Aaron Is Eight Months Old!

Today my little guy turns eight months old. Time really does fly! Along with his formula, Aaron is now eating all kinds of solids including veggies, fruits, meats and even a little yogurt! All of these still need to be pureed, though. I tried to give him some cut up pieces of ripe banana but he just wasn't ready for it yet. He has the "pincer grasp" action completely down, meaning he can pick up something with this thumb and forefinger, but once he gets the object in his hand, he's not quite sure how to get it from there into his mouth! This will come with time.

As for crawling, not so much yet. He sits up perfectly on his own and will move from a sitting-up position to being on the floor on his tummy, but from here he doesn't know how to become forwardly mobile. He gets stuck and has to have one of us sit him back up again. It is so fascinating to me to watch how these things develop that we take so much for granted; yet this is also where the patience part comes into play.

We had to deal with our first major bout of sickness this week. We both came down with a nasty stomach bug that left us pretty incapacitated for the entire week. I think we're both starting to come out of it now though and are no worse for the wear. We had Daddy pretty stressed out, I think, trying to take care of the two of us! He's a great daddy. It is also true that around this age, separation anxiety starts to kick in (although I'm sure his being sick had something to do with it). Aaron has become very clingy as of late, which isn't necessarily a bad thing (I sort of dig that he prefers his daddy and me over other people); however, it is important to me that he develop a sense of independence to where it's O.K. that I leave the room for a minute (and we are SO not there right now).

Thanks to the Air Force, Aaron is getting to experience so much of the world at a very young age and I hope this leads to an adventurous and brave spirit. By the time he is a year old, Aaron will have taken five airplane trips (he even has his own frequent flyer miles!), travel to six states and experience great cities such as Seattle, St. Louis and San Antonio. It is my long-term goal to take him overseas before he is ten years old.

My short-term goals for the next few months are to enroll him in swimming lessons (I am scared to death of water and I don't want Aaron to grow up that way too) and also maybe a toddler tumble class of some sort. These goals are a priority because I want Aaron to have the best of both worlds - my full, undivided attention while he's at home but also the opportunity to interact with kids his own age so that he can learn that he's not the only kid on the planet! I want him to learn how to share and be friendly and I feel that he won't be able to learn this until he's put in a situation where he has to in order to be able to coexist successfully with other people besides his daddy and I. I am trying to lay the groundwork right now by teaching him to be nice to Reagan! And I think it's working - he actually pets her now instead of grabbing a handful of fur and holding on for dear life!

With all of these milestones, I grow more and more certain everyday that I made the right decision to stay home with Aaron. How can I miss all of this if I don't have to? I am blessed to have an awesome husband who takes great care of us. I am very proud of our little family and I am excited to see what the future holds for us!