I love this age!

Judah is 8 months old.  About a week and a half ago, I was telling my friend that he's not close to crawling and seems younger than he is.  The next day, after having set him down at my feet while I helped the kids with something I look down to see he had pulled up using a handle on our bench.  He was stiff as can be and a little unsteady, but he was holding on with all his might.  He since has been trying to pull up on everything, but he's had on socks now since the weather turned chilly again.  This makes it very hard to keep his feet underneath him.  The day or so after that happened I caught twice up on his hands and knees.  He's getting better at this slowly, but again with those socks.  He does better upstairs on the carpet.

My least favorite baby phases are the 0-2 weeks and the 4-6 month periods.  The 0-2 weeks is mainly because I am an emotional wreck, although this time was better than in the past.  The 4-6 month phase is when the babies are so much more alert and awake, but they can't physically entertain themselves much.  They want to go places and sit up and do stuff, but they can't so they are fussier.  After they learn to sit up things look a little brighter.  You can leave them sitting next to a basket of toys or an open Tupperware drawer to empty and they are happy for a while.  Even though they can't crawl they can effectively scoot, roll, and reach for things.  This is where Judah is now.  He is a delight lately.  I love his face so very much!

Smiley guy!

 He is sleeping much better too which never hurts!  He takes two one and a half hour naps with a forty-five minute evening nap.  He is going to bed between 7:15 and 7:30pm.  If he wakes up before 6:30am, he falls back asleep with me and his "Bubba" (AKA pacifier in my bed until 6:30am.  He wakes up happy and plays in his bed for a little bit sometimes too.

His eyes are mesmerizing.

 Speaking of his bed, he is in the pack-N-play which I lowered just a week before he pulled up for the first time.  I only did it because I  noticed he could reach up and grab the edge while on his tummy.  Good instincts or his guardian angel.

He's a beautiful baby, in my not-so-humble opinion.

Lastly, I just moved him into a size 5 diaper and he doesn't fit in most of his 12 month clothes anymore.  The 18 month pants are a bit snug in the belly too, but he really can't go any higher because of the length.  My chubby baby! Love the chub!  (If I was a hash-tagger, I would've used them there and here.  Fighting the misused hash tag craze! I'll stick with exclamation points.)