8 months old

Macen has been an active little boy. He isn't walking on his own yet but he is getting braver and braver as days go by. He can walk behind his larger toys and he cruises along the furniture pretty well. He is quite the side walker. He has started to let go of whatever he used to pull himself up and just stand on his own. He loves getting chased - I pretend I am getting him and he will crawl as fast as his little knees allow then he'll stop to see if I am still after him. He just recently started getting on all fours and rocking, he skipped that before crawling. He loves music and loud toys and does his version of sit down 'dancing' to them. His arms flail, his body rocks and one leg moves back and forth.

Macen has gotten better with eating solid foods (still on Stage 1's though) and absolutely loves squash. We took him out of the infant/toddler tub at the beginning of Dec. He was using the front section to pull himself to standing. He loves being able to crawl around in the big open tub and does occassionally stand but he is learning that is not okay. With some sleep training, he finally started sleeping thru the night right around the time James left for Iraq. Of course, our holiday travels has thrown all that out the window so we are back to sleep training again. Hopefully within a week or two, we'll both be getting more sleep.

Macen had a wonderful Christmas and got to see alot of family. He's having a blast playing with new toys. He also got to play in the snow for the first time and he enjoyed it. He posed for a few pictures and then took off crawling in it.