Eight Months of Philip Luvin'

Today is Philip's eight month birthday.
He has mastered pulling up (and is very proud of himself).
He is a super duper crawler.
He has four teeth.
He is always happy.
He talks all of the time-- na na na, da da da, ma ma ma.
He dances upon request.
He seems to really like music.
He has a beautiful smile and shows it to everyone.
He is a troublemaker.
He is very strong.
He is curious.
He is easygoing.
He loves kitty cats and bathtime.
And we, his parents, are incredibly in love with him.

I Am Such A Big Boy!

Philip wanted me to tell you that today he learned to pull himself up to standing. And no, his mommy did not help him.

He has provided the following as evidence:



While you may not find this picture sufficient, Philip would like you to keep in mind that his daddy was a little slow with the camera.

Philip thanks you.

It's been a while, so here are the updates.
First, we suffered along with the chair-constructed baby jail a while longer. Here is Philip peering out from the bars of his cell:

We now have a baby "fence" made by Little Tykes (I think) which allows us to gate off part of the living room. It has some toys on it, and I think it's nicer than a playpen because it gives Philip much more space and he can play on our floor. Plus, he still gets access to his game of DVD destruction.

Crawling is a definite success, the little bugger is FAST and motivated. Yesterday I watched him "back it up"-- a perfect, backwards crawl. This is an especially important skill when it comes to his cat-stalking. He will literally follow the cat around the room, trying to grab her, and giggling the entire time. I swear she is teasing him. She'll eventually let him win, and he'll pull her tail, or she'll sniff his face, at which point he giggles even louder.

We can tell that the pulling up stage is upon us. Philip understands there is a world existing above his head and he really wants to be there. He will pull his legs up from a crawl into the downward-facing dog pose, or he will try to pull up with his arms on the couch, me, whatever he can find. He also ignores any roadblocks we create, so if I try to limit his movement on the bed with pillows or my legs, he'll just try to four-wheel drive himself over them.

I recently met a new pediatrician, and have decided to switch to him. He runs a solo practice a few miles from our home, and has been a pediatrician for about 30 years. He's really wonderful and I'm looking forward to going to someone I like.

Of course Philip is still eating food other than milk, but more so than before. Last week I was eating half of an apple with him on my lap and discovered that he loved to chew on it. He would spit out the peel, and when I looked at the underside, I could see little teeth marks (which was incredibly cute). He also ate an avocado (smearing it everywhere), sweet potato, and licked a potato and some cabbage I happened to be eating. He also gnawed on some french bread. A few weeks ago his top teeth broke through, so he now has four.

Now, some new pictures

From above...

Chilling Out on Dad (I have no idea what the purpose of that blurry hand is, though)

One unhappy baby...

Until William cheers him up!

While we were eating on Sunday, Philip kept playing with his favorite (metal) spoon. (Not to be confused with his favorite wooden spoon). Then William had an idea...

Later that night, I was cooking (what was ultimately an unsuccessful batch of vegan brownies) while wearing him on my back in my mei tai. He thinks my hair is hilarious, which is fine and all...
until he pulls it! And when I yell out, he thinks THAT is even FUNNIER!

Troubleshooting

Sometimes the pictures do not seem to show up correctly. If you click on the picture marker a large version of the image will display. This is true even if the picture is appearing properly: so, for instance, if you need some super-huge and up-close Philip for your day to seem a little sunnier, you can make the picture larger.
More later, but this is it for now.

In that Philip is a great crawler, he is always getting into things. It is making Jon very tired. We thus were in need of a playpen.
But, playpens are a little expensive, and I don't particularly like them (for constant use at least). This was my personal playgate design, which we used instead:




It seemed like it was working really well. Philip considered the chairs a curiosity (and isn't that why we have six chairs but only three people who use them?)

Until about six hours later...

"Escape from Baby-traz"

Caught in the act

Philip's new game captured on recently-installed parental surveillance equipment.

Pictures from the last few days

Beginning Cello Lessons

Self-feeding a banana

Last, but not least, William's eggs:

Aren't they absolutely disgusting? I think these are his blue ones... the day before he had green, and used even more food coloring.