Merrick at 8 Months

Happy 8 months to our little man! This has been a big month for Merrick, who has become more mobile since my last update. He still isn't quite crawling, but he can get wherever he wants to go by rolling and stretching and pushing himself around.

I can't exactly call his moves an army crawl, but it's close. Here's a little video I grabbed of him rolling and scooting to a toy he wanted:

Some other changes for this month include adding his two front teeth for a total of four teeth, and starting to sleep through the night! (Cue the heavenly chorus...)

I had to spend my first night away from Merrick a week ago, and Mark tried letting him fuss instead of feeding him at 1:00 like I normally do. He fussed for about half an hour, but then fell back to sleep and slept until almost 8. We decided to keep trying this to see how he did, and his fussing got shorter and shorter, leading to sleeping all the way through the night for the last four nights from about 8:00 until 8:00 the next morning! Why didn't we try this a couple of months ago!?! He still naps well too, getting a couple of hours in the afternoon.

He is feeding himself some finger foods (and nearly always gets them in his mouth, I just couldn't resist getting a picture of this puff that got stuck on his face!) and his menu has expanded to include: baby cereal, peas, green beans, carrots, sweet potato, squash, apples, blueberries, peaches, and bananas.

Earlier this month, I realized that it has been exactly a year since we found out we would be having a boy. I was excited then, but that doesn't even compare to the love I have for this charming little boy and how perfectly he completes our family. We love you, Merrick!