Kemper turns 8 months old

This is the month of blissfulness!!  Our sweet little peanut (not so peanut anymore) has turned into a dream of a sleeper and a wonderful eater and is always full of laughter (and screams as well).  It truly has been perhaps my favorite month so far in this little man's life, I think because his schedule both eating and sleeping is finally solid and predictable, and because he has turned into just this little snuggly, lovey, playful little being that he is so enjoyable to be around all the time. 

Sleeping:
WE ARE ALL FINALLY SLEEPING THROUGH THE NIGHT, EVERY NIGHT!!  Yes, all of us.  Mommy, Daddy, Peyton and Kemper all sleeping all night long.  Its fantastic.  And I think the best part about it is that we didn't have to do the hard core cry it out with Kemper.  He just naturally progressed into it on his own.  We did first cut out any eating in the middle of the night, but literally within a week or two of doing that, he was sleeping through the night.  He still goes down to bed between 7:30 and 8:00pm and he is up between 7:00 and 8:00am.  As for napping, he is still on a two nap per day schedule, the first one around 9:30 and the second around 2:00.  He still sleeps on his tummy in a sleep sac, with his white noise machine and pacifier (although he usually spits this out relatively soon after falling asleep).  His night bedtime routine is still bath, book, bottle, song and bed.  He is also gotten really good about putting himself to sleep vs. having to be asleep in our arms before being put in the crib. 

Eating:
John and I sort of had this epiphany this month about Kemper's eating when we went back and read Peyton's blog when she was around this age.  We realized that we were being much more exploratory with Peyton than we had been being with Kemper, so we ramped it up a bit this month with Kemper.  We hadn't been giving him any finger foods yet (besides puff's), so we tried that and Kemper immediately fell in love with finger foods.  Every part of it.  Eating them, grabbing them himself, feeding himself, etc.  Needless to say, his food list has grown tremendously this month, and we are feeding him all sorts of things now, like eggs, cheese, green beans, tofu cubes (although we have some suspicion he might be allergic to soy because of some really bad, painful gas he has one night after eating it and we haven't tried it again since), hot dog (much to my disagreement!  :) ), and fruit.  This month, we used the last of the frozen breast milk and he is now 100% on formula and is doing great with it.  He has 3, 8oz bottles per day and still prefers them warmed up.

Clothing:
Kemper is currently wearing 12 month clothing.

Teeth:
Kemp has 4 teeth currently (2 on top middle and 2 on bottom middle)

Milestones/Other interesting Kemperisms:

• Said his first "word" being "dada" on Halloween this year
• Able to "walk" around now in his walker
• Able to stand up holding onto a standing toy, or the ottoman
• Able to somewhat scoot around, but not crawling yet
• Working on some sign language with him such as "more" and "all done"
• For the past month or two, he has been very active with his hands.  He is always shaking them around, moving his fingers and rotating his fists around (looks like he is really excited, but he is doing it all the time, even when not excited).
• Loves his johnny jump up still
• Loves to sit on a blanket with his basket of toys and just play
• Loves his sister who is always making him laugh
• When you go to pick him up, he immediately snuggles into your chest and tucks his hands under his body (best feeling ever)
• Screaming very loud when he wants more food (hence the reason for attempting some sign language)
• Tried turkey for his first time on Thanksgiving!
• Getting more and more curls in his hair
• Spent his first night at Grandma and Grandpa's this month
• Has a little separation anxiety and does not like being left in a room alone