Abe at Eight Months

Abe turned eight months old on Tuesday. Tuesdays are the days we run around like mad all day, and, of course, it was cloudy...I almost bagged the whole thing and waited for Wednesday, but I decided to take a few minutes Tuesday evening and see what I could get. And then I took a few more Wednesday (when it was STILL cloudy) for good measure. So in some of these pictures, Abe is actually eight months and ONE DAY old.

This was a very busy month in baby development. When I posted his pictures last month, he was very, very close to crawling. He had it down within a week or so after hitting seven months, and now there's no stopping him. He also gets up on his hands and feet and crawls that way sometimes instead of on his knees. He's pulling up on everything all the time. He claps! Today I could have sworn he said "doggy" very clearly twice, but I can't get him to do it on command, so it's hard to know for sure. But he's doing lots of fun babbling. He's not so quick with the smiles anymore for people he doesn't know well, but he stares intently at them for the longest time and then occasionally decides to bestow a toothy grin. He started his Music Together classes a few weeks ago, and his teacher says he's the best one in his class. I'm just kidding. She didn't say that at all. But I can tell that's what she's thinking ;).

More pictures!

Best toothy grin I've ever gotten. Too bad there wasn't more light so I could have gotten it a little sharper. Five teeth now. He's working on number six, and it's keeping us all from sleeping nearly as much as we'd like. Stupid tooth! Why do they need so many anyway?!

My baby is a goofy baby.

I put this one in for the arched eyebrow. He does that a lot.

Crawling: mastered! He can even do it one handed when he needs to pick up something to put in his mouth. Which is always.

Still time to enter the big giveaway for a $200 Amazon or Home Depot gift card courtesy of Coupons.com. Here!

Abe at Seven Months (plus Gus' August pics)

Seven months! I think I've officially abandoned his white t-shirt AND using his nursery as the default photo shoot location. It was cloudy again, and it's much easier to get decent light in the sunroom.

His six month check-up happened after I did his six month post, so his stats from that, for posterity (because this is the closet thing the poor kid has to a baby book) are that he weighed 17 pounds, 14 ounces and was 26 inches long. This puts him in the 25th percentile for height and around 50th for weight, and makes him my only baby who's been under 20 pounds at 6 months (Milo hit 20 pounds before 4 months). My fat little peanut. He can still squeeze into 3-6 month clothes, but the next size up fits him better now.

Apparently they changed all the rules since last time I had a baby, and now 6 month old babies can already eat practically everything! So he's already tried stuff like yogurt and eggs. He won't eat much of anything if I try to feed him, but does pretty well for Dave.

Trying to crawl is definitely the biggest thing in Abe's life right now. He'll flip over onto his hands and knees any time he's sitting down, try to move forward, get frustrated when he can't (or can't very far or without enormous effort anyway), and then collapses onto his stomach in angry tears. Repeat endlessly. He's getting good at pulling up on things, too. Our days of peace and immobility are very limited.

We've got separation anxiety and fear of strangers setting in now, too. He wants me or some other
immediate family member all the time.

But he's also mostly a very happy baby, babbles adorably, and has a deep baby belly laugh that's utterly charming. He's starting Music Together classes next week, which should go well with his lifelong love of music.

Apparently I'm pretty into black and white lately. Which is sort of a return to my roots.

I finally got nice, toothy grins this month!

So good at standing on his big chunky legs!

I like this one because it shows how he's really playing these days. Putting things into the barn, taking them out. When he's not grumpy, he can play by himself for a decent amount of time.

And it was Gus' month for big kid photos. He got a haircut later that same day :)

Abe is Six Months Old!

In impossible to believe news, Abe is already six months old. Just a few months ago, he looked like this:

Now he sits up all the time, he has TWO TEETH (which I did not manage to get a picture of today), and he's busting out of that white t-shirt he's been wearing since his newborn pictures. In fact, we seem to have lost a button somewhere along the way. Next month we may have to leave the t-shirt behind. We also have lots of babbling going on, along with hearty baby chuckling at hilarious stuff like peek-a-boo. We celebrated his six month birthday with his first real attempt at eating solid food, and that event (which he seemed to have mixed feelings about, but he gave it a good try, at least) is well documented here.

He's still sleeping beautifully at night, still sleeping irregularly during the day. It's amazing how much more interactive he is now than a month ago. He suddenly finds the dogs and cats hilarious. He is suspicious of strangers. This is the first month he's been all, "whoa! check out this awesome stuffed seal!" during his photo session :).

Also, it was finally a sunny 17th! So I had a lot more focused pictures to choose from. And that plus the milestoneyness of turning six months means there are lots of pictures this month. Lots. Here you go!

....and it was Milo's turn for photos this month. Milo was not so excited about this. So we have a lot of very serious pictures and a couple of trying desperately not to smile pictures:

Abe at Five Months

Five months sounds SO big; so much older than four months. Sniff, sniff. And this past month seemed to fly by, probably partly because we were out of town for a week of it. Another rainy 17th to make photography challenging. I took a million or so pictures, but the vast majority were out of focus, owing both to the bad light and the wiggly baby.

Abe had his four month check-up a few weeks ago, and he was in the 70th percentile for weight and......20th for height. Fat little peanut! My other babies have all started out way up in the 90-100th percentile for height and then mostly just stayed there, so it's a new experience having a little guy who still fits in his 3-6 months stuff at 5 months.

He's starting to be able to sit up for short periods, particularly if you give him something to hold onto, which makes for a little variety in photography. He's sitting unsupported in that picture up there, with the big seal to hang onto for emotional support. When he's upset, he'll usually calm down immediately when he hears music. Balls are his favorite toys. He spends a lot of time staring intently at his brothers, ready to flash a giant grin at them as soon as they look at him. He still takes a lot of 20-30 minute naps, but sometimes he'll mix it up with a good 2 hour one, so I'm still hopeful he'll start to appreciate long naps more soon. No signs of creeping or crawling yet, which is probably just as well since there are no signs of the kind of babyproofing around here that that will necessitate either. Nothing new to report on the teething front: much drool, no teeth.

I had a grumpy (he's had a bit of a cold) baby to contend with on top of the bad light, so....well, here's what I managed to get:

Obligatory seal picture. Also, the white t-shirt is back! I found it! Still fits pretty well.

The saddest baby in the world.

It was Ari's month for solo pictures, but I wasn't thrilled with any of those, either. But I got some nice ones at Disney, so it all works out.

Abe at Four Months

(I know posts have been in short supply this week. Week before finals, so things have been crazy for Dave, which means I've been holding a baby even more than usual....things should calm down soon. I have biggish weekend plans!)

So I woke up this morning, and I suddenly had a four month old! He's worked hard this past month on growing fat rolls on his legs, rolling over onto his stomach, and sitting up with support. He continues to be a champion sleeper at night (7:30 to 6ish, and then often back to sleep for a couple more hours) and a not so champion daytime napper. He likes to spend the day awake and constantly entertained. Fortunately, he finds his brothers endlessly amusing, so I can sneak away for showers and that sort of thing. He has a high pitched squeal of delight and a low pitched baby chuckle. He has his four month check up next week, and I'm excited to see how big he is (Milo at four months weighed 20 pounds. I'm pretty sure he's not going to match that, but he is deliciously chubby). He gets a lot of "he's so alert!" "he's so intense!" type comments, which I have learned, over the course of four babies, pretty much means, "your baby is awake and not crying!" He's pretty much always happy as long as there is stuff going on for him to look at, but he's quick to let us know if he's bored or if we're not paying enough attention to him. He will not be ignored, this baby of mine. 

Issues with today's photo shoot:

*I couldn't find his white t-shirt! The one he's worn every month for pictures. I actually have two identical ones, so it's especially weird that they're both missing. This was supposed to be the "wow--he's busting out of that thing!" month. Oh well. The romper he's wearing has boats and crabs and stuff on it. It matches his nursery. And it's still white, at least.

*Cloudy. Boo. Why does it have to be cloudy on the 17th every month?

*It is difficult to get pictures of Abe these days where he doesn't have either his fingers or a toy shoved in his mouth. Maybe next month he'll have a tooth to show off?

Sleepy baby with his Sophie the Giraffe.

Every big kid has had a turn for individual pictures, so it was the month to get all four of them. In these, we were trying to recreate the first picture ever taken of the four of them, at the hospital. The results were not much like the original, but goofy and fun anyway.

Look what he can do! Okay, only for a few seconds. But still! He loves standing up.

I got a smile (ish) this month! I actually got a few, but this is the only one in focus. He tends to flail around happily while he smiles.

Where are those teeth already?!