Isaac's Journal -- Eight months old!

Well folks, since I am officially eight months old today, I thought it a good time to drop in and tell you all what is going on in my life.

First of all, I admit, I probably should drop in more often, but, honestly, I am a really busy guy! First of all, I sleep about 11 hours each night. That only leaves 13 hours in the day. (Yes, I am learning math!) Of those 13, I usually take 2-3 additional naps which leaves only 7 hours of the day that I am actually awake.

Okay, so what do I do with those 7 hours. Well, let's see. Here is just a sampling of some of the things I like to do:

• Play in my exersaucer
• Go to the bay or on a walk with Scrubs and Mommy
• Drink 4-5 bottles of formula
• Eat 2 jars of baby food
• Spit up a bit (but I'm getting better about this)
• Play on the floor in the living room (this is currently my favorite place to be)
• Take a bath (every other day)
• Sit in my swing (not as often as I used to)
• Play with my puppy (whenever he decides he wants to lay down by me)
• Play with my Daddy when he gets home in the evening
• Run errands with Mommy or Daddy

So, as you can see, that is a lot of stuff to do in just 7 hours a day! I really can't afford to take too much time to sit in front of the computer and participate in other frivolous activities. I really have to work to stay on task to get all my daily goals accomplished in the time I am awake.

As far as tasks, I have grown up a lot in the last few months. Some things on my list of accomplishments include:

• Drinking out of Daddy and Mommy's cup -- I am really quite skilled at this. I get quite upset when they walk into a room drinking out of a cup and don't share it with me. It's quite rude don't you think?
• Drinking out of my own cuppy -- I am actually not as skilled at this as I am using a regular cup. I can't seem to figure out how to suck out of the silly thing.
• Waving. I don't do it regularly, but I do on occasion. It's actually not really a wave but more like a "raise my hand in the air" gesture.
• Mimicking noises. I especially like to mimic kissing and growling noises of all kinds.
• Rolling from back to stomach. I especially do this in my crib so I can sleep on my tummy.
• Switching from a seated position to a lying on my tummy position.
• Trying to pull up. I have almost mastered this. I've done it once or twice but mastery should happen any day now.
• Turning to find my Daddy when asked "Where's Da-da?" I also can turn to find Scrubs when asked where he is. I'm still trying to figure out who Mommy is.

I currently am not interested in crawling. Don't worry. Apparently crawling is not a required milestone for children to reach, and it is perfectly acceptable for a child to skip crawling and go right to walking! Whew! That relieves some pressure!

I am actually considering skipping crawling. I am debating whether I want to make things easier on Mommy or harder on Mommy when new brother Elijah shows up. I'm still thinking about this one. I do scoot on my butt a bit and before long I'll be scaling the entire house standing up and holding onto things. I still think being on my stomach isn't the most fun so I may just forgo the whole crawling thing entirely. I'll keep you posted.

Daddy and Mommy have also been doing sign language with me. While I have yet to sign anything back to them (most kids start signing back in their eighth month and I just hit that today), I have definitely learned the sign for "milk" and will bounce up and down in anticipation when one of my parents shows me this sign. Maybe in a few weeks I'll do it back to them to indicate what I want. It might be easier than having to start whining to get them to figure out I am hungry.

Other than that, not too much is going on in our house right now. Well except the fact that my little brother will be here any day. It'll be interesting to see if he comes closer to my eighth month birthday or my ninth month birthday. We'll have to wait and see. I kinda hope he gets here soon because Mommy is really not very good at getting up off the couch while holding me anymore. It's quite a bumpy ride. She also doesn't push the stroller as fast or lay down by me on the floor as easily. Oh and sitting on her lap is not quite as comfortable. There's a big bulge in the way! Daddy promised me that once Elijah gets here, Mommy will soon get back to her normal, quicker moving self. Well I most certainly hope so.

All right, so how's that for an update? I'll be sure to drop back in when I turn nine months, if not before.

Peace out everyone!