After Anabelle

Well he wants to be stood up all the time now. Sitting down just doesn't cut the mustard at the moment and he will fuss and wriggle until he's pushed himself to his feet or you've pulled him there. This is making for tired arms for Mummy as I do his balancing for him when he's stood on my lap. He also enjoys being stood on the floor leaning against your legs, or being put against the sofa. As always he is eager to get going.   

I don't think baby attempts at jumping will be far away, you know the type where the knees go up and down without the feet leaving the floor! After all he is already a master at bouncing in the jumperoo! Additionally, a few times now, being held stood up he's experimented with moving a foot off the floor and forwards. I won't say its a step, but he's beginning to realise his feet don't have to be glued to the spot.

Elsewhere on the whole discovery of movement thing he is enjoying floor time in a whole different way now he can wriggle somewhere. We're still not quite there with the crawling, although he's desperately trying hard to. He has started to push himself backwards and attempts to commando style crawl by pulling himself forward an inch or so every so often on his arms.  He's getting himself around quite a bit now with rolling!  

He's not yet pulling himself up to sitting or standing, but he suddenly became such a wriggle bottom and travelling around his cot that we pre-empted the 'making himself sit up' occasion by lowering the cot to middle position. Every time we go into Xander in the night, or in the morning, you can guarantee he is nowhere near where we've previously left him. More often than not he's turned himself around at least 90 degrees and lying across the cot instead of down it! So yes, he's becoming a little mover! How long do you think I have left before we have to put up some stair-gates and baby proof the rest of the house? 

I really think our baby swim lessons have helped Xander discover what he can do. Over the last month or so he's become much more animated in the water, as he has at home. He loves Monday mornings at the pool. He reaches out for toys in the water, (swimming pool and bath time!) kicks his legs, holds on to the side and enjoys bobbing around and kicking his legs in a woggle. He isn't so keen on being dunked under the water but is tolerating his brief under water swim much better than he used to!  Now, all I'm waiting for is the real vigorous splashing to start, then we'll all be getting drenched in the pool and at bathtime. 

Our baby boy continues to explore lots of different sounds, including this month 'Dada' much to Jon's amusement and excitement despite of course not understanding the sound in context yet! Hehe! We both can't wait for that first meaningful 'Muma' and 'Dada' although we know we still have a long wait for it! Another sound he has mastered is shouting about something he isn't pleased about; he's got a whole little routine for stropping and complaining now! Usually because one of us having walked away from him, or he's been put down, or some food he's been enjoying has finished! 

Alexander has reached that stage in the food process where he complains loudly if you eat in front of him and not offer him anything! The time has come where I'm really going to have to crack on with offering more finger-foods. He is doing fairly well coping with lumps of food now, such as toast, but I am irrationally terrified of giving him anything that is not mush. Just as Alexander is starting to independently reach out for food and becoming increasingly willing to have a go at feeding himself, I'm getting increasingly anxious about it. 

It is a difficult balancing act.  At the moment lumps that are small enough for him to swallow safely are too tricky for him to pick up independently, but larger bits he can hold and self-feed with he seems to just shove the entire chunk in his mouth and then gags, coughs, goes bright red and starts to panic. Which is almost nervous breakdown inducing for me. Needless to say, I'm not coping well with this 'big-boy' food. I know I need to get over it, I know Xander needs to learn how to eat a wider range of foods, I know this is another skill he has to learn but blimey I'm constantly living worst case disaster accident/death scenarios in my head. 

I probably sound a little like a crazy person! 

Alexander still has no teeth, despite the ongoing pulling at gums, chewing everything in sight and dribble dribble dribble! I've given up trying to predict how long it will be before one arrives now! But I'm hoping the arrival of teeth will make tackling finger type foods much easier for both of us. 

In a nutshelll, of course my boy is just gorgeous. I'm still overwhelmed daily how in love with this little boy I am. And doesn't eight months old make his birthday seem really, really close?!