Late on Eight....Niko is 8 Months-ish

 This little monster turned eight months old last week!

Milestones & Memories

Niko has been trying hard to skip crawling.  He gets himself up on his hands and his left leg, but his right leg isn't quite strong enough to get to standing.  If given a finger to hold in each hand for support, though, he will run towards his destination

When Alexander was this age, my dad sent me an article about the brain development associated with crawling, so we have been trying to encourage Niko not to skip this milestone....if you peek into our backyard, you might just catch all of us crawling around the backyard to model for Niko!

We have found the motivation and as of this morning he has been crawling more and more

He still has only the two bottom teeth, with the top two just barely below the surface

He wants to eat EVERYTHING, but is sensitive to strawberries and gets gas troubles from some of our foods

He continues to idolize Alexander and has begun imitating some of his motions, like scooping his arms when Alexander is swimming.  Niko loves the pool!  He prefers to sit on the sun desk or chase his brother from my arms than floating in his floatie, but I am so glad to have another water baby.

We have been in the pool every day

He has started using consonant sounds, like gah, dah, etc
He is a terrible night sleeper and takes 2-3 naps a day.  He just wants to snuggle...

Alexander had a pretty huge milestone moments recently!

We were playing Power Rangers in the backyard.  He turns to me and says, "Mom!  There are 11 bad guys!  I'll take six and you take 5!"

Mental math like whoa!  When I asked how he figured that out, he looked at me like, duh mom.... 

"If 5 plus 5 equals 10, then 6 plus 5 equals 11, right?!"

Yes, indeed, my boy.  It sure does.

He goes back to school a couple days a week starting tomorrow.
I am going to miss him but he needs it.
He did a 180 on his scooter!
His swimming continues to improve.  He regularly goes the full length of the pool and then just keeps swimming.

Big Brother is the shining star in Little Brother's life

He would rather walk than crawl

Daniel ordered Alexander what he thought was a simple strawberry soda.  We were all amazed when this mojito-like beauty was served.  Delicious!

Hiking is a great reprieve from the 108 degree heat.  We went off path and explored Kyle Canyon.

Alexander got tired from the difficult trek up.  We found an easier path down and Daniel gave both boys a ride.

Zoey had an adventure with quite a big fall off a rock on our way up.  She toppled back after trying to jump up a rock and fell flat on her back.  She was a bit stunned, but finished the hike without issue and has not seemed to have hurt herself at all.

I am amazed by how fast time goes by and am trying my best to enjoy every moment, even on days when I am running on no sleep and coffee fumes.