Less than one month until Joshua is a year old! Time has sure flown by. It's amazing to me how quickly he has gone from being a tiny little infant who couldn't even hold his own head up to the little boy he is now. He is all over the place; he isn't still for a moment! He's pulling himself up on everyone and everything, he's a super fast crawler, he walks holding onto furniture and walls, he loves climbing stairs, he's just super active. 
He really loves the water. He goes in the kiddie pool at daycare and we try to get him in the one we have at home as often as possible. We're on a wait list for swim class. 
He's also eating a lot more now - quantity and variety! He eats beans and rice at mexican restaurants and edamame when we go for sushi. I try to make a few meals each week that we can all eat. This past week he ate chicken cacciatore (with brown rice pasta instead of spaghetti since he's still on a wheat-free diet). I can't say he was the biggest fan, but he did eat some.
We went to the doctorMonday for a follow up about the asthma. He weighed in at a healthy 23 lbs, 5 oz. We've been doing his maintenance medicine twice a day and have virtually stopped having to give him the rescue medicine. We're now going to try lowering his medicine to once a day. We're hoping that in the next few months, we can stop the breathing treatments all together! Boy, would that be nice.
Also, he now has 5 teeth!
He's also eating a lot more now - quantity and variety! He eats beans and rice at mexican restaurants and edamame when we go for sushi. I try to make a few meals each week that we can all eat. This past week he ate chicken cacciatore (with brown rice pasta instead of spaghetti since he's still on a wheat-free diet). I can't say he was the biggest fan, but he did eat some.We went to the doctorMonday for a follow up about the asthma. He weighed in at a healthy 23 lbs, 5 oz. We've been doing his maintenance medicine twice a day and have virtually stopped having to give him the rescue medicine. We're now going to try lowering his medicine to once a day. We're hoping that in the next few months, we can stop the breathing treatments all together! Boy, would that be nice.
Also, he now has 5 teeth!
On May 18, we had his 9 month checkup at which he weighed 22lbs, 10oz and was 29 inches long. Also at that appointment, we decided to start him on a daily maintenance medicine for asthma since he's been coughing and junky sounding since February.
This past week we think his medicine has finally kicked in and is allowing him to sleep better. He even went through the night a couple times! Most of the time, though, he's up once or twice. We sure are hoping that these sleep issues are coming to an end!
He fell asleep in his chair one night while I was making dinner. I took some pictures because I couldn't believe it. This baby doesn't ever want to sleep yet he fell asleep sitting up!
Speaking of sleep, he's doing slightly better than last month. Some nights he wakes up once, other nights, like last night, we wakes up 4 times. There is no consistency. I have been going to bed at 9:30 since I don't ever know how the night is going to go. When I go into his room in the night I find that he has rolled over onto his tummy and is up on his knees. I'm not sure why he's crying though since he's not stuck in that position.
He now has two teeth. The first one, as you know, came through on April 18th and the second one followed on the 22nd. No others have come through yet. I took a picture on the 22nd - it's kind of blurry but you can sort of see his teeth.
He so wants to be like us. He loves to eat food and tries to feed himself. He also likes to drink from cups though, as you can see from the wet shirt in the picture, he hasn't yet mastered it. 
He has started to put his arms out when he wants to be picked up. He also waves sometimes though it's not really directed at anyone.
Then we spent the afternoon outside. We got him a little pool and he played in it two afternoons. He seemed to enjoy it. He loves the water. 
And here are a few more pictures just because.
So, now that Joshua is 8 months old, what's new with him, you ask. He has turned back into a terrible sleeper. On his worst night, he was awake 7 times. The past couple nights haven't been as bad with him only waking twice. The doctor suggested taking his pacifier away since he's using it to soothe himself to sleep and when he wakes and it's no longer in his mouth, he can't get himself back to sleep. Pretty obvious suggestion, but we haven't done it yet since we know we won't be getting any sleep that night and probably for the following couple of nights.
By Feb 23 he had basically recovered and had his 6 month appointment at which he weighed in at 19 lbs, 6 ozs and was 27 inches long. That put him in the 76th percentile in weight and 64th percentile in length. We got the go ahead to start foods with a few precautions: we are to wait a few days between starting new foods in case of a reaction and we are to avoid allergenic foods including berries, wheat and nuts. That evening Joshua had sweet potatoes and loved them! Since then he's had bananas, prunes (bananas weren't so great on his system!), peas, pears, and apples. His favorite is still sweet potatoes.
On March 6th he had his first airplane ride. We went to Las Vegas for Lisa's wedding. He did perfect on the flight. That night though he decided to scream his head off. With only a couple short breaks, he screamed from 10 pm until 5 am. He finally passed out. I had to get up 2 hours later for the wedding which left me feeling like a zombie. Saturday night he did much better and only screamed for an hour. He woke up multiple times but at least he went back to sleep. To make up for it, on Sunday night, back in his own bed, he slept for 12+ hours. We don't know what the problem was but don't plan on returning to Vegas any time soon!
