I’m back again with another Bradley update. Yay or nay? I personally love writing these posts. It lets me look back on the past month and how much I absolutely adore this little boy.
Sorry this post is a little late, but finding time to sit down on the computer these days is very challenging!
(This is Bradley’s favorite pose, he probably does it about 100x a day and I love it! He flashes his cute little smile and looks over his shoulder to see where we are)
Okay, so this past month has been REALLY good. We have been having so much fun watching Bradley explore the world and enjoy seeing him interact with Ava.
Besides having a small cold for a couple days, Bradley has been healthy and happy.We have been having a blast watching him crawl all over the place. He has so much determination, you can see it written all over his face. I purposely place toys on the floor to see his reactions.
This phase of babyhood is really a joy because everything is new Bradley. I find it easy to entertain him and it’s so easy to get him excited. You can literally hand him a spatula and his eyes will light up. It buys me about 20 minutes.
BRADLEY’S 8 MONTH UPDATE
We don’t head to the doctor for a check up until he’s 9 months but we did put Bradley on the scale for our own curiosity.
WEIGHT 23.5 lbs
LENGTH 30 inches
Last time we were at the doctor he was 98% for almost everything. I am assuming now that he’s crawling and more mobile he might not gain as much weight as he did before.
He is currently in 12-18 month clothing. It’s so crazy to me that he’s outgrowing 12 month clothes but he is large so it makes sense.
EAT
Bradley is a fantastic eater. He usually lets you know he is hungry by making some fussy noises, he doesn’t usually scream for food but he lets you know. Bradley has 3 meals a day plus 4-5 bottles.
He loves sweet potatoes, peas, green beans, avocado, butternut squash, apples, bananas, strawberries, blueberries, oatmeal, rice cereal. He doesn’t like peaches and so far that’s the only food he won’t eat! We are slowly expanding his foods which is always fun. Ava loves checking out his funny faces to any new foods he eats.
He loves eating at restaurants and is so well behaved!!
While Bradley is a great eater and doesn’t usually leave any leftovers we have noticed that when he wants to take a bottle he can’t seem to settle down, so I find myself holding his hand or singing to him while he drinks and he seems to calm down. I basically think he fears that he is missing out on playtime with Ava!!
SLEEP
I am writing about this and I hope I don’t jinx anything in the meantime but sleep the past few weeks has been great. Sure there are the occasional wake ups but for the most part we are all sleeping more soundly.
Bradley is usually asleep anytime between 7-8pm and will sleep until 6/630am. This works great for our schedule right now. We did travel to Rhode Island this past weekend so his schedule was a bit off but he seems to have caught up!!!
Bradley is napping 2-3 times a day.His one nap that is pretty consistent is his morning nap which is usually at 9:15am. Sometimes its an hour and sometimes 2 hours! When Ava is home from school it seems to be more difficult to get him to sleep but his second nap is usually around 1:30-2pm and again can range from 30-90 minutes. If his second nap is short he will definitely take a short 3rd cat nap before bed.
I don’t mind his afternoon schedule being a little all over the place because it gives us the flexibility to run errands, go outside, go for walks, etc.
PLAY
I love talking about playtime because it just keeps getting better each month. Bradley is on the move and you can see in his eyes he wants to explore and touch everything. We are pretty much baby proofed but I have run into a couple things that I realized we needed to fix. We had a floor lamp that he almost pulled over so that got moved to the basement and he recently tried to pull the monitor cord out of the wall so I quickly changed that spot!!
Bradley really enjoys playing with Ava or near her. If she’s not in the same room he needs to find her and see what she’s doing. He loves putting any and all toys in his mouth and loves pulling bins of the shelf and taking toys out. Ava was a little more agile at this age then Bradley but boy is he strong. I don’t remember Ava being able to pull bins out on her own at 8 months and his grip is so strong I swear he could swing a baseball bat already.
I can already see him trying to pull himself up on things so I am guessing that might be his new trick at 9 months!!
When we are out and about, Bradley loves to flash a smile at anyone he meets, I think he is going to be outgoing and social as he gets older. I know I have talked about his first word before which was dada but now I’m pretty sure he can say hi. I don’t think he knows what it means but he babbles hi dada dada dada. We are also getting some babas too. When I say baba and show him his bottle he kicks his legs and smiles, my boy loves his food!!!
Of course MAMA isn’t one of the first words, but I know I will be super happy when that word comes out of his mouth. I say it to him all the time so he knows its me right?
As I look back on this past month I couldn’t be happier with the relationship that is developing between Bradley & Ava. I honestly believe that the best gift I could have ever given Ava was a brother. She has matured so much this past 8 months.
She is my assistant during diaper changes, she shares all her toys, she makes him laugh with her crazy dance moves and peek a boo tricks. She literally makes him smile so easy, she has a natural gift!
Of course i have highlighted all the good stuff in this post, but there were several days this past month I wanted to pull my hair out. Kids screaming, kids not napping, kids not listening, kids torturing mama…I have gotten better at walking away, taking a deep breathe and then having a glass of wine with Marc when he gets home