5.12.2015

Marcus is 8 Months

I can't believe we are 4 short months away from my littlest's first birthday.  Summers are usually busy for us, we pack them with fun activities and we more often than not have stuff happening on the weekends.  September and fall always seem to come way too fast, and with that I feel like this first birthday will be here before I'm fully ready for it.

At 8 months Marcus is "doing" so much.  Much like his brother he has impeccable motor skills, and sometimes I feel like he's always trying to catch up to his brother.  Here are some highlights of Marcus.


Eating about everything in sight!  We introduced finger food and baby led weaning a lot earlier than we did with Lucas.  We start off with purees around 4 months but with Lucas he started finger food at closer to 8 months.  Well Marcus would be watching his brother at meal times like a hawk and found that his purees were just not measuring up.  So we introduced finger food just before 7 months and it was a huge game changer.  He still eats "meals" in puree form but super chunky already, which is how he prefers it, but at almost every meal he has to have something to grab and munch on as well.  He prefers bananas in chunks, don't even think about mashing them up.  Loves chicken.  His favourite meal right now is pasta and meat sauce (he's obviously Italian and heading in the same direction as his brother with his love for pasta).  Much like Lucas he prefers fruit over veggies, but I've gained a little more knowledge second time around and have sneaked in lots of veggies in his meals and kid is none the wiser.  His fave veggie I would say is corn, add that to any meal and he is a happy camper.  We use Baby Gourmet baby cereals and they are so much better than the generic Heinz brand in my opinion, and Marcus still eats oatmeal on most mornings, while at this point Lucas wouldn't even look at it.  New foods he's tried this month were pancakes, cantaloupe, beef, toast, yogurt, and tomatoes (cooked in rice).  So far nothing he didn't like. 

He eats three meals a day, with about 6 bottles in between.  Marcus has never been a lover of formula, and it has been a constant struggle to get him to have bottles, I recently found that instead of insisting he ingest the required 6 ounces at one feeding, that if I break them up during the day he is happier, and ends up drinking the amount he should by the end of the day.  Its not ideal, but it works for us.

Sleep has been such a learning curve for us, and made me realize how good we had with Lucas.  Big brother was sleeping through the night, from 8:30 to about 5:30-6am starting at 6 months.  Marcus only started sleeping solidly through the night this past week.  He was a much better napper than Lucas was, but he was still insisting on waking up at least twice a night, and not even for a bottle.  We did everything the same as we did the first time around, but we realized that each kid is different and takes their own time to adapt to new situations.  Marcus was and continues to put himself to sleep for naps and at bedtime with no problem, but until this week he would wake up at around 1am without fail and wail on and off for sometimes 2 hours.  Of course during this time Lucas was cutting his last molar and was up at sometimes 4:30 so we were one tired household for 2 months.  A big problem we were having was that he was resisting the bedtime bottle, and I really feel that this was making him wake up, once we established a routine that worked for him (he gets half a bottle after bath, and then finishes it before bed to total of 8 ounces) it was a huge game changer.  He started waking up later and later, and now he sleeps until 5:30 sometimes 6:15.  I can't complain. 

He naps twice a day; a short 45 minutes in the morning then usually 2-2 1/2 in the afternoon.  I will wake him at his morning nap to ensure that he has his longer nap in the afternoon while his brother is sleeping as well.  He's gotten so used to it that he usually wakes up before I head in there. 

Besides his sleeping problem the last month, he is the easiest baby!  My kids are pretty chill for the most part, and pretty easy to keep happy.  He loves his brother, the sweet special smile he bestows on him when they see each other in the morning is honestly the best sight a mom could witness. He loves to be sung to,  only likes to be read to before and after naps, unless you're reading one of his favourites then he's game at any time of the day.  Fave book is Baby Beluga and Love you Forever.

He loves his mommy the best.  He loves his daddy too. 

He has started following Lucas around. Everywhere. Big Brother usually plays around for the chasing but sometimes you can tell that Lucas is already finding him the annoying little brother.

Crawling.  Standing.  Crawling.  Standing.

I honestly love this stage, even if its a little exhausting making sure he isn't getting into anything he shouldn't; and avoiding bumps and bruises cause he insists on using everything to pull up on. 

He started saying Mama about a month ago and this week added Bubba (which is what we call Lucas).

He loves blocks.  Trying to grab his brothers cars.  Still loving the jumper but only for short periods of time.  Love/hate relationship with the exersaucer, cause he likes the toys around it, but hates being restricted to one area.  Is putting everything in his mouth due to teething gums.


We have 4 teeth already, and I'm pretty sure I spy 2 more coming our way. Bath time is his jam!  We started bathing him with Lucas as soon as he was able to sit up and he loves moving around in the water. 

We went swimming for the first time this month and it was a big hit.  I have another bubble guppie on my hands. 


He is super friendly.  If you show him any attention or smile his way, he will reward you with the biggest smile back.  He's ticklish on his ribs and feet.  Will laugh the hardest if daddy makes quacking sounds.  And has taken an interest lately in his brothers cartoons.


Overall its been a blast so far, and I can't remember what it was like without him.

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