Leander Roxas // Eight Month Update

Well, somehow, Leander is now 8 months old! He continues to be a smiley, happy, silly little boy who is our tiny ray of sunshine!

• I’ll just go ahead and start out the same way I start out every month: Leander now wears (mostly) 18-month size clothes! Some 12-month stuff still fits, and I’ve even started to pull out a few 24-month size things – but for the most part, my 8 month old is wearing size 18-months – unreal!
• We officially have a MOVER! And watch out – because this little dude is fast! He started army-crawling around right after the 4th of July (when we were with his cousin Leah who was showing off her crawling on all-fours skills) and he hasn’t stopped since! He gets up on all-fours, and has even had a few “official” crawling moments, but he much prefers to army-crawl – he’s faster that way!
• Along with that, he very quickly figured out how to get into Braelynn’s toys (most of which are wayyy too tiny for him!) So, very quickly after he started moving around, I went thru & organized all of the toys – putting Leander’s toys (and a few of Braelynn’s “safe” toys) on the bottom shelf & moving everything that’s tiny up to the top shelf. Braelynn also got specifically told that she could only play with those tiny toys when Leander was sleeping or not on the floor – and she has to be responsible to clean those toys up as soon as she’s done playing with them. So far, she’s been a great big sister & done a great job at keeping her toys picked up!
• He also loves to go after cords – iPhone charging cords, plugs, speaker wire – pretty much anything he shouldn’t be grabbing & biting on – is what he’s going after the quickest.
• With the moving – Leander has also made strides to start the learning-to-walk process! He pulled himself up to his knees & then popped up onto his (very wobbly) feet just last week! Of course, he used the most insecure shelf in our house to do so (giving Mommy a heart-attack & prompting me to quickly move that shelf to our 3rd floor) – but it’s SO fun to watch all of the little wheels turning in his head & seeing him grow & mature & make strides toward getting so big! As I watched him pull himself up to stand (no worries, I was standing right there, holding onto the shelf so it wouldn’t go anywhere), I literally teared up because – how is he big enough to be doing these things already?! Didn’t we just bring him home from the hospital, like, yesterday?!
• Okay, moving on from crazy-Mama-emotional talk! He has started saying “Mama”! He hinted at saying it last month, but now, usually when he’s upset, it just slides right on out – it literally melts my heart into a puddle faster than a snowman in July!
• Leander saw his first fireworks! We went to Kennywood for the second year in a row for the Fourth of July & we totally threw bedtime to the wind & let the kids stay up. It was such a fun night (but whew, grumpy munchkins after staying up 4 hours past bedtime!!)
• The kid loves to eat! I feel like, for the first few weeks of us introducing food to him, he really wasn’t into it, but then a switch got turned on & suddenly he loves to eat! He used to hardly eat the small containers of baby food, and now he woofs down the large containers without hardly blinking! His favorite foods are peaches & pears, but pretty much anything (mixed with applesauce) will go right down! Anything except rice teething wafers – those seemed to give our little man an upset tummy – so we’ve stayed away from those!
• Teeth number 5 & 6 popped thru this month! Leander now has 4 teeth on the top & 2 on the bottom – he is literally a little baby shark!
• My sister Amy & I rigged a piece of frame around the doorway that goes from the living room to the kitchen so that we could hang a jumper there for Leander! He loves it & it’s so much fun to watch him bounce & spin – it’s so good to have another option as a “contained” space for the little mover!
• Derrick & I photographed our first wedding of the year together this month – which means Leander & Braelynn spent the entire day (11+ hours) with Grandma!! They all survived! I must say, leaving a 7-month-old with someone else for the day is so much easier than leaving an 8-week-old with someone else for the day (which was how old Braelynn was the first time I photographed a wedding).
• Leander has learned how to click his tongue & he also has learned that he has some volume to his voice! He will suddenly scream out & then will laugh at himself – it’s so hilarious!
• He continue’s sucking his two fingers whenever he’s upset & to help himself sleep – it’s so adorable! I’m so thankful that he finally has a self-soothing method!
• Speaking of self-soothing, Leander officially has a favorite toy! It made it’s way into our photos this month & I love it!

Here are his Eight Month photos! It blows my mind to look back & see how much he’s grown & changed – One Month photos & Two Month photos & Three Month photos & Four Month photos & Five Month photos & Six Month photos & Seven Month photos. Time can slow down anytime now!

If you’d like to follow along with what our little guy is up to on a more weekly basis – I’m taking weekly photos of him (just like I did with Braelynn) too! I post those updates every Monday on my personal Facebook page, as well as my Instagram account!