EATING: Joel takes 4 bottles a day...each are about 6 ounces. This month, he's learned how to hold the bottle himself. Sometimes I will let him sit alone and have his bottle, but most of the time I just can't pass up the chance to sit and snuggle with him on the couch while he's taking it. He's my last, so the rules about pushing independence have to bend just a bit! He's still eating mostly baby food. He definitely prefers fruits over veggies, but we're still doing an equal amount of each during the day. He's getting okay with table food, but seems to have some issues when the texture is odd. He's also realized that he can throw things on the floor from his high chair. Chesney seems to really be appreciative of this latest discovery!
SLEEPING: His sleeping schedule is still fantastic! He goes down around 7:30 or 8 at night and sleeps until 7:30 or 8 in the morning. He takes his first nap around 9:30 and his second nap around 1:30. His naps vary from a little over an hour to 2+ hours in length. There have been times over the past month when he has woken during the night and started "talking", but he has never gotten to the point of crying and needing us to come in. Maybe we have another sleep talker (Caleb does the same thing at times).
MILESTONES: Joel is a big mover now and gets all over the place by crawling (not the army crawl anymore). He's started to realize that there is freedom beyond the confines of his "baby jail". Most of the time he cries the instant you put him into his big caged area. When he does get freedom, he is into everything! He's even figured out how to climb up the stairs (with very close supervision, of course). A few times, he's experimented with standing by himself. He doesn't seem to realize that he's doing it though. The only other big milestone from the past month is that Joel now has 2 teeth! He was quite crabby while they were coming in, but that could also be because he was fighting a nasty cold at the time.
