8 Months

Bradley is 8 months now.

We have been on lots of trips lately! We went to Dawn's house in WV for Christmas, where we also saw Xon's dad and Xon's grandparents. We got some great pictures of the four generations!









We also went to northern OH to see Granny's sister, Doyne. We had tea and cake at the nursing home to celebrate her birthday. My cousins Becky and Vanessa were there, too.



Then we went back to Dawn's to help out with Baby Lydia's birth. I didn't know how I was going to be able to be there for Dawn's labor and take care of Bradley too, but God bless Bradley! He was an angel and stayed in the labor room the whole time. He was quiet and took naps when he wanted, and helped his Auntie Dawn get through the contractions. He watched her very closely sometimes and groaned when she groaned. Now I have a niece, and we keep calling her "he" because we're used to having boys, and she looks just like Alex did at this age. She was born at 5:40 p.m. on Saturday, 1/19/08, and she was 19 inches long and 7 lbs., 11 oz. She is a good eater so far and will sleep on her back in her bassinet like a good girl!





Bradley was so giggly on 12/30/07. I think he was just sooooo glad to be out of the car. He acted like he was in love with mama! He acts like he wants to talk and makes LOTS of sounds now. He really likes the "th" and "s" sounds lately. He also likes mamamamamama, dadadadadadada, buhbuhbuhbuhbuhbuh, and Mom swears he said "Katie" and "Yaya." ;-) He is extremely verbal lately and laughs really loud and expects to be included in all conversations. He is a good little snuggler, too. Such an excellent age!

On 12/22/07 he started taking steps when you hold his hands like handlebars. Then he started pulling himself up to a standing position on his own (constantly!), and now he can take a few steps, too, if he has things to hold onto around the room. He likes to try to go one-handed and sometimes no hands and has gotten a few bumps on the head lately because of that. Yay for progress!

This is what Bradley looked like when I left the office for a few seconds.

This is what he looked like when I came back. After that, I knew I better keep an eye on him!

He changed his nap schedule when we were at Dawn's for Lydia's birth. He now takes 2 naps a day. One is long (1 1/2 - 2 hours), and one is short (1/2 hour). He stays awake for 3 hours at a stretch until the evening, when he just stays awake until bed time. We try to take a bath at 7:00 and go to bed anywhere between 8:00 and 9:00. You can tell he's starting to really like routine.

He refused his pacifier at Dawn's house and hasn't used it since. I suppose this is good in the long run, but I liked it b/c it worked. :-)

He has 6 teeth (3 on top and 3 on bottom), and one more on top that is just getting ready to break through. I didn't even realize the 3rd one on the bottom was coming. It was just there all of the sudden. Every time I get grumpy because he's not sleeping well at night, he suddenly has a new tooth, and I realize there was a reason for all that restlessness. I do remember saying I'd rather just get all the teeth done in the first year.......... :-)

When we went to visit Aunt Joyce, Tammy got Bradley to wave. He would wave and then look at his hand like he didn't know how he was doing it. It was so cute. I haven't been able to get him to do it since.

Watching Dada play the guitar at Aunt Joyce's house

We have been playing various games lately. I try to get him to roll a ball back to me. I hide something under a blanket and he finds it. I build a tower of blocks, and he knocks them down. He figured out how to jump in the jumpy seat. I'm trying to teach him how to blow a kiss. He thinks it's funny.

A new church called Xon to be their pastor, and things are going really smoothly as they get all the paperwork, etc., done. They started with Bible study for a few weeks and have now started actual services and are inviting people. It is a good group of people, and the opportunity seemed to have come out of the clear blue sky. Xon is glad to finally be doing what he has always wanted to do.

He is making wonderful progress on his dissertation (finally!) and hopes to graduate by May.

We got a 4th offer on our house and are hoping to close Feb. 15th. They did the inspection, and that turned out fine, so here's hopin'.... I will miss having that house, but I will also be happy to have those loose ends tied up. We have a new realtor who is absolutely wonderful, and it has been great to work with him.

We're still not settled here yet, but things seem to be moving in the right direction, so we'll just keep plugging away!