This last month has been a busy time for James! If you saw our 7 month update, you’ll know that James started crawling last month – at the end of this past one, he started reciprocal crawling which is crawling on hands and knees (vs. the army crawling he was doing before). So now he does everything slightly faster – making him much more mischievous.
8 Month Milestones & Abilities
You can find the graphic for the milestones here – the 7-9 months milestones are the same.
James has really enjoyed imitation this month. In particular, he likes screeching or “singing”, as I call it. If my daughter starts crying or singing, he will mimic here and it is so cute.
He can turn the pages of board books – but prefers to find his sisters paper books and rip parts out…. he will listen to me read for slightly longer than before now, especially if it’s with his sister there too.
He is babbling like crazy now! He can say “ma-ma-ma” and “ba-ba-ba” and make some other sounds too. He will also “talk” to you, responding when you speak to him more often now. He can shake his head “no” and he knows our names and the “dog” and “cats”.
In a months time, as I mentioned above, he moved from army crawl to reciprocal crawl. This was a similar pattern to Maggie. He is pulling up a lot and easily now – he goes from sit, to stand, to crawl with ease. However, moving babies are a danger to themselves – he has definitely got a few bumps and bruises along the way (which makes mama anxious!!).
Wonder Weeks Leap 6
We are now 1/3 of the way through Leap 6 and it has been a doozy. Usually James’ nighttime sleep is affected by leaps – but this time it was a bit of both. It didn’t help that he also had two new teeth pop out in the last few days too. It’s been rough with cat naps and lots of night wakings most nights. The teeth seem to be out now, and naps have been better the past two days so fingers crossed we might get out of the toughest part of this leap sooner rather than later.
James has been a bit more clingy – especially to me, but he did have a few hours at daycare in the past few weeks and each time has been a bit better. Hopefully that means we’re also overcoming our separation anxiety challenge. You can see my recent reel on this topic which includes a few tips for coping:
James’ biggest challenge that appears to be related to this leap is his determination to not stay still for diaper or clothing changes. I’ve had to change his diaper while he’s crawling, or have him stand up holding onto something to get it done. If you have tips for this – I’d greatly appreciate them! I’ve tried to distract him with different toys, but it doesn’t always work and if it does it’s not for long.
In terms of skills, many align with the milestones for the 7-9 month range that I already discussed above and in my previous post. I have noticed that James becomes “jealous” if I am holding Maggie instead of him – he will crawl up to my feet and try to stand up on my legs to get me to pick him up too. I am not sure I would call this “jealousy” myself, but that’s what Wonder Weeks calls it.
His mimicry also extends to crying when his sister is crying – sometimes he just makes a fake crying sound and other times he will legitimately start crying too.
Sleep
Always our biggest challenge – as I mentioned above, we have had a rough two weeks or so – after having had one or two really good weeks of sleep where I actually had the audacity to think “wow, he might be ready to move into Maggie’s room!”. I was wrong – he is still in our room, but now we’re using our new AeroMoov travel cot (gifted to us) until we transition him fully into his crib. I’m going to start naps in his room (Maggie’s room) in his crib this week, and then hopefully with some more consistent night sleep we can move him over fully.
Things I’ve started doing to prepare the kids for this new room sharing situation are: 1) talking about it with Maggie, who seems quite happy to share her space thankfully (but not her toys necessarily); and 2) adjoining bedtime routine where possible. Before we did the kids mostly separately because they have slightly different bedtimes, but I try to at least do part of their bedtime together now. I am not sure what we will do when James is already fully asleep in Maggie’s room before her.. it’s something I have to look into more but I will definitely share any pearls I learn along the way. We are hoping to get into a 3-bedroom townhouse next year but who knows when that will be.
Food
James is loving eating – like way more than Maggie at the same age. He chews so well already and enjoys tasting different things. He truly looks like he enjoys almost everything he eats.
Of course, a lot still ends up in his lap or bib – but he is loving it and I’m really enjoying the solids journey this time even more because I am more comfortable with BLW!
He loves pancakes and pasta – two of his sisters favourites too. He also likes broccoli, carrots (much more than the puréed version we tried early on), bananas (a new favourite) and still is loving eggs this month! He also really likes rice and peaches were a new favourite as well. We’ve just been giving him whatever we’re having, which is what we did with Maggie too. He honestly eats more than her right now – we’re in that toddler picky phase!
I just shared our tableware on Instagram in a reel – but we’re loving the Yooforea Baby Led Weaning Set (*Amazon associate links, I may earn a small amount from your purchases) and we also got their divided plate and teether spoons.
Likes & Dislikes
Likes: FOOD (pretty much everything he’s tried), his family, the dog and cats, putting everything in his mouth (he just popped two new teeth!)
Dislikes: daycare drop off (when he goes), having his movement restricted and staying up past his bedtime
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