Andrej, Jessica, Kaiya and Tobi

About two weeks ago, I went in to get Tobi up from his morning nap and I found him standing up in his crib leaning over the top rail with a huge proud smile spread across his face. My heart dropped at the sight because he could have easily fallen out of the crib. I immediately scooped up Tobi and called Andrej to tell him about Tobi’s latest accomplishment. We agreed that Andrej should come home for lunch and lower the crib mattress to keep our little man safely contained. I then recreated the scenario and snapped the cute picture to the left. What a proud boy he is!

Since that day, Tobi has been pulling up on anything and everything including stable things and unstable things. He has so many bumps and bruises from his dare devil attempts to pull up on things that flip over or slide away with his weight. His favorite thing to pull up on is his dresser. He scales up each handle until he is standing on his tip toes hanging from the top handle. Then, as if that isn’t daring enough, holding on with one hand he stretches his other arm way out to reach the handles on the other side and then takes a few very wobbly steps to get there. Maybe he will enjoy rock climbing someday.

Over the last few weeks Andrej and I have noted many times that Kaiya was never so brave and much more cautious as she was learning to pull up on things and cruise. Thankfully we have this blog, which is obviously way more accurate than our memories. I recently read Kaiya's eight month post and it is accompanied by a picture of her standing in the refrigerator. I guess she was just as bold as her brother.

Not only is Tobi climbing and pulling up on everything, he is army crawling all over the place and consequently into everything. Thankfully he hasn’t figured out how to use his knees to propel himself faster, yet, and we certainly aren’t teaching him. He is so determined when he wants to get somewhere, and slides himself across the floor with his eyes set on the prize. Unfortunately for him, his eyes are usually set on something that I don’t allow him to touch, like cords, plugs, the fireplace screen and floor lamps. I almost feel bad when he works so hard to get somewhere and then I have to redirect him at the last minute.

I’m really glad Tobi is able to move about and explore his surroundings, but the bumps and bruises and constant need to watch where he is headed and what he is into is exhausting. It’s a good thing that he is so cute and such a charmer because when he flashes his big ole smile my frustration from removing him from the fireplace screen for the hundredth time melts away.

Tobi is an extremely happy, smiley, giggly baby. It doesn’t take much to get a big belly laugh out of him and his smiles are contagious. We love our little man so much and are extremely thankful that he is a part of our family. The following is Tobi at 8 months in numbers:

8 months and
5 days old
18 (plus) pounds (weight from a few weeks ago at a sick baby visit)
12 hours he sleeps each night
2 naps each day
1 ½ - 2 hours he sleeps during each nap
6 – 7 cloth diapers he goes through in a day
4 times he nurses daily
3 meals of pureed and soft finger foods
2 little teeth (bottom middle)
1 big goofy grin
1,000,000,000 (plus) times a day he makes me sooooo thankful that he is my son!