8 Months Old

We are a week late with this post, but better late than never! :)  Bentley is growing so fast; I can't believe my eyes.  Part of me wants him to learn more, do more, and grow fast, but the bigger part of me is begging him to STOP GROWING!  I feel like I need to savor these moments we have now because I know they are short lived.  I know that every stage of life has its wonderful moments, but it seems like the current stage always has the best moments.  Some of my favorite moments...

• When I walk into the room, Bentley's face lights up as if it has been forever since he's seen me (even if it's only been a short moment).
• Bentley's reaction to Daniel is just as good...he LOVES his Daddy.  (The other night I started feeding Bentley while Daniel was still getting the table set for dinner, and Bentley was so fussy.  I couldn't figure out for the life of me what was wrong.  Finally, Daniel walked into the room, and all was well.  He just wanted his Daddy).
• I love his sweet expressions...happy, mad, confused, worried, and even sad...they are all SOOOO cute.
• I love that he wants me.  For so long, babies are pretty content to be held by anyone, but there comes a time when they have a preference.  While it's not always convenient, a part of me always wants to be wanted. 
• I love the way he plays with his toys and shakes them all the same way, as if he's examining each one to see how it's different than the rest. 
• I love that he lays his head on my chest when meeting someone new.  He gets a little bashful, and cuddles with me as if he knows I'll keep him safe. 

I could go on and on and on and on, but I can't write about every single thing I love...we'd be here for days.  At eight months old, Bentley is so much fun. He's learning more and more each day, and Daniel and I sometimes just sit and laugh at some of things Bentley does.  Here's a list of some of the things Bentley has started doing over the last month:

• His favorite word: "Da da da da da da da da"  (of course).  Can you say, "Mama?"  Bentley responds , "Da da da da da."  Stinker!
• His new trick:  "Do you have a bad cough?"  He will try his best to make a coughing sound.  He doesn't do this as much anymore, but for a couple of weeks, he would do it on command really well.
• If you bang on something (with you hand or a toy), he will copy you without missing a beat.
• He's working on finding his tongue.  This takes a lot of concentration and lots of silly faces and sounds from Mommy and Daddy, but he sometimes sticks his tongue out for us.
• He goes from sitting to his hands and knees SOOOO well, as if he's going to crawl, and then....SPLAT!  He falls to his belly.  He has made forward progress (with two crawls) a couple of times, but nothing consistent.  I'm honestly not really sure he will ever crawl.  I won't be surprised if he goes straight to walking. 
• He can pull himself up to standing on a person, the laundry basket, and in his bathtub.  (Nothing else is quite the right height, I don't suppose.)

Bentley hasn't had a doctor's visit since 7 months, so there's no updates there.  That is, unless he goes to the doctor tomorrow for the terrible cold he's fighting.  He's been sick since Friday, and he started running a fever yesterday, so we might head to the doctor tomorrow.  We'll see how he does tonight and in the morning.

I don't have a lot of pictures to post, but here's what we do have.  Now that I'm off work for the holidays, I'll try to be better about taking pictures and posting. 

 

After battling his cold and getting very little sleep, he still managed to be super cute and so sweet after waking up in the morning.

By the way...we have a new family member here are the Bowling residence.  You 'll hear more about him at a later date...his name is Eli.

As you can see, Eli is a little mischievous.  While he tends to get into things, he reminds us daily that he is the one with Santa Claus on speed dial, so we better be good!