8 months old

Is it really possible that we are the parents of an 8 month old? When people say don't blink, they ain't lying. I can't believe we have had this sweet little boy in our life for 8 whole months. It seems like yesterday I was stepping in dog poop cussing the dogs, only moments later to have my water break. Our rambuctious 8 month old is doing all kinds of new tricks these days. He is military crawling (which has become an awesome dust mop. ha) all over the place getting into EVERYTHING. (His favorite things to seek and destroy are his fathers electronical things...

and his toy box, in which he likes to take EVERYTHING out of it...)

He can get in the sitting postion from lying down and vice versa. He can pull himself up which has also led to letting go of things either to stand on his own for a few or come crashing down...I think he is trying to give his Momma a heart attack. He can wave bye-bye but it isn't very consistant...he doesnt really do it on command and I am pretty sure he has no idea what it means. HaHa. He has mastered drinking from a straw which has been awesome when it comes to the sippy cup department. I want him to have juice and water but I do not want to have to put it in a bottle (tough habit to break later) and he refused to drink from a sippy cup unless we held it up for him. So we found an awesome no leak sippy cup called the Nuby Flip and Sip that has a straw and he guzzles his water and juice until he gets a brain freeze. :)
I can finally say with confidence (without feeling that I was going to jinx it) that Elias is FINALLY sleeping through the night. This is a HUGE step and also was the deciding factor if he were to have a sibling some day. Hahahaha. Now that we are back in Alabama we have a bedtime schedule that starts at about 6:45 or 7 that has him in bed between 7:30 and 8. He sleeps until 7 or 8 the next morning, has a bottle and then sleeps for another two hours. When he realized that sleep is the COOL thing to do, he REALLY thinks its the cool thing to do. Let me tell you, Momma is LOVING his new sleep schedule. Its nice to be able to have a few hours to ourselves after he goes to bed and still be able to get in a good sleep. (oh and ps he is FINALLY sleeping in his crib. If you remember from his 7 month post he would only sleep in his pack and play.)
Still no teeth, just lots of drool and lots of chewing. And if he did have any its not like he would let us see them. If you get anywhere near his mouth he clamps it shut and spits at you. Such a little attitude. He has always been a paci sleeper but has never really shown any interest for a paci outside of his paci until now. We think that the paci has been soothing to his gums so we aren't fighting him with it. He does a lot babbling but no words in the vocabulary yet. He and I started signing for babies a few days ago, so we will give you a report in a month or so. :)

A little random monkey tibit. His beloved seahorse Sebastian has become a new friend again. We stopped using him for awhile because we worried it was becoming a sleep association. He was still in the bed with him but we no longer turned him on. Well now Elias wakes up and turns him on himself. Ha. Welcome back Sebastian, we missed you. :)

I attempted an 8 month photo shoot much like the one I did at 3 months but as you can see below, 8 month olds are a lot less cooperative. :)

Happy 8 months to our little monkey! We love you!!!