Today, my little men turned eight months old. I can't believe how fast the time goes. I've decided that they need to stop and stay eight months old for a little while. My cuddly little babies have become busy young men who are starting to get into that most dreaded of positions - the crawling one. They sit and play together for hours. Their favorite activity is to dump out the basket of toys and roll around in them - picking and choosing which ones to chew, which ones to throw, and which ones to steal. 
All of the boys are a little under the weather. James feels the worst - he has a fever and a runny nose. I'm pretty sure that the snot content of my shirt is fairly high. The dogs like to eat the kleenex before I have a chance to throw them away (YUCK!!!). The boys hate it when I wipe their noses. Each of them has a disgusted face and turns his head every time my tissue passes by. James has the best don't wipe my face look, Michael runs great interference with his hand, and Ryan has a good duck and cover move.
James is very focused on his toys. He loves to figure things out. He is always studying the situation and trying to do things on his own. He is the first and only one to hold his bottle consistently. I LOVE that he can hold it himself (he doesn't always hold it for the entire feeding, but it makes my life so much easier that he likes to do it himself). He still likes the bouncers, but he definitely makes tracks in his jeep. Today, I had to go and return him to the living room after he made his way into our bedroom. He's figured out how to back up and maneuver around in his jeep. He has just started to say "dadadadadada" (he's the last to say this new sound, but he was the first to do the raspberry - with and without food in his mouth). He doesn't always like to stay face up in the diaper change station - he's a flipper. Although I don't think James could live without his pacifier, he's been less addicted to it lately. He'll play for almost an hour without thinking about his most important appendage. He still likes to sleep with his face firmly planted in the mattress, and he seems to have adapted to the upstairs naps better than Michael and Ryan.
Let the hair pulling begin!
Michael loves to give hugs and kisses. Unfortunately, his kisses sometimes involve teeth that his brothers don't appreciate. He's so cute with his giant open-mouth approach and his fists firmly ensconced in your hair. It's sweet yet painful. Michael is very focused. When eating, he loves to play with his toys and is hard to distract. We had Cheerios today for the first time, and he must have spent 20 minutes moving them around on the tray. I'm not sure how many made it into his mouth, but Duke was more than happy to clean out his chair and the floor around it. He's still such a smiley kid that I'm a little afraid he'll come up to me and say "Mom, I just spilled a whole bucket of red paint in the middle of the living room floor" then flash that smile and get away with it. He's starting to get tired of his crab bouncer, but he does still do his little crab dance occasionally. Lately, he's been snuggling up with his blanket like Linus from Peanuts.
The pacifier exchange program - James is NOT a fan.
Silly faces are Ryan's new favorite thing. Lately he has not been a big fan of sleep. He seems to think that 20 minutes equals a long nap. Which is a little distressing for a mommy who uses nap time to do important things like pee and take the trash out. In addition to his sleeplessness (luckily only during daylight hours), Ryan has become the messiest eater (a title previously held by young James). Yesterday, he had food all over - in his hair, eyebrows, ears, and several other insane places. Mom had to actually rinse out the washrag and go for round two before he came away clean. During these self-decorating sessions, he has so much fun, that it's hard not to laugh. He is still pretty patient (all of the boys are), but he is in need of a little extra attention lately. I seem to have him on my lap more often than not, and he's got a pathetic look when he's in need of love. He will cuddle up and give you a good hug, but only if he's in the mood. I think Ryan is closest to getting mobile. He's got his stance down, but luckily hasn't figured out how to move forward (whew). He also is quite a driver and can make it around the house quite speedily in his jeep, and he's certainly not afraid to push someone else out of the way or stop to pull things off of tables or out of baskets, etc - baby proofing, here we come.
