Eight Months

Our precious boy is eight months old now.  Can someone please slow down the clock?  I suppose cliche sayings are cliche for a reason, huh? I can't tell you how many people have said, "Enjoy every moment, it goes by so fast."  It's so true, isn't it? 

John Hudson is moving and shaking these days! He's still not officially crawling, but he gets around just fine.  He barrel rolls and does his own variation of army crawling to go wherever he pleases.  He does seem to be frustrated at times by not being able to move quickly, especially as he's watching his friends at Mommy & Me learn to crawl. But this mommy is in no hurry for him to become fully mobile :)

Rolling under the table!

John Hudson is a happy little fellow most days.  Especially when he has lots of things to entertain him (like at Mommy&Me).  He has started crying sometimes when I leave the room or if I leave give him over to someone else, but nothing too terrible.  I pray that he can pass through the separation anxiety stage easily.  We love our time together, but I also want him to love spending time with other people. When I was pregnant, many people told me that mothers and sons have a special bond.  Its the truth.  I love this little guy from a deep, deep place in my heart. What a blessing it is to be his mommy!

Speaking of mommys, John Hudson and I are still enjoying our mornings at Mommy&Me Family Literacy.  While it is a challenge to be up and out by 8am every morning and sitting in 45 minutes of traffic every day is not so fun, it is such a blessing to have a job where I can bring my baby to work! John Hudson does so wonderful there.  He usually takes his morning nap and plays well with the other kiddos.  It is really fun to watch him interact with them.  I am so thankful that John's first exposure to the world is in a safe setting where I'm with him! I am even more thankful that his first friends are from all over the world. We named him Hudson because we desire for him to have a heart for the nations like our hero Hudson Taylor.  What better way to start?

Our friends from Congo and Russia!

 So a big milestone happened this month.  John Hudson's first haircut.  It broke my heart, but it was time. He was mistaken for a girl too many times to count.  Michael was the brave one who did the cutting.  We just snipped the ends off of the back so the top is still long.  I must say, he is a handsome little fellow!

 

 We were very busy this month, enjoying many weddings and wedding showers! We were able to travel down to Waycross for Kelli's wedding shower.  It was so fun to celebrate with Cory and Kelli and to show off our baby boy to our friends who have never met him before.   And of course it was a joy to stay at Grammie and Dado's house!

 

John Hudson's Doggie Uncle, Riley

At Cory and Kelli's beautiful wedding

John Hudson has also started babbling a lot.  He is constantly saying, "Bah bah bah bah bah bah".  Quite possibly the cutest thing ever! John's top two teeth finally poked through this month.  While we're waiting for them to come in completely, we're still enjoying this precious two-toothed smile!

Helping mommy with laundry

We went to our 8 month check up with Dr. Abrams.  Our little guy is 19lbs and healthy as can be.  He is in the 95 percentile in length and 50 percentile in weight. He still loves his mommy milk and nurses about every three hours during the day and twice at night (although the past two nights he has only nursed once, yay!).  John's favorite foods are sweet potato, butternut squash, chicken, cantaloupe, and beef liver believe it or not.  He is a good little eater.

It is getting increasingly hard to get a good monthly photo of him.  This one turned out okay...

But then he tries to crawl away...

Or eat his monkey...

Or lay down...

We are so blessed to spend every day with our precious boy.  Our greatest prayers is that John Hudson will love Jesus with all his heart, mind, soul, and strength and that he will love his neighbor as himself.  May our home be a model of constance grace, repentance, and forgiveness.

Its getting cold outside!