Milestones and Maddox'isms

Today Beckham turns 8 months old.

Over the past month, he has mastered a few new things.
His pulling up has now turned into full fledged cruising.
Along the couches...
from the couch to a toy...
And today, down the hallway-- holding on to the wall.

He can now walk behind push toys...
and occasionally will let go all together for a second or two!!

He loves to sit on his knees...
and is a fast little crawler.

[this all still blows my mind, since Maddox was just learning to army crawl at this point!]

In the last few days he has cut his 2 bottom teeth, let go of the island and took a step toward me and learned the B sound.

I am not sure if it is just the sound... or short for Bubba... binky... bite-bite... bye, bye... or booby!!

I work daily with "momma" and "daddy"-- but no words have arrived yet.
Just babbles and bubbles, so far.  (and this B business)

He loves to eat.  Anything and everything!!  (and I am far less crazy this go around with him trying things; even not-so-healthy things)

I still feed him baby foods (out of convenience) but he would rather pick up his food and feed himself. So at home I steam him veggies and let him make a mess!

He is such a happy baby, and honestly rarely cries.
We really lucked out... because just like Maddox, people constantly ask, "is he always this happy?"

Unlike Maddox, however, he is a thinker.
I don't think he is as outgoing as Maddox was because he is always watching everyone and soaking it all in. 
He still smiles constantly... you just may have to work for it a bit!

He adores his momma, and loves to shower me with kisses.
{however, he is a bit stingy with them to the rest of the world.}

He likes to be layed in his bed when he is tired, with his binky in his mouth, and snuggy over his face, and left alone.
He still takes about 3 naps a day.
And goes down for bed at night around 10:30... wakes to feed around 4:00... and then goes right back to sleep until 8:00ish.
[although last night he slept until 9:00am!!]
When he is ready to get up, he takes his binky out of his mouth, pulls up in his crib, and chunks the binky out of the bed.
[this is really the only time he will take a binky]

He is learning to climb.
[as I found him today, standing up in his little baby-rocker!]

Again, I feel awkward leaving Maddox out...
but at 3, they just don't change a lot month to month.

One new milestone that he has learned, is that he can now pick out letter sounds within the word and not just the start.
Like, "momma, staple has a P in it.  sstaPle... hear it?"

Otherwise, Maddox is just funny.
Sometimes, hysterical!

Here are a few of his Maddox'isms from the last few weeks or so:

**He comes in with toys tucked all over him, a baseball bat down the back of his underwear, things under each arm and a bowl on his head and says, "everyones going to pay attention to me in this suit, I am fully equipped."

**When frustrated recently, he said, "may I have a word with you?"

**Instead of saying he wanted another one, he said, "I would like one as well."

**He thumps my neck and calls it "get'cha neck meat!"  --I hate it.

**We had this conversation the other night and it got Lance and I both tickled!
"What is my feet, momma?"
"What is your sweet?"
"No, my feet!"
"I don't know what you are asking me, son."
"Like three or five, or what?  It is just how you say 'how tall' in Spanish."
After laughing for a minute, Lance said, "No buddy, you're still speaking English."
And he replied, "English?  I've never heard of it."

**I have been writing his conversations in the notes section of my phone, so that I can remember them but I seriously only remember to jot down about a tenth of the hilariousness.  Or in this case, the embarrassment.
"I am so freak'n'tired."  (all one word, just like his momma says it.  oops.)  or tonight, when he repeated his daddy, "why the hell didn't daddy's show record?"  (bigger oops.)

**Sometimes he tries to talk so old... but he's just not.  "Being great means being really good at something... like caring... or being able to carry 4 things at once."

**And because he tries so hard to be big, I forget and talk to him even bigger sometimes... which always ends up a lost cause:
"Baby, did you know that there are some kiddos that don't get toys at all for Christmas?"
"Yep.  Because they're bad, right momma?"
"No buddy, some kids are not as fortunate as others, meaning that they don't have any money for Christmas presents.  Would you like to buy these kids a present?"
"Yes I would, but they really should save their moneys better."

**"I'm sick of being a super hero, I just want to go back to being your granddaughter."

**Randomly he offers advice, "Sometimes you've just got to breave in and breave out."

**He gets frustrated with me often, "Momma?  Mommmma?  Momma, are you wistening to me?  Unfortunatewy, this is very important."

**But he loves me so much too.  He constantly tells us that he loves us and is the kissing-est little thing.  He and Lance are truly best friends right now but he will not admit to that in front of me.  He says, "We're all best friends.  We're a familwy."

**"If I tell you that I love you with all of my heart... but you say you don't... then that changes my heart, and it is berry breakable mom."
-I have never told him that he doesn't love me and have no idea where this came from?!

**The other night while I was taking call, I had asked him to be quiet while I was on the phone with a patient.  Once off the phone, it stayed quiet for a minute... until he broke the silence, "you want to talk about the freckle on my weenie?"

**He clears his throat and says "excuse me..." when he wants our attention.  [yay for changing 'hey' to 'excuse me'.. not so much for the subtle coughing before hand.]

**He isn't always great for my self esteem, like this conversation...
"momma, sometimes I think you wook like a princess." 
"Awe, that's very sweet buddy."
"But not today.  Today your hair wooks awful."

**and with my job...
"Momma, you're a good nurse at the doctor's office."
"Thank you baby."
"Yeah, but you're not a very good nurse at home."
"What?!  Why do you say that?"
"Because Beckham cried a wot today.  It takes a good nurse to keep him happy."

**He asked me yesterday if I knew what today was... when I asked what (thinking it was going to be a conversation about Christmas) he said, "fall!  See how all of the trees have wost their feathers?!"

**Yesterday he asked Lance where he was going...  "your neighborhood Braums or Japan?"

**He typically is very sweet to Beckham but since he can't throw him off of him, he complains a lot about Beckham crawling all over him.  I told him to stop whining, that Beckham was just trying to play and doesn't mean to hurt him and he respond (rather pissy-like) "well... it feels wike there's a thorn in his belly button... you should wet him crawl on you!"

**Finally, his favorite show right now (besides any Nick Jr show or the movie, Gnomeo and Juliet)  is this military show on the History channel that Lance watches called Bomb Patrol and his favorite soldier's name is Ricky Thibeault.  The show follows a specialized troop who's job is to lead the convoy and search and deactivate IEDs with robots.  Definitely too mature for Maddox but he begs to watch it and it isn't a shoot and kill type show.... so he and Lance record it and watch it together.
However, the other night, Maddox fell asleep on the couch with Lance during an episode.  While sleeping, he started gagging and coughing and holding his chest and I panicked and asked him what was wrong.  I could tell he was a bit disoriented so I asked him again if anything hurt as he still held his chest.  He calmly replied, "Its my froat.  I think I swallowed a pressure plate."
*Maybe* he has watched a little too much Bomb Patrol.  *Maybe*, as in, he chose a canteen to attach to his hip with a carabiner from the army surplus store today, on his boys day with Daddy, rather than a toy.  
In the words of Wonder Pets, This.  Is. Serwious.