Kason is 8 MONTHS OLD today!! I can't believe how big he's getting and how much he has changed in these 8 short months. Pretty soon I'm going to be planning his first birthday party, it makes me a little sad just thinking about it because time is flying by. I'm going to update ya'll on what he's been loving this month, changes and milestones, and giving an update on the issues we were having earlier this month regarding bottle feeding.
Kason has been playing a lot more this past month. Instead of spending a lot of time in his bouncer, he's really enjoyed sitting on the floor surrounded by toys. He can sit there for long periods of time, go from toy to toy, and be perfectly content. His favorite toys this month have been a set of Infantino Stackable Rings, the Go GaGa Squeeze & Teethe Elephant from Target, and the Fisher-Price Laugh and Learn Love to Play Puppy. I will set him in the floor and he will rotate each toy, play with them, lick them, and throw them. Throwing things has been really fun for him lately, especially with the rings. The rings are the first thing he goes for. He grabs the base of the stacker and dumps it upside down so that all the rings fall off. He then proceeds to play with just the stacker by turning it over and beating it like a drum. As for the rings themselves, he likes to pick them up and wave them around before he launches them all over the place. The teething elephant has been so wonderful for him. It doesn't have a good squeaker like Sophie the Giraffe, but it's so much better for teething and chewing. The ears of the elephant are what he likes to chew on. He likes to bite down on the ears and tugs on them to rub him gums. It's also super lightweight so it's easy for him to hold. I got him the Laugh and Play puppy at the beginning of the month because I noticed he was starting to play a lot more. He loves it! There's a ton of different buttons and places to press to make the puppy sing, talk, and light up. The buttons are extremely sensitive, so all he has to do is touch it and it starts making noise.
I got Kason a new carseat this month because he had outgrown his carrier. I went with the Graco MyRide 65 Convertible Carseat, purchased from Target. It's rear facing and forward facing, with a minimum weight of 5 lbs and a max of 65. That's one of my favorite things about this seat, you can use it from the time your baby is born all the way through their toddler years. It's also all in one piece, so when it's time to turn it forward all I have to do is unbuckle it and turn it around. The first time I put Kason in it, he got so excited. I would look in my rear view mirror into his mirror, and he was waving his arms around, kicking, and smiling the entire car ride. It was like he was saying "Oh my gosh! Look at all this room I have now! This is so awesome!". It was so cute and made me really happy to see him so happy. It was kind of bittersweet for me when I was picking his carseat out. It's been so fun lately now that he's getting a little older and is able to do more and play more, but at the same time I'm sad that he's no longer a little tiny baby.
Kason finally got his first tooth!! And it's the cutest little tooth I have ever seen. It came in really fast too. I saw that his gums had a tiny little slit in them, and the next day there was the tiniest little white tooth poking through. As soon as the tooth broke the skin, it's been sprouting more and more every day. It's really visible now, and can be seen when he smiles or laughs. Tooth number two is coming in as we speak. I figured since he hadn't cut them yet that they most likely would come back to back. I saw the white cap right under the skin last Sunday, and his gums now have the little slit in them so that tooth is going to pop up in the next few days I'm sure. He's been handling it really well. He's had his fussy moments and his tantrums, but they are sporadic and don't happen all the time. What I've noticed is that he was mostly irritable for about two weeks before that tooth came in. We went to dinner for my sister's birthday, and normally Kason handles being in restaurants really well. However, this time was an exception. He had a complete and total mental breakdown as soon as we got there, and it was off and on during the whole dinner. I was so embarrassed and irritated, especially when he completely changed his tune as soon as we got back in the car to leave.
After that meltdown, I started having problems with him drinking his bottles. I wrote an entire post about it, if you haven't checked it out you can click
here to read about it. Well, I finally figured out why he was doing that. It was because of his tooth! Every baby handles teething differently, and apparently when mine is about to cut a tooth, his bottles go out the window. The day his tooth cut he started taking his bottles again no problem. We went about two weeks with him not taking his bottle, and about two weeks of him taking them before he started refusing them again. When this started back up, I looked in his mouth and noticed the second tooth coming in. The only thing I can figure about why he does this, is that his bottom jaw must be really sore from the new teeth that it makes it really uncomfortable for him to suck. I'm already on the highest level nipple, and if I cut the holes to make them bigger the milk will just pour out, so I can't do that. The only thing I can do is give him smaller, more frequent bottles when he's cutting his teeth, and keep the Orajel and Infant Tylenol on hand. I've found that the smaller bottles work really well when he's sore, because he gets enough to satisfy him for a couple hours, plus he's not sucking for as long of a time which makes him less sore. The Orajel offers him instant relief, and I give him the Tylenol when all else fails. After the Tylenol, he's much more comfortable within 20 minutes. Another thing that's been helping him through the teething process has been more naps. He's been taking a lot more lately, and has been falling asleep within a couple minutes of laying down. Still not a whole lot of luck in the sippy cup department. I bought a couple different types of cups and he's still kind of confused. Surprisingly he's done the best with the Nuby cup. After his tooth cut he figured out how to get the liquid out of the mouthpiece. I've been putting a little bit of apple juice mixed with equal parts water and letting him practice with that.
Something new that I've started doing with him this month is reading to him. I love to read myself, and it's something that I want to raise him to do as well. He has been enjoying our reading time and so have I. We sit on the floor of his bedroom and I sit him in my lap so that he can see the pages as I'm reading. He tries to hold the books, and likes to touch the pages. He will scratch on the pages to hear the sound it makes, and to see what the texture is. He really enjoys all the bright colors and pictures in the books, and likes to reach out and bang his hands on them. Reading is a big part of me, and is one of my favorite things to do. I remember learning to read at a young age, and how much I loved it and still do. I wanted to start something that he and I could enjoy doing together, and to give him a memory that he will always remember.
That's all for this months update! Let me know in the comments below what toys your baby loves, and what activities you like to do together.
xoxo,
Casey
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