Eating: Shep pretty much just decided one day that he would start eating table food. Woo hoo! I thought he was going to be eating baby food forever, but he's proved me wrong. He will eat most everything that we eat so far. He seems to like meat the best, but he hasn't really turned away anything yet. We're having to deal more with the allergies now that he's eating table food, but it hasn't been too difficult. So far I've made some pasta with rice-based noodles (instead of wheat) that he loved and some wheat-free egg-free waffles from a gluten free bisquik mix. He didn't love those quite as much, but I think it was because he was more focused on the sugar-covered fruit topping. Meal time is much easier when you don't have to spoon feed a baby the entire time! Also, he is completely weaned now. Yay! The only downside has been that after tasting formula, he no longer wants any breast milk and I have a ton of it saved up in the freezer. Anyone know someone in need of about 200 oz of breast milk?? He is a stinker... Oh well.
Sleeping: He is generally sleeping great (although I hesitate to say that after a horrible night last night of being up for 3 hours!). Along with weaning came some difficulties at bedtime with falling asleep because he was no longer being nursed to sleep. But after we decided to bite the bullet and let him cry for a few nights, he is doing great at putting himself to sleep in his crib. We followed some of the tips in the sleep book by Richard Ferber, and they are pretty effective. He has also been sleeping from about 8-6 most nights without any prolonged wakenings.
Other milestones: He is getting some major teeth recently. He's getting the outside top teeth right now, so he's going to be a little snaggle-toothed for a while but I can already see the middle ones coming through too so it won't be long before he has 4 on the top.
Still no walking, but he is a cruising and crawling pro. He's not showing any signs of walking really soon, but who knows. With his increased mobility, he has been chasing Bea around the house even more. Bea does not appreciate that he now crawls under the table with her. Her only place of escape is under our bed. He is very sweet to her, though, and gives her lots of hugs and kisses, probably more than he gives me and Tim.
He hasn't really said any "real" words yet, but he does seem to be trying to talk some. If I tell him no repeatedly when he's doing something he shouldn't he will say na-na sometimes. Then he usually proceeds to do what he was doing... He says da-da all the time, but not just in reference to Tim. It is a very universal word at this point. He has also started saying something that begins with a "T" type sound. We think it is in reference to when he wants an object. He says it pretty reliably when he wants his cup. He has also learned the sign language signs for "more" and "all done". This has been very helpful for mealtimes. Recently, he has not been wanting to say all done when we want him to. Last night at Panera, he ate the grilled chicken from my salad for about 20 minutes after Tim and I were done. Hungry boy!
Well, that's about it for now. Here are just a few pictures. The first are to show his new-found love for table food. The second are to show that he almost always has his tongue sticking out now. I guess the new teeth feel weird to him. It's pretty cute. It also shows that I was having trouble getting any pictures of him because he kept crawling up to the camera and trying to take it from me!
