8 months

So what is Jonah doing at 8 months?  A whole lot, and so proud of it!

Motor Skills:  Jonah claps, waves/high-fives socially, army crawls across the room, and has perfected his pincher-grasp.  His hand coordination is very deliberate in manipulating toys and food.

Social Skills:  Jonah is very friendly and will wave when someone smiles at him.  It's a cute wave with his fingers opening and closing, but in a wave progression, rather than all at once.  Then he buries his head in Mommy as if being shy.  He reaches up for Mommy or Daddy to pick him up.  He's very interested in other kids and babies and will watch or bat at them to play.

Sleep:  Still doing great (knock on wood!)  We had a short spell of midnight wakings (I think he was in a growth spurt), but that didn't last long.  Daddy's solution was to keep him up later, Mommy's was to feed him large quantities of Cheerios before bed.  Since we tried both, we may never know that it was really just something he had to work through while growing!  Now he's back to 8:00pm to 6:00am, give or take a half hour on each end.  Naps are still unpredictable, but usually about two for 30min each.  He's turned out to be a tummy sleeper and turns himself over as soon as he hits the mattress.

Food:  It wasn't long ago I was concerned that Jonah wasn't eating enough to provide him any nutrition.  Now, he will eat anything we put in front of him!  He loves table foods and feeding himself, so he tries almost anything we're having for dinner along with an ounce of pureed baby food and a couple handfuls of Cheerios or Puffs.  Plus 2oz of baby cereal in the morning and 5 7-8oz feedings a day.

Activities:  Jonah loves his bath all the more, now that he uses the big tub and can move around in it!  His favorite thing is to put his hands under the tap while the water is running.  Splashing himself and Mommy is a close second.  He seems to have grown out of Jumperoo, or at least lost interest in being stuck in one location when he could be patrolling.  He'd much rather check out new corners of the house and find trouble!  He loves standing whenever he can get someone to help him and is practicing moving his feet to walk where he wants to go.

Speech:  Jonah can make a variety of consonant sounds, but only when he wants to.  His vocabulary consists of: ba, da, ga, ma, pa, ah, and a very high-pitched squeak he is trying out for range.  Naturally, we assume any string of ma-ma-ma or da-da-da is meant for us.  ;-)