8 Months Old

At 8 months, the boys are changing so much.  They both have their 2 bottom front teeth and more are on the way.  Wyatt was very fussy when his teether were coming in; we didn't even know that Ruslan was teething until we could see the teeth.

We got the Jumperoo out of storage this month and they both love it.  I have never seen a baby get as excited as Ruslan when he sees the Jumperoo.  He wants to bounce all of the time - when he is being held, in the exersaucer, any time he is on his feet.  He has this silly, closed mouth smile he makes when he is in the Jumperoo - that's the only time I ever see him make this face.  This is his happiest place right now.

They are both capable of sitting up unassisted, but they still tip over easily.  Ruslan is still crawling backwards only and Wyatt makes his way around on his belly.  Occasionally Wyatt gets up and rocks on his knees, but then he slides back to the floor to get around.

They are interacting so much more with each other, toys and everything they see.  Generally if one of them is in the exersaucer we put the other in the jumperoo and we keep them next to each other.  They bounce and play and babble and squeal at each other.  And they are happy to play on the floor with the toys and get practice moving around on their own.

They are down to 4 bottles of formula a day - wake-up, mid-morning, mid-afternoon and before bed (I stopped breastfeeding Ruslan at the end of Novermber as planned prior to vacation).  They eat breakfast at 9:00, lunch at 1:00 and dinner at 5:30. 

Ruslan eats everything, but reflux remains an issue.  Sometimes an entire meal comes back up if he coughs or gags on a piece of food.  He loves the sippy cup, he will drink half a cup of water if we let him...of course too much water with a full belly usually leads to reflux issues.

Wyatt is more cautious when it comes to food.  He clamps his mouth shut tight if he isn't ready to eat and tries a tiny taste of the meal before deciding if he is going to eat today's selection.  However if he is hungry, he screams from the moment he is in the high chair until he has 3 or 4 spoonfuls in his mouth.

Ruslan babbles constantly and at the end of November he said ma-ma as his first word.  Wyatt just started babbling and said ma-ma just before Christmas.

Ruslan is now sleeping on his stomach; he started flipping over on his own a few weeks ago as soon as we put him in his crib.