Ethan is 8 months old!

Ethan tried blueberry pancakes this weekend! He mostly likely the texture in his hands:).

Today marks 8 months for Ethan.

I probably say it every time, but I am amazed at how quickly he has grown! He know looks much more like a toddler than a baby, losing his chubbiness in all but a few spots. Ethan also sports a 4 pack so just be ready if you tickle him because there are abs of steel waiting to deflect your movements:).

Ethan is very vocal, loves commando crawling all over the house, enjoys chewing on purse straps and electrical cords, and loves to scrunch up his nose and give a toothy grin


whenever you catch his eye. He is still very attached and concerned that we are around, but he's becoming slightly more independent and just all around content.

He LOVES Lady and has recently realized the fun of holding onto her tail, eating her tail, and tugging on her tail. Lady also LOVES Ethan but she's not such a fan of his new tail fascination:). Thankfully, she handles it well and her biggest disobedience regarding Ethan is TOO much fascination with and willingness to interact with him.

Ethan has also become more interested in other children when we're out and about. A few weeks ago we went to a sit-down restaurant, a rather rare occurence, with an Aggie friend. While we waited for our table Ethan yell-talked for about 5 minutes straight until the 2 toddler girls across the way noticed him. Then he stopped...oh man:).

Ethan is LOVING the baby wrap, as am I, and we now spend a great deal of time split between the baby wrap, and him crawling. I think it's a funny juxtaposition but whatever works!

He is trying more and more solid foods and although his appetite is supressed from a virus, he has been surprising me with both the frequency and amounts he is hungry for.

Joel's work schedule of late has afforded us more opportunity to add in more to Ethan's nighttime routine. For some time Joel had been getting home at or after Ethan's bedtime, 7pm, and so I was generally scrambling to get him bathed, fed and in bed. That led to a slightly overstimulated Ethan when he initially went down, which led to his panic and fighting sleep. Now we are all doing baths, prayers, reading his bible. After I feed him he calmly falls asleep...well most of the time at least!

My mom has shared a great deal of wisdom with me but that was one of the parenting morsels that I have most recently savored. She wisely identified that part of my constant struggle against sleep as a child, well lets be honest here as a Rachel:), had to do with an insecurity I felt that I might miss out on something or someone. She read after I was past the age of necessity, a suggestion that both parents be part of the nighttime routine. The idea being that this instills a sense of security in the child that mama and papa are here now when I go to sleep, and they'll be here when I wake up. That seems to be exactly what Ethan is fretting over. So, we are working towards making him feel secure.

I am so thankful to be your mama Ethan. I love to see your smiles, receive lots of kisses and sweet cuddles. I cannot wait to see what God has in store for us next!