Chris and Kristen + 2: 8 months old-July 2011

Owen is trying to take Hannah's passy so he can use it!

The biggest events this month were starting some finger foods and finally finding a sippy cup that Hannah and Owen will consistently drink from on their own...my advice-buy Nuk sippy cups! I went through two other brands and Hannah and Owen refused to drink from them. The first time I gave them the Nuk brand cups they drank all of their formula out of it and I rejoiced because I was starting to stress about the whole sippy cup deal.

Finger food...
I started Hannah and Owen out with Gerber Puffs as their first finger foods since it made me feel better that they will dissolve in their mouths. Owen loved the independence of being able to feed himself and drink from his sippy cup. Feeding time had become somewhat chaotic as Owen would fuss whenever the spoon was guided towards Hannah's mouth instead of his own. The introduction of finger foods has made breakfast and dinner much less stressful for me since he can feed himself some things while I get Hannah fed and then I switch and everyone is happy. Owen quickly moved to being able to eat Cheerios, bananas, peaches, pears, potatoes, and sweet potatoes. So far I think his favorites are peaches and sweet potatoes. He often will polish off 1/2 a peach during lunch. Hannah isn't such a big fan of finger foods yet...she is resistant to change (like her mommy). She loves to eat puffs and Cheerios, but rarely feeds herself the other items that I continually put on her tray. She will even pick out the puffs or Cheerios off her tray when they are mixed in with other items. I just keep putting stuff on there in hopes that one day she'll take an interest. It also took her a few extra days to warm up to using a sippy cup, but our persistence paid off and now she drinks from her cup for breakfast, lunch, and dinner.

Lunch...
As far as food is concerned I also started lunch this month and introduced Yo Baby Yogurt. It took them awhile to get used to eating something cold, but they love the yogurt. They have liked banana and vanilla, but our favorite is the apple and sweet potato.

Changes in Schedule...
At 8 months old Hannah and Owen are transitioning from 3 naps a day down to 2. It was a stressful week trying to figure out how to adjust their feeding schedule to work around naps and the newly introduced lunch, but we eventually got it worked out. Hannah and Owen nap around 9:30am and 2:30pm for 45min. to 1 and 1/2 hours usually.

What we're doing...
Owen is starting to pull up on furniture and anything else he finds stable enough. He has figured out how to pull up on his crib rail which warranted a express trip to Babies R Us for a teething guard. It also created some frustration at nap time after he had a ball throwing or dropping his passies out over the top of the rail. At which point he would sit down and cry (sometimes waking Hannah up) because he has to have his passy to go to sleep. He now goes down with several passies and a wubanub (which is a passy attached to a stuff animal). When talking to Chris on the phone about one afternoon he suggested filling his crib with at least 10 passies...fortunately we didn't have to go to that extreme! Owen also loves to climb. He finds the challenge of pulling up on Chris and me hilarious and often cackles while doing so. He also thinks its really funny to crawl over top of our legs when we are sitting on the floor and he tries to steamroll his sister several times a day too!

He is really into his book.

Owen has added books to his daily routine of things to pull out at our house.

Hannah becomes more verbal everday. She is making "d" and "s" sounds now. I know it won't be long before we hear dada. She also starting scooting herself around on the floor, sitting up on her own, and at the end of the month after lots of practice with mommy she crawled! Yay, Hannah! She is really funny to watch because she can entertain herself for several minutes tossing a toy away from herself and then moving to try to get it at which point she tosses it again. She often giggles and laughs when faced with the challenge of getting to something that is out of her reach. Hannah also has a fascination with our couch. She likes to get right up by it or get herself wedged under it. She also likes to toss toys under the couch and see if she can reach them. Hannah loves to rock and loves the rocking frog we bought for her and Owen. She grins as soon as you put her on it and start the music. She will kick her feet back and forth and when you stop she starts rocking herself back and forth to let you know she wants more.

I love to rock...

Can she get any closer?

Hannah learned to clap this month.

Hannah loves to play in water...splashing is so much fun!

Hannah discovered how to really jump in her bouncer...check out the face.

And she's off...

Hanging out in my pool

Hannah and Owen went to their Aunt Debra and Uncle Donald's pool for the first time, played in their inflatable pool that we put on our deck, and visited the Children's Museum this month.