8 Month Updates

So, now that I got a few craft posts in, I am taking the time to finally write about what Dallas has been busy doing.

Dallas turned eight months old on January 14th.

Not long after that, he started crawling on all fours.  He had been crawling "army style" for a while, but finally on January 18th, he got up on his hands and knees and gave it a go.  He hasn't stopped or slowed down since and he actually has been getting faster and faster when he sees something in his path that he REALLY wants:)  He is truly a little boy, each and every day he keeps us on our toes.  We love it!

This is not the best video we have of his army crawl, but it's still cute:

Same pajamas, different day.  Now he knows how to crawl!:

On January 20th, Dallas realized that he can pull up on things.  I was at my mom's house for a visit and he was playing with a toy in her living room, I walked into the kitchen just a few steps away and when I looked back at him over my shoulder, he was standing there holding onto the couch.  I didn't get a picture of it that day, but here are some other places he likes to pull up and get into trouble:)

January 26th

February 1st

February 3rd

February 6th - Super Bowl Party at our house...GO PACKERS!!!

February 8th - waiting at the doctor for his 9 month checkup.  His stats: weight 20lb 8oz, height 28 inches

Then he must have decided that all this crawling and pulling up was SO tiring that he wanted to sleep through the night...that's right, mama's been getting a full night's sleep since January 22nd and boy does it feel great.  Only 9 months, 8 days, 5 hours, and 3 minutes after his birth, Dallas is sleeping through the night, but who's counting? Sure we have had a few tough nights of him either teething, having a bit of a cold, or myself waking up to make sure he is still breathing in between, but overall he sleeps a straight 11+ hours each night.

I should give him some credit, he has always been a great sleeper, only getting up 2 times a night maximum since he was born!

I may have not taken him this long to figure out how to sleep through the night for a few reasons.

1.  I am a very light sleeper, so each peep I hear I used to get up and go in his room to make sure he was okay.  I'm sure that woke him up.  Now I have two fans and a sound machine going at night to keep me from waking up.

2.  Being a stay-at-home-mom and knowing in the back of my head that I CAN take a nap during the day when Dallas naps makes it a little easier to give in and give him a bottle in the middle of the night or rock him if he does wake up.

3.  Since he has become mobile, I started to cherish those middle of the night meetings we would have and to be honest, I miss them more and more each day.  The only way he likes to cuddle these days is if I have a bottle for him or if he is asleep.  Is it bad that I think about going in there at 11pm just to pick him up and cuddle with him??  No, I haven't actually done it...YET!

January was the first time Dallas sat in snow, ever, in his life, here, in Wisconsin, land of the snow (we are currently getting poured on as I write this..can you tell I'm REALLY excited about that?? Yeah, I sure am...blah.

Watching the cars go by

Kind of happy about the snow idea...

Maybe not so happy anymore...giving the snow the "evil eye"

Going for it

Okay, that's pretty cold!

February 6th was the day Dallas completed his own art/craft project, with some help from mama and dad!
Here is what we did:

And the final drafts are now proudly displayed in his room:

The next big milestone:  Dallas's first tooth!!  That's right, 8.5 months old and our little monkey got his very first tooth, the bottom left one.  This happened the day Michael got home from training in Pennsylvania, February 4th.  Which was followed by tooth number 2 on February 8th.

So, that's what our little monkey was up to!

July 14th to August 14th (month #3)

Since July 14th when we finished with our last update Dallas has been growing "like a weed" (as they say babies do!).  Who are "they" by the way?? 

We took some great pictures of our "little man", as we have come to call him, after his bath on the day after he turned 2 months, here they are:

 Still working on making his neck muscles strong

Where's Mama with that camera?

There she is!  (One of our favorites!)

Look at the cute booty!  I have a feeling some girlfriend will be seeing these in the far, far, far, future!

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Also on July 15th Dallas tried out his crib for the first time, but he didn't sleep in there just yet.

Looking around at the sports theme bedding his Daddy picked out for him

See, the same night, now in the bassinet:)

So peaceful!

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July 15th Dallas slept through the night for the first time (9:40pm to 3:40am)

Since he was sleeping so well, we decided to put him in his crib on the night of July 18th (yes, just 4 short days after we set him in there to look around for the first time).  Alyssa must have checked on him about 50 times that night to make sure he was okay, and he was.  He slept from 9pm to 3:30am, had a bottle and went back to sleep at 4am until 8:00!  He's been sleeping through the night, in his crib ever since...naps in there came later on since he wasn't really on a schedule and he still loved to sleep in his swing SO much.

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July 17th was a BIG day for Dallas...

Can you guess what he was doing from these pictures?  Which were taken after his first trip to the Farmer's Market (sorry, we didn't take any pictures there).

Still don't know??

Maybe this video will be more helpful...

That's right, just a little over two months old and our little man figured out how to roll from his belly to back in both directions.  This is when we realized how fast he really was growing...

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July 20th, Dallas had his 2 month checkup.  Weight 12lb. 12 oz, 23 inches long, and his head circumference was 40cm.

We were still on the bath every night routine (which we started very early on)...it helping him sleep better at night.  Why change something that was making everyone happy:)

Yes, she JUMPED in the tub...we didn't put her in there...she's crazy, we know!

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July 21st, Dallas enjoyed a nice walk to Kohl's to do a little shopping with the girls; Mom, Auntie Katie, and Ella.  Little did he know this was just one of the many, many shopping trips he'd be going on.

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July 22nd, Dallas learned how to grasp onto his toy.  The soccer ball he's holding has become one of his favorite toys. 

Future soccer player??  Maybe so!!

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July 23rd...looking at the Internet with Daddy (I bet they are checking the football scores!) and some more bath time photos...we can't help ourselves, he's just SO cute!

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July 25th, we took Dallas to the park for the first time.  These pictures were taken at Plamann Park in Appleton.

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July 27th, Dallas learned how to hold onto his toys that hang from his bouncy seat!  That's hard to do when they are always moving.

With his left hand....

and his right! 

He seems to do a lot with his left hand first, maybe he'll be a lefty just like his mama and daddy!  (And Grandma too!)

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July 28th while Mama was getting a little workout in Dallas slept on the couch for the first time, yes on his belly, that was the first and only time it happened (until he could roll over on his own).  He was only like this for a couple minutes with Mom in the room.

Someone thought he looked lonely:(

And then another thought they looked lonely!

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August 1st...Dallas trying out his Jumperoo for the first time.  (He was still a little too small for it.)

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August 4th: Tummy time with Daddy!

That's about it for that month...yes we've only gone until August 1st and not all the way to August 14th, when he turned 3 months...but there's more to come, don't worry!