The All Brick House: 8-month update

It's hard to believe that Jedidiah is 8 months old already. That formerly-tiny baby is getting so big!!! I'm sure in a few months I'll look back and think how little he still was at 8 months old, but right now he's the biggest I've ever seen him.

Jed at-a-glance:

-Jed is so happy! He smiles and laughs all the time, especially when it's time for him to go to sleep. He gets deliriously giggly right before bedtime and it is often difficult to put him down because all I want to do is play with him. He's happy most of the day (except when he's hungry, or is fighting naps, or teething, of course), but there's nothing quite like seeing him crack up into delirious fits of laughter just because I look at him.

-Jed eats anything we give him. As of my last count, he's tried over 30 different foods and 5 spices. He attacks the water cup vigorously, but I think it's mostly because he likes to gnaw on the edge of it. More water ends up soaking the bib, of course, than in his mouth.

-Jed has mastered crawling and moved on to cruising. Well, perhaps "mastered" is an exaggeration - on occasion he gets too excited about something and loses focus, tipping to the side instead of going forward. He always looks a little startled when this happens, and sometimes looks at us like, "hey, what just happened?" He's getting better and better every day at cruising around the furniture, though sometimes he gets himself stuck in uncomfortable places/positions and has to be rescued.

-Jed LOVES the cat. Few things make him smile more than seeing Sofie sitting across the room, doing absolutely NOTHING. He smiles and giggles at her, waits for a response, doesn't get one, then begins crawling towards her, pausing every few moments to see if she will play. She usually doesn't, and instead waits until he gets too close for comfort and then saunters away. On occasion she'll let him touch, but about the time he grabs her ear or sticks his finger in her eye she decides she's had enough fun.

-Speaking of the cat, she loves the laser pointer (but only for about 3 minutes at a time - then she gets bored). So does Jed, and he will chase it around the house until I get bored. He gets rather confused when he reaches the red dot but can't pick it up, or when it suddenly disappears altogether. Perhaps I'm a little bit mean for toying with him, but he is so cute crawling after the laser pointer like the cat (only much slower).

-We hope to see Jed's 2nd bottom tooth soon, as he has suddenly started waking up more than once each night crying hysterically. His first tooth came in without too much trauma, but this 2nd one seems to be making up for it. Either that, or Jed has decided he hates us and that we shouldn't sleep at night. Scott and I have a different opinion, but unfortunately for us our opinion doesn't matter in this case.