8 months

Chase turned 8 months old on Friday.  Gosh, these first 8 months have been so much fun!  It's hard to believe that he's grown up before my eyes.  I take these weekly pictures and I see him growing, but it still amazes me.  I don't remember it happening.  It's like he was born, I blinked, and here I am today!

This should be an interesting next few months.  Now that he's 8 months, we get to try a whole new variety of foods, including finger foods!  He just recently had peaches and once we finish trying those in a few days, I'll figure out what's next.  I'm in new territory so I need to start reading and researching what we should try next.  While I've been off work, I've made tons of baby food, but it's amazing how fast we go through it!  He eats apples nearly everyday.  I think that's the easiest fruit to give him since I usually make his pear sauce fresh since it turns brown in literally 5 minutes.  The worst part of making applesauce is peeling the apples.  It takes me about 30 minutes to peel and core 10 pounds of apples.  That makes about 5 ice cube trays of apple cubes and that will last about 2 to 3 weeks.  I've been scanning the internet and Bed, Bath, and Beyond for apple peelers that are easier than my peeler, but haven't found any!  It's so worth it though.  I've had a lot of fun making his food!

I think we are on the brink of mobility!  Chase is really wanting to start crawling now, but can't quite figure it out.  Currently, when he's in a sitted position he'll rock til he's on his knees and then land on his stomach (this is only when he's on a bed...I haven't let him explore this on the floor).  He'll then begin kicking his legs but then just rolls over onto his back.  Then he rolls back onto his stomach and tries again.  This usually continues until he begins bawling!  Now that he's discovered there is a big world around him, he's just itching to start exploring and he gets frustrated that he can't get there on his own.

8 month stats:
Unofficial weight: 20 pounds
Clothing size:  Pretty much wearing all 6-12 month clothes.  We bought him a few 12 month pajamas recently.  They are two piece pajamas!  He's growing up!
Diaper size:  We're on the last of the Pampers size 2/3.  We recently bought a big box of Huggies size 3 at Sam's.  We've liked them so far.
Eyes:  There has been no change in eye color over the past month. I would say it's official - he's blue eyed!
Hair:  Still a shade of blonde.  Drew thinks he's noticing a little texture to his hair in the back.  Will he be curly/wavy headed like me or will his hair be stick straight like Drew?
Favorite toy:  Definitely his new Fisher Price Silly Town thing.  This is a toy he saw at his second cousins' birthday parties a couple of weeks ago.  He just LOVES it!  Drew and I went on a bit of a shopping spree for Chase early this week and bought him this.  Best purchase ever!
Favorite foods: Still the same as last month.  He can't get enough of his apples, squash, and sweet potatoes.
Least favorite food:  He wasn't totally loving the tartness of the peaches when we started those a couple of days ago. I fixed that my alternating bites of peaches and sweet potatoes and he ate everything up!  Sounds like an awful combination to me, but he opened his mouth wide each time I gave him a bite!
Words:  None, unless you count "ooh" and "whoo" as words!

Also over the course of the month, we've fully made the transition to generic brand formula.  I struggled with this decision for a while.  I know all regular formula is the roughly the same because of FDA guidelines, but I kept thinking I would be shorting him if I gave him "cheap" formula.  Heck, I don't even give him cheap diapers, yet I was actually considering giving him a cheap version of his main nutritional source?!  I asked Chase's doctor about it and he said as long as he's drinking it and tolerating it, any formula on the market is great.  So, I bought the Sam's Club formula and haven't looked back!  The first week of our transition I had one scoop of Sam's Club brand and 3 scoops of Similac in each bottle.  Then the second week, I did 2 scoops of Sam's Club and 2 scoops of Similac.  I did this until it was all Sam's brand.  He spit up a little the first week, but after that he did fantastic.  He loves it, it's about 50% cheaper than the Similac, and the can is so much bigger, so it's less trips to the store!  Win, win, win!

I'm stilling struggling with the transition from nursing.  I said I was going to end that 2 months ago and I'm still doing that part time.  I'm having a harder time with it than Chase is.  Chase couldn't care less.  All he wants is food and doesn't care the source.  I'm really going to try to phase that out over the next few days/weeks, but I get a little emotional when I think it's "the end".  Gosh, I would have NEVER thought I would have thought that about 7 to 8 months ago!