Breck's crawling – well, army crawling – EVERYWHERE! We have finally gotten to the point where he is into anything and everything all the time. You will look away for a split second and he is off! With 8 months, Breck has definitely decided to assert his independence. Along with this has come quite a personality too. He is great when anyone is holding him but if I'm in the room and he sees me, he dives out of the arms of whomever is holding him, just expecting I will be there to snatch him up. Breck has such a loving heart that he also reaches out readily to people around him and gives them the best hugs ever! He is learning to wave and has started interacting with anyone around him, even strangers. He just mesmerizes people with that smile of his and those big beautiful blues. Breck enjoyed his first Easter during this month and since he can grab things, he had fun with the Easter Egg Hunt. We went to OKC and he got to play with cousins and family – and even met some who had only seen him in pictures til now. We were very excited to have an opportunity to take some great pictures with family, especially his great-grandparents. We have made an effort to get him and his cousin Wake together at least once a month. You can tell those two have a special bond since Breck just lights up and giggles as soon as he sees his “big brother.”
Breck's two top teeth have broken through and thankfully we have had only a few issues with that. Breck has had double ear infections for quite a while now, so we will be going to the specialist this next week and expect he will have tubes before his 9-month update. You can tell the last dose of antibiotics helped clear up the last infection though because it was like all of a sudden he found his voice. He happily babbles and shouts all the time, just to hear himself. Breck definitely recognizes his own name and will turn when it is called. He knows who his momma and daddy are too and will search for us in a crowd or turn to look for us when you ask him where we are. His favorite show is Mickey Mouse Clubhouse and he is excited to watch it every morning while I get ready for work. His pack 'n play is full of balls (like those you find in a ball pit) and he just sits in there and plays while watching Mickey Mouse every morning. Breck loves his puppies and gets excited when we get home. In his playroom, they have their cages, so he sits on his little couch in there as I let them out. They are crazy excited and bounce all over the place and he just giggles as they run over and lick his face in their excitement. Of course, Winnie is his girl and happily tolerates anything Breck dishes out but the other two are more casually aware of his presence. It's strange because Midnight will go sit by him but if he pays her any attention, she gets upset and leaves. Tigger, on the other hand, always wants to be near me but lately that spot has been taken over. They don't share well with each other and his rough kicks or sporatic hand thrusts bother her delicate little self. Breck is obsessed with Tigger though and takes every opportunity he can to crawl to her – not sure she is happy about his sudden mobility.
Breck has been going through growth spurts and can put the food away. He has started trying out meats this month but so far they have been a little rough on his system – between that and the antibiotics, it has been interesting in the diaper department. He can try finger foods like those little puff cereals and when I break them apart and place them in his mouth he likes them. He happily reaches for the pieces but it is more to play with them than eat at this point. We have tried out a sippy cup with juice but he hasn't quite made a transition to anything other than milk so he doesn't know what to think about that. We have increased his breastmilk to 5 oz. 5 times a day (plus the 3 ozs. that is added to his cereal throughout the day). He likes banana oatmeal cereal with other fruit in the mornings but we have recently shifted to having him eat his breakfast at school. Before, he would wake at 6 am and have milk then go eat cereal but he wasn't very hungry for cereal. His teachers at school said he always acts starving even though on the weekends, his food schedule seems just right with us. So, we decided to give him milk at 6 am still but have him eat cereal at 8 am. And boy has that helped! One, the boy packs away the cereal and fruit at the 8 am breakfast. He is eating a good 5 scoops of cereal, 1 oz. milk and an entire tub of fruit. He has his second bottle at 10 am, lunch (mixed grains with 1 tub veggies and sometimes half a tub of fruit) at 12 pm, milk again at 2 pm, then milk and a dinner combo at 5:30 pm (meat, veggies, mixed grain cereal sometimes, dessert – which at this stage is usually a fruit smoothie blend or yogurt) then his final milk at 8:30 before bed.
Breck has really begun to love books so we read to him all the time. His Grandma Hill gave him some awesome Disney storybook collections and since Mickey is his favorite, we started with that book. Breck has enjoyed his storytime in the evening and is captivated by the pictures of Mickey on some other adventure.
The only downside to Breck growing up (and asserting that independence I was talking about a short time ago) is that we have started to see the need for discipline arise already. I have to admit, it took me by surprise and made me sad the other day to think the days of sweetness and innocence are gone. We had – just recently – a few days of Breck throwing his head back and screaming in a tantrum if he is not getting what he wants – be it an object or just being held constantly. And with mobility, he has gotten into a few things he shouldn't. His favorite object to go over to is the XBOX and when you tell him no mid-crawl, he puts his head down and just cries and cries, then picks his head up, looks at you and then starts crawling toward the object again. Brian said they had a battle of wills just yesterday while I ran errands. After a few instances, Breck decided it was worth defying his father and just snatched the XBOX cord. It's interesting that children can understand the word no so easily and you can see in his face, he understands he is not supposed to be doing something. I know people feel differently about discipline but Brian and I both believe that discipline and structure are definitely needed in raising any child. Thankfully, after quite a few instances of re-direction we have seen less of the tantrum throwing, and more of the sweet Breck we know better. I guess at 8 months, Breck is now entering that world – the real world of parenting for us.
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