4th of July and 8 months

We were having people over on the 4th: Uncle Jeremy, Jen, Steve, and Julie Lawatsch, and Aaron Simpson and Erin Soon-to-be-Simpson. Your Uncle Jeremy came up the day before on Saturday. You weren't sure of him at first but you warmed up to him after a while. For a half hour before going to bed you crawled between me and him on the couch. You also took his hand and dropped it repeatedly just to see what would happen. You were so happy on Sunday, the 4th. You sat with Jen and watched Julie blow bubbles. You watched Julie play with some of your toys. It's really interesting to watch you learn by observing other people. You have now figured out how to play differently with your ball popper from watching Julie. You were pretty hilarious during dinner too. We gave you some freeze-dried yogurt drops to keep you occupied during dinner. You're pretty good now at getting them in your mouth. Then you just starting "talking".

You aren't speaking words yet. You sound more like Tim Allen with all your grunts and coos. You have intonation, just no words. You do have some sounds that sound like "I don't know" and "mama" (that one is usually just when you're crying). You'll have conversations too. You're pretty polite about waiting until we're done talking.

You had apples for the first time yesterday and they seem to agree with you. Your cousin Spencer had a tough time with them so we weren't sure what would happen. You also like cantaloupe and yogurt. You're able to chew food pretty well now too. We don't have to mash the bananas or avocado as much. It was hard to get you to feed yourself cantaloupe pieces or banana pieces because we had to make them small enough you didn't choke but large enough so you could pick them up. That was too difficult so we got you some mesh bags with handles that we put food in and you can feed yourself. It's really nice to be able to sit and eat my meal while it's hot!