8 months and growing

i can finally add titles again! woo hoo!!

Tristen is officially 8 months old. it occurred inconspicuously on Sunday at 12:45 p.m. it is not lost on us that the months are flying by and for the past 2 months our son has been with us longer than not. as the months continue to pass us by, tristen grows and changes before our very eyes. his looks, his personality, his ability to get around ... it is an amazing thing. he is such a joy to be around! we are excited about what the holidays hold in store for us this fall and winter. last christmas was his first holiday, but this year he will actually be able to participate in the festivities instead of sleeping through them.

this week i've had the privilege of being on vacation and spending full days with the little guy. it has been challenging and rewarding, both at the same time. tristen has a stubborn streak - can't imagine where he gets that from! on monday we went down to the campground and spent the evening with my parents and nieces. they're camping this week - turns out this is the hottest week of the summer! luckily their trailer has a/c that works amazingly well. tuesday we went to the Asheboro Zoo. it was nice, but a very hot day for wandering around the zoo. it was well shaded and there were lots of neat buildings where they had exhibits, but truthfully ... i think all three of us wished we could join the grizzly bear under the waterfall. the bear had the right idea!


more times than i can count, he will be dead asleep on his feet and miserable, but as soon as i try to lay him down he wakes up and wants to play or throw a fit. he is a mess! he loves to play in the crib and Jen's house, and he loves to play in his crib at home too. strange little guy!

these days he's learning to crawl and almost has it down, except he can't figure out how to move his hand and knees at the right time, so he does an inchworm military crawl. or when he really wants something, he finds it is easier to roll toward his toys. he can stand with some assistance and is starting to pull himself up. with assistance. everything he does is still with assistance. :) that's okay though, because soon enough he won't want anything to do with us.

he continues to l*o*v*e the water. his pool, the bathtub, the lake where my parents are camping, the pool at Jen's house (see picture below) ... they're all fun. he gets in the water and immediately starts splashing to his heart's content. now that he can sit up on his own he can really get his hands and arms going. and its much easier on our backs!

he's cutting two more teeth, this time the top front teeth. he goes through phases of being completely miserable and a complete angel. now that i know what he's like when he's teething it helps make the whole process less frustrating. when i didn't know why he was getting so fussy it was confusing to me and i had a hard time figuring out what to do to make him his normal happy self. now i know. it is called MOTRIN. :)

his next doctor's appt. is in Sept. and we'll find out how much he has really grown. he's already into some 12 mths. clothes, but that is because he's actually pretty long. he continues to be a slim baby, not much baby fat on his bones. a healthy kind of slim though. i think he weighs close to 20 lbs. now. but that is just a guess.

well, that's about it on the updates. i'm enjoying my days off from work and trying to get some stuff done around the house between tman's naps - including updating this blog. i'll post again in the near future. sorry i've been bad about keeping this thing updated.

here's tristen at Jen's pool - enjoy!



Love

T, H & T