Eight Months!

Asher is eight months old. It's hard to get a sharp photo of him because he's so determined to be moving All The Time. He has four teeth - the two bottom ones you can see in the photo above, and two top ones which are either side of the front two. He's pretty darn good at using them as well. And I don't just mean on his food. When he gets bored (or is teething, or hungry) he likes to stuff whichever part of me or Noah is closest into his mouth and bite. It hurts!

As you can see, he's a bit intimidating at times.

He loves his food. The messier the better. He's starting to learn to pick up small objects (like peas) - he kind of does a pincer movement with his thumb and his forefinger, but the rest of his hand likes to get involved as well. He can eat individual rice crispies and pieces of sweetcorn - but he really prefers them from a spoon (I load them on, usually with the aid of something sticky like yoghurt, and Asher takes it from there).

This is Asher's play corner in the lounge. He'll play happily by himself for a few minutes - although now that he's getting more mobile he tends to escape, wriggling across the floor towards the cat, or towards any power cables that Noah and I have failed to put out of sight. At the moment Ash really enjoys playing peekaboo - he does a really cute kind of monosyllabic giggle at each peep. I *think* he's starting to play it himself too because a couple of times he's put a blanket over his face then whipped it away quickly and grinned. But that might just be coincidence.

Asher is learning a 'proper' crawl...

... but wriggling is so much quicker when you spot someone's discarded apple juice carton on the grass and want to get to it before Daddy notices.

Of course there's always the grass itself to munch on. Delicious.

Mummy's shiny camera looks tasty too.

Asher loves to giggle:

He loves to wriggle and roll around:

He really really likes to walk around whilst we hold his hands (and he's getting pretty good at it). If possible he wants to be standing up, and he's starting to pull himself up on the coffee table and his highchair:

About to have a go at standing up, Asher spots the cat across the room and is torn between two favourite activities.

He enjoys going on the swings at the park (although the slide isn't quite such a hit). But his favourite activity there is undoubtedly watching the other children in the playground. He'll watch them for absolutely ages.

Asher enjoys most of the books we read to him regularly (when he isn't trying to chew on them). He seems to enjoy being tickled (does anyone *actually* enjoy being tickled? He certainly laughs a lot). Bath times are still a favourite and he frequently scares me by insisting on lying on his tummy in the water, which usually ends in him swallowing some in a scary gulpy way. But if I had to pick a defining characteristic at the moment, it would be his constant need to be mobile. I only really get cuddles when he's asleep... awake, he's a ball of muscle with no sense of fear and buckets of determination. Oh, and the cutest smile you ever did see.