"Not in your mouth!"

Caedmon has been one busy guy lately. His crawling skills are improving rapidly; although he's still pulling himself on his tummy, he's going wherever he wants! He has escaped his room a few times now - I left him playing to go to the kitchen or, in this case, our bedroom, and he set out after me! He was excited to make it out into the hallway, giggling and "talking" as he got closer.

This morning was beautiful outside, and Caedmon was looking particularly big-boyish in his overalls, so we spent some time outside and I snapped a few (okay, more than a few) photos of him. For a very short time, he was the perfect subject and sat, smiling at me, while I photographed him. But then...

...Andre intervened, drawing Caedmon's attention away from me. He walked right up to him, let Caedmon touch him, and then calmly walked way. That is very out of character; Andre knows that Caedmon will grab and pull fur, whiskers, tail, paws, anything he can reach. He does not purposefully get within reach of those tiny fingers!

After Andre moved on, Caedmon was ready to play our new game..."not in your mouth!" Of course babies put everything in their mouth, that is nothing new. But the last few times we've gone outside, Caedmon will pick up leaves, vines, rocks, whatever, and after inspecting them for a short time, will put them in his mouth. I take them out and tell him "not in your mouth!" Once this has happened a time or two, he starts thinking it's funny and will hold something in both hands so that as soon as I get one of the things away from his mouth, he giggles, and hurries to put the other object in before I can stop him.

Note the amused expression in this next photo. He knows I'm about to jump up and remove the leaves and vine from his mouth, as I'd already done so several times!

Happy 8 Month Birthday!

Yesterday was Caedmon's 8-month birthday! Already! He's changing so much, so fast. I followed him around with the camera yesterday, to capture his day and activities.

He's gotten so fast in his walker, it's really neat to see him enjoying a little bit of independence. He will take himself all over the place, especially if he can reach something on a table, shelf, etc. Right now, he's really into magazines. If he can reach them, he'll pull them off the coffee table and play with them until there are little shreds of pages all over the place.

Sometimes it's not enough to just play with them, so he'll take a nibble here and there, too.

We moved the piano bench so that Caedmon can get to the keys by himself. If he needs a break from the magazines (note crumpled pages on the tray of his walker!) he'll scoot over and play a few notes. He must be playing by ear, as I don't think he can see what he's doing just yet!

And, the big accomplishment of the last week - crawling! It's still an army-style crawl, on his belly, and it takes him a while (and a lot of energy!) to get where he wants to go, but he's getting faster. At first he mainly pulled himself along with his left forearm, while his right hand was extended in front of him, reaching towards his goal. Now he's using both arms more, and that helps him move more quickly. I don't think it will be long before he figures out how to get his legs under him. In this photo, he is heading for the camera!

Daniel and I took Caedmon outside last night for a quick 8-month photo shoot. It's pretty interesting to try to get him to sit still in one place with his new found mobility, but we did get some really cute shots. Happy 8 months, darling boy!

Meat

Yes, this past Saturday was a big day in the Schwarz household. I made chicken for Caedmon for the first time. I don't think the inventor of the blender intended it for meat, but it worked great for us! We got Caedmon all settled in his high chair and prepared to capture his reaction, recording it with both the video camera and the regular still camera. Usually with any new food, we get an expression of surprise, disgust, uncertainty...but this time, Caedmon had absolutely no reaction!

He sat for a while without moving, "chewing," or making any attempts to swallow. I suppose he didn't know what to think - was this substance we put in his mouth for eating?

He finally got around to trying to swallow, but we realized that the texture of the chicken made it difficult to get down. Now he was really in a pickle - what to do with it?

We finally started mixing little bits of the chicken in with his pureed broccoli, which helped, and then he washed all that down with applesauce.

Whew! This was an extremely long, drawn-out meal for our boy, as he explored a whole new food group. Subsequent meals with chicken have been easier - I guess it just takes practice.

Learning and growing

Caedmon is turning into such an amazing little boy. Although we're still working on the major milestones of crawling and getting teeth, he's changing every day, amazing us with the things he's able to figure out and do. The following are some photos I've snapped over the last few days with tidbits about what he's been up to.

For one thing, he's gotten to be extremely good at getting around in his walker. He will venture off on his own, fearlessly exploring other rooms completely out of our sight. He's working on the sippy cup, too - right now it's more a novelty, but I suspect he'll soon be wanting to drink water and juice in larger quantities.

He and Daniel also have regular piano time. Daniel used to play while Caedmon sat nearby in his bouncer, but now our little guy gets in on the action, too, and is very focused on this fascinating instrument.

If he had his way, I'm sure our little guy would rather skip crawling and go right to walking. He spied Andre after his bath one night, and lost no time in "walking" with Daniel's help, all the way out of the bathroom and into the hall. Andre is going to have to learn to be quicker about making his getaway!

This morning I noticed that Caedmon had rolled himself under the rocking chair, and was rocking it up and down with his legs. Pretty clever!

This last photo is just a bonus, I thought he looked too adorable in these overalls to not share!

Dadada

Caedmon has a new way of melting our hearts! His latest new skill is saying "Dadada..." We don't think he realizes who it is yet, but he does know that we get excited and encourage him when he does say it. He was saying "Mamama" but now he spends most of his time perfecting this new word rather than practicing other sounds. We love hearing him learn to use his precious little voice!