he has something green with almost every meal. Poor thing was strictly eating prunes and pears for a few days and it did NOTHING!

Parke has also enjoyed some great quality time with Dad lately. Blake has been so sweet to either let me sleep in OR let me run around on Saturdays while he stays here with Parke. He really enjoys his daddy/Parke time and I love that for them and love my time away. He is so good with Parke and I love that Parke brings him so much joy and laughter.

We have also been working on "blanket time". This means I set a timer and have Parke play by himself on a certain blanket for a certain amount of time. He actually does really well playing by himself most days but I wanted to be intentional about some part of it. It helps my heart to know its purposeful. This will get harder the squirmier he gets!

One of the best things about Parke in the last week is a new face he makes. It's so funny and he makes it while playing or eating. The above picture is his nice "old" smile (Christmas jammies are in the P.J. rotation, the pic's are not from Christmas)...the pic's below are what bring this house laughter and refreshment daily. Oh my goodness...he squints his eyes together and kind of makes a bitter beer, old man, smile/face.

We love you Parke! So incredibly blessed and thankful. Happy 8 months!