Andrew - Month 8

Oh, he's definitely moving now. Not just crawling, which he's really gotten the hang of, but he's starting to walk as well (with help of course). While it's an exciting development, it also has its drawbacks. The most annoying is when we're trying to change his diaper. It has now become a race to see who's faster: us getting the diaper on him or him getting bored and flipping over and crawling away. If you've never tried it, trying to get a diaper on a squirming baby bent on escaping is no easy task.

On the upside, it's great fun when he crawls up to you, grabs your legs to stand up, and insists on you taking him for a walk. His goal is to grab your hands to help balance himself, at which point he'll happily drag you from one room to the next for as long as you're willing (or he comes across something shiny to chew on).

Andrew has also been working on his assertiveness this month. He's added his voice to his actions so when he doesn't want to do something, not only is he pushing back against you, he's also being vocal about it. This new behavior has been manifesting itself with increasing frequency at bedtime.

All this has led us to abandon the crib. He's now sleeping on a queen-sized mattress that we've put on the floor. This gives him the room he wants to crawl about before falling asleep, as well as enough space to roll around after he's fallen asleep. On a restless night, it's entirely conceivable that he'll roll to all four corners of the bed. We've found him in some pretty hilarious positions...

Alas, all good things must come to an end -- I'm heading back into the workforce as this month comes to a close. Fortunately for us, Charity's mother has retired and will be helping us with Andrew during the day.