Josiah's Happenings

Although I've been posting pictures of Josiah I haven't written about what he's been doing lately. So for those interested here's a glimpse into our son's 8th month.

Josiah is now 8 1/2 months old. He's eating all kinds of food. I have a great cookbook thanks to a friend. He has been eating pasta with meat sauce, minestrone, chicken with vegetables, spinach with sweet potatoes & peas and other yummy things. Sometimes we eat a version of what he eats and I just add some more spices to ours (and of course don't put ours through the blender!) His vegetables include squash, butternut squash, swede & parsnip. He also eats lots of fruits- the normal apples (cooked & raw), pears, bananas but also watermelon (see below!) other melons, papaya, oranges & tangerines. If he's full or not interested in something he squinches up his face and spits it out. We're working on teaching him that buzzing his lips is not appropriate during dinner time!

We finally found plain Cheerios (as opposed to Honey Nut Cheerios). Josiah likes to chase them around his tray & can pick them up but hasn't figured out that he is supposed to eat them. We sometimes put them in his mouth but mostly he just spits them back out again. We do have to be careful sometimes to make sure he swallows what goes into his mouth. Otherwise we find a piece of something later in an odd place.

Josiah loves to laugh and giggles through most of the day. He is ticklish especially around his belly and his arms & legs are ticklish when we put lotion on. He likes to see himself in the mirror & likes the screensaver on the computer which cycles through pictures of himself. Like his daddy, Josiah likes to have his head scratched. He shrugs up his shoulders and grins and sometimes closes his eyes. We need to get that one on film...

We are attempting to teach him sign language- at least a few basic signs. So far we sign "all done" "more" "eat" "drink" & "thank you" Josiah isn't signing anything back yet but they say to keep at it.

Josiah has a small toy helicopter that has a propeller that can spin. He has figured out how to flick the propeller to make it spin. He gets a little frustrated though if he picks up the helicopter with the propeller in the palm of one hand and can't make it spin by flicking the wrong side of the toy! (Hope that made sense.)

Josiah is still just crawling backwards. Forward motion will come someday. He prefers to sit up and play with his toys rather than play on his belly. He has stacking cups that we stack & he topples- that game could last forever!

In the last week he has started babbling baby talk. Before he was very vocal but it was all just sort of happy screams. Now he's saying mamama & bababa. We're working on dadada. :) Although Jon is confident he is saying "Mama" I don't think he really has any comprehension of meaning behind the babbling. But it really is fun to hear! Reading books is still something we do almost daily- one of ours & his favorite pastimes. Josiah is also fascinated with the TV screen. He enjoys watching several Baby Einstein & similar videos. His favorite right now is a farm animal DVD (thanks Grammy!) We don't watch TV every day though (don't worry Nana!)

I guess that's it for now. More to come- we're having so much fun watching & experiencing Josiah growing. Everyday we marvel at this wonderful gift from our Father of our son. God's creation is truly magnificent! We truly are fearfully and wonderfully made.