Today, Mr BB stood all by himself without holding onto anything for 7 whole seconds.  And it wasn’t one of those times where we would let go and catch him before he fell over…it was for real standing and using his hips to maintain his balance.  We were so proud.

And then he wouldn’t go down to sleep at night.  He’s been doing this a lot recently.  I’ve heard of the 9 month sleep regression that can happen because they are learning to do so much around this time.  He will cry non stop….Do we should re-sleep train starting at 5 minutes…or go directly to the longest interval?  How does that work?  We know he can self soothe…he just is crying so that we will go in and get him.  He cried non stop for 20 minutes today and yesterday before we went in…and then another 20 min after that. Finally, we got him out of the crib and he was wired…so we brought him downstairs and put him to bed maybe an hour later when he was tired again.  Do they start pushing back their bedtime around this age?  He truly is tired at 7:30 when we first put him down (rubbing eyes, yawning, falling asleep while feeding).  But as soon as we put him down, he’s wide awake again.  AAARGH…just when we thought we had it figured out!!!

We are also starting to get tooth #2!!! woohoo!  And he is slowly starting to get crawling.  He can get on all 4′s pretty quickly now….and started venturing out with one arm (instead of the leg thrust turned face plant)…but he loses his balance still with that one arm out.

And we have Mama!!!  He only says it when he’s upset/crying….which makes me think that he’s saying it for the true meaning of the word.  And he doesn’t babble it like mamamamamama…it’s always just Ma Ma.  He’s already done Ba Ba tons of times. Hmph!

BB’s hair has gotten quite, uh, wild.  You know it’s bad when the first thing people say is, “oh, I LOVE his hair”….which means it’s cute on a baby, but if he were an adult, he would be laughed at.

I want to bring BB to a professional kiddie hair cutter, but PB thinks we can do the job ourselves with our buzzer.  Has anyone tried this?  Will BB get freaked out by the buzzing (there’s no way I’m going to attempt it with scissors)?  His hair is so fine and soft that I don’t even know how well it will do with the buzzer.  I want to keep the top part long though (maybe not as long).

I’ve also traveled deeper in the world of baby wearing.  I’m trying to wrap again…but not the stretchy Moby Wrap that people use for newborns.  This is a woven wrap with no stretch that’s more suitable for bigger babies and toddlers.  I like it better because I don’t have to pre-tie it and then stick the baby in.  I just kind of wrap the wrap around BB, toss him onto my back and tighten and tie the wrap.  It still takes me some time to tighten everything just right…but so far it’s fun.  It’s also much cooler for the hot weather since it’s just one layer of woven fabric (versus the double layer in my mei tai’s and full buckles…one of which is always thick canvas).  The only downside is that the wrap is really long…about 4 yards long, so it’s all over the place before I can tie it up.  I can tie with a shorter wrap and just tie once under BB’s butt, but I don’t feel that confident with it yet.

BB was all smiles for a day or two and now Mr. Grouchy is back…along with Mr. Drooly, Mr. Diarrhea and Mr. Wakes-up-at-4 AM.  We’re guessing his second bottom tooth is working it’s way out.  DARN…couldn’t it have waited a week or so?  Sigh.  Meanwhile it seems like all my co-workers have babies that aren’t affected by teething at all.  Speaking of which, the count for the pharmacy department is 10 babies in 12 months!  It’s fun though….every day it’s like a mommy/daddy group (minus the kiddo’s) with everyone just talking about their babies. 

I feel bad for BB.  I’m not sure what I can do for him. I’m trying to avoid giving him acetaminophen or ibuprofen.  Maybe we’ll try the Hyland teething tablets like someone suggested earlier.  So that just dissolved sublingually?  I hope BB doesn’t just swallow it.  He gets bored of the frozen rings/mesh feeders so quickly.

But he is getting to be quite quick on his feet.  We are still trying to get him to do  tummy time (still hates it) so he can work on his “crawling”.  He still looks like a fish flopping on dry land…but today he did a few army type crawls.  But usually, we’ll lean him forward onto his belly.  But now that he discovered what his feet does, he steps as we lean him so that he remains upright.  So today, I leaned him over so that he was maybe 30 degrees from the ground thinking that there’s no way he could stand up from that position.  Mr. BB proved me wrong…he took a few really fast steps (like running) and was upright at the end!  He loves to “walk” with us holding his hands.

Bathtime is a nightmare now too.  He keeps trying to stand up or pull up on the side of the bathtub.  It makes things so difficult.  How do you keep your baby seated while you’re washing him/her?

He has also developed this hatred of the highchair tray.  He will cry, fuss, refuse to eat while the tray is in place.  Once the tray is off, he’s totally fine, opening his mouth for every spoonful, etc. (there’s still a bar in front of him when the tray is off, so he’s fine to sit in it without the tray).  Mr. BB is a weirdo.

 We have been waiting and waiting for this moment.  All those fussy fussy days and massive amounts of drool.  BB had trouble sleeping two days ago and I reached into his mouth to massage his gums and felt something hard and sharp.  I looked in there and lo and behold, a tiny pointy white thing poking out of his gums.  Woohoo!!!!  4 months of teething and finally there’s something.  He’s in totally fussy mood now as the teeth are just starting to cut through…but at least we knew it’ll soon be over (for now).

So I guess we have to start brushing his teeth.  The only thing is our night time routine ends with a bottle right before we put him down.  We’re going to have to change that now that we have to brush.  What does your bedtime routine look like if you’re brushing baby’s teeth?

I’ve started to wear BB on my back since he’s starting to get kind of heavy for a front carry.  It’s okay for short carries, but for long walks, it strains my lower back….it literally feels like I’m preggo with a 20 pound baby.  At first he hated the back carry since he couldn’t see my face…but now he loves it.  He likes to lean to the side of me so he could see in front (killer on the shoulders though) and he squeals when we pass by pretty gardens.  And his new thing is that he likes to bounce up and down in the carrier (also killer on the shoulders).

(edit)  He just scooted/crawled forward today too!!!!  What a great week!  I’m so happy I was home for this today.  I wouldn’t consider it a crawl just yet.  He basically rolls to his side and uses his upper leg to push…then rolls to the other side and does the same.  Occassically he’ll get it right and tuck his knees under him and launch himself forward.  He looks more like a wriggling worm…and it’s a very slow process, but he eventually gets to what he wants (the remote control).  I got video footage, but I have to edit it since there’s a lot of whining and resting in between.  Of course when the camera is off, he does it perfectly all at once.

Another month has flown by!  His 7th month was my favorite so far.  It seemed like he grew up so much in that one month.  He learned so many things and has become much more interactive and aware of the world around him.

At 8 months, BB:
-Can pull himself up to standing fairly easily.  He still needs the perfect grip though, so he can’t pull up on slippery/slopey surfaces….it has to be something where he can cling onto.
-Can stand on his own for a few minutes if he’s leaning against something.

-Is starting to try to cruise…but he keeps forgetting that he has to move his feet and not just lean forward!

-Can scoot backwards….and only backwards.

-has said Ba ba….just once.  We’re not sure if he’s said ma ma or not…he’s said muh and meh.  He still doesn’t babble very much…he’s a pretty non-verbose baby.

-SLEEPS THROUGH THE NIGHT!!!!!!!!!  3-4 weeks of sleep training later…now he does 10 hours stretches at night.  He no longer cries when we put him down.  We still feed him a bottle right before bed….I’m sure we’re going to have to break that soon. But he doesn’t fall asleep on it anymore…he’ll take himself off once he gets drowsy and then he’ll toss and turn in his crib for a few minutes and then put himself to sleep.  Sometimes we hear him cry out at night for a few seconds and then he’s right back to sleep.  Naps still require 5 minutes of crying.
-makes diaper changes, baths and clothing changes nearly impossible.  This kid won’t stop trying to twist and roll when we put him on his back…and he is CONSTANTLY trying to stand up in the tub.  I literally have a death grip on his arm while washing him with the other hand.  And heaven forbid you try to stop him from doing what he wants —–> tantrum!

-has his pincer grip down…actually has pretty great fine motor skills overall.  I guess it makes up for his lagging gross motor skills   He’s really great with his hands….I’m always fascinated when I’m watching him handle objects…he looks like a such a big boy.

-can “clap”…he grabs our hands and claps them together instead.

-has tried all the stage 1 veggies (sweet potato, squash, peas, string beans and carrots) and we’re doing fruits now (apples, pears, bananas).  We think that he’s allergic to bananas since he broke out in a rash the evening after I  gave him a few chunks of my banana to eat.

-can drink from a cup as long as someone helps hold the cup (otherwise his hands end up inside the cup).  Sippy cups are still a no go.

-STILL HAS NO TEETH.  I think he holds the record for the longest teething period.  It seriously has been since he was about 4 months old.  Every day we look in his mouth for teeth hoping that it will be the day.  He drools like a faucet…we have about 30 bibs and have to do laundry every other day to keep up with the bibs.  He always has his mouth clamped shut with his lips wrapped around his gums, going mmmmmmmmm.

-can kiss mama and papa!  He does it every day now!  Usually he does it when he’s tired…I guess he wants to be cuddled.

-loves loves loves to be outdoors.  It’s our remedy for a fussy day.  We panic a little when it’s a rainy day.

-is a great shopping companion.  He’s pretty well behaved sitting in the cart (except for the trying to get his feet out of the shopping cart holes and onto the handle bars).

Here are the mandatory monthly pics.

BB playing his new bongo!

I think BB kissed me today!  Like not the normal forced kiss where I smush my face against his lips…a real, willing kiss!!!  I was holding him and then he started to reach both arms towards my face…like really straining to reach my face.  I know he LOVES to grab my glasses, so usually I’ll pull my head away from his reach.  But he kept doing it and fussing, so I lowered my head towards him.  He reach up and grabbed my face with his hands and then kept pulling it down.  I was like what the heck is this kid doing…so I lifted him up higher and then he rubbed his head against mine and then smushed my face against his mouth.

Baby kisses are quite messy!  BB can smack his lips, but I guess he doesn’t associate that with kisses because this was full on slobber!  He did it a few more times after that.

Can I just saw *SWOON*  Sooooo cute!

This is after he did the kiss a few times…so we sort of had to encourage him to do it one more time for the camera

He did the same thing to curious geoge yesterday, but we didn’t think anything of it.  Ahhh…curious george, his frenemy

Mr. BB master of the puffs….gets 99% in his mouth these days!