Max at 8 Months

This week, Max turns 8 months old – and wow, but what a month it’s been.

At 8 months, Max…

… has had his first haircut…

Honestly, I didn’t really imagine this happening so soon, but he’d developed a bit of an awkward comb-over, which was always falling into his eyes, so we decided to get him a bit of a pre-holiday trim. Luckily for us, our hairdresser is a friend – who also happens to live right across the road from us – so Max knows her well, and while he was a little bit surprised when she went in with the scissors, he was way too interested in the comb to really care!

… and his first family holiday.

… has visited three new countries: England, France and Belgium.

… and three new cities: London, Bruges and Aberdeen.

… had his first train ride and boat trip…

… and has laughed and giggled his way through the month, just as he always does.

The most exciting development of the month, however, was this:

Yes, folks, we have a baby who can stand up all by himself here: I repeat, we have a baby who can stand!

He discovered he could do this on our last night in Kent, and, since then, it’s basically been all he wants to do – which has certainly kept Terry and I on our toes, because, as soon as we sit him down somewhere, he’ll just immediately start looking for the nearest object to pull himself up on. And if he can’t find one? He’ll crawl to it. Yes, CRAWL. Because, a couple of weeks ago, he discovered he could wriggle along the floor on his belly, and then last week he graduated to “proper” crawling, on hands and knees… which is super-cute, but yeah: looks like we’re going to be doing a serious amount of house-sitting over the next few weeks!

Mobility has been the biggest change of the month, but we’ve also been making lots of progress with weaning, too, and this month he moved on from purees, to a kind of baby-led weaning, whereby we let him try a little bit of everything – within reason, obviously. So far, it’s been going pretty well, and he’s eaten everything we’ve offered him. I’d say his favourite foods right now are probably banana and broccoli, though – and while, under normal circumstances, I’d usually be ending that sentence with the words, “Not at the same time, though,” in this case I’m going to have to admit that, yeah, sometimes it’s at the same time. Because babies just don’t care, do they?

As fun as it’s been to watch him trying different things, though, I have to admit that, for us, the best thing about starting him on solids is that it’s helped with his reflux so much that he’s almost like a different baby. He does still get milk too, obviously, and he still spits it up from time to time, but, honestly, I can’t remember the last time I used a burp cloth (Despite taking a whole bag of the things on holiday with us!), he only needs a bib when he’s eating, and for a little while after, and he normally ends the day in the same outfit he started it in, which would’ve been totally unheard of just a few weeks ago. My washing machine is almost crying with relief at all of this, and I’m very much enjoying being able to put cute outfits on him, and not just immediately have to cover them up with a giant bib, so, yeah, happy days indeed.

Sleep-wise, meanwhile… well, it’s been a better month than the last one, that’s for sure. We had a rocky start to the month, because our trip to Kent took him out of his usual routine, and Terry and I had vastly under-estimated just how important that was to him – cue a week of sleepless nights for us. Once we were back home, though, he quickly settled back down again: I’d say he sleeps through the night maybe 4 nights out of 7, with the other three being nights where he’ll maybe wake up once, say, or sometimes twice, and have to be re-settled. So, he’s sleeping pretty well at night, all things considered, and although nap-time continues to be a bit of a battleground (Yeah, self-soothing is NOT going well…). I’d rather have him awake most of the day than be awake most of the night, so I’m not complaining: I’m just going to have to find a few more garden centres to visit.

Overall, though, August has been a pretty good month, and definitely our most memorable one yet: I know I say this in all of my monthly updates, but this is really such a great age – he’s still small and squishy and baby-like, but he’s also really starting to develop his own little personality, which makes him an absolute joy to be around. He’s not happy every second of the day, obviously, but he is generally still a happy little soul, who laughs easily, smiles at everyone, and is prone to fits of hysterical laughter when you’re pushing him around the supermarket in his pram. I mean, I know I’m biased, but he’s just the sweetest little boy imaginable, and I’ve thoroughly enjoyed making lots of memories with him this August – so here’s to an equally fun September!