Life with Nathan: Weeks 34 to 36 - Big boy fun at 8 months!

Nathan is so much fun to watch / play with. I love seeing him process and learn new things day by day. He is sitting up really well now (rarely does he like leaning back against the chair) and can play more actively with toys. Nathan likes to bang toys together and make sounds. He's good at reaching for things and is pretty fast at maneuvering around despite the fact that he can't crawl forward (but can push himself backwards). He'll sometimes rock back and forth on his hands and knees so maybe he'll figure out how to crawl in another month. Still drooling a lot but no teeth yet. He loves yogurt and I'm giving him a couple of spoonfuls each day to get his body used to dairy.

Nathan is clapping all the time now and waving his arms, it's especially funny to hear him clapping by himself when he's in the car seat or in his crib before falling asleep. When he's really happy, he'll clap and say "ehhhhhhhhh" and laugh to himself. He's starting to make more distinct consonant sounds too, like "dadadada" instead of just long vowels. Not only is he patting objects, he also likes to pat me when I'm holding or nursing him.

I never noticed the way he moves his feet / toes until my mom mentioned it. It's so graceful and looks like he's swimming or imitating wings flapping with his feet.

When one of us goes into another room and disappears from his view, he remembers where we went and will continue looking in that direction until we reappear. He is also not as easily distracted when I try to give him another toy instead of my phone. He knows what he wants and remembers that he wants it. He also loves Facetime with pao pao, gong gong, lao nie nie and ah-yi. He starts getting excited when he hears the ringing from the iPad. This week Sof showed him the baby einstein musical toy that they have which is the exact same one that he was holding in his hand and you could see the "mind processing" moment. He was staring at the toy that Sof was holding and then looking down at his toy. It was amazing.

Recently Nathan is able to recognize Jackson from our living room window (2nd floor) when he's coming home. He got SO excited and started patting the window and laughing. It was so cute to see him respond to Jackson waving up at him from outside.

At his 8 month check up (we switched pediatricians so this was our first visit) he was 16 lbs, 7 ounces and 27.5 inches long. She said his weight gain is good as he's been gaining more each month so we're on the right track!

In the swing for the first time. No expression.

Trying mum mums again. He didn't care much for it when I first tried it a couple of months ago.

It takes him awhile to fall asleep in the stroller because he likes to look around. I usually have to walk for 30-45 minutes before he passes out like this.

I got him in this position just to see if he can hold it. Not really. I had to take the picture quickly and then hold his butt.

Enjoying the nice weather outside

Sitting in high chair for the first time. He kept leaning forward and will almost hit his head on the table, so we gave him a menu to hold as protective gear.

So happy we don't have to carry the car seat into the restaurant!

Ready for my midnight snack

Visiting Aurora - she's so cute and light, I can't believe Nathan used to be that little, seems like so long ago

Congrats Aunt Madelina!

Took Nathan to the supermarket for the first time at HMart. He was really good in the ergo and fell asleep so we were able to have lunch in the food court.