8 month milestones

A few days before turning 8 months old

Mastered Skills (Most children can do)
Says "dada" and "mama" to both parents (isn't specific)
Logan isn't saying anything so clearly yet, but he is definitely making lots of noise and will repeat certain sounds.
Begins to crawl
Yes, while we were on vacation, Logan officially moved from creeping on his tummy to crawling on all fours.
Passes object from hand to hand
Yes, I guess he does this, but I didn't really play much attention to it.  He will move a spoon from one hand to another, so I will say it counts!

Emerging Skills (Half of children can do)
Stands while holding onto something
Yes, he loves to stand up.  At daycare, he stands, holding onto the baby swing that Raylene hangs out in and "talks" to his girlfriend.
Crawls well
I wouldn't say well just yet, but he's all over the place and getting faster everyday.
Points at objects
I haven't really noticed this yet.

Advanced Skills (A few children can do)
Pulls self to standing position, cruises around furniture while holding on
Logan will pull to a standing position as of this weekend, but isn't quite cruising yet.  I have a feeling its coming soon.
Picks things up with thumb-finger "pincer" grasp
Yes, he loves to eat!  Baby puffies are his main non-pureed food right now, but he picked up and tried some macaroni and cheese a few days ago and was in heaven!
Indicates wants with gestures
Again, I haven't really noticed this yet.  He will grab for his bottle when he sees it though, so maybe that counts.

Oh, Potty Training

The potty training saga is ongoing at our house.  This has by far been the most challenging part of my parenting journey to date.  I suppose that means that I've been fairly lucky with a laid back kid, who listens relatively well and is a usually a people pleaser.

James is getting better and better with using the potty all the time.  He still puts a fight about it most of the time, but if you tell him to go upstairs and use the potty, he will.  Now when he has an accident he responds, "But I didn't mean to," which is actually pretty cute, even though it means that I'm cleaning up wet undies!  Going to underwear all day, regardless of accidents, has really helped.  He is grumpy when his pants are wet, so he is more likely to actually hold it.  Obviously, he gets a dry pair, but when he's at daycare, that can take a minute or so.  He will still very rarely tell you that he has to potty, but if he goes every 30 to 45 minutes, he's been very successful in his big boy underwear.  I am hoping this trend continues, although he does have days where he just has no interest (like last Thursday when he went through 5 pairs of underwear at daycare).

I should also mention that little boy underwear are really cute?  He just looks like such a big kid, running around in his cartoon character underoos.  My baby is growing up.

James in his Despicable Me undies

Vacation

After a bit of a hiatus, here I am!  We went on a wonderful vacation to North Topsail Beach, NC last week and it was a fabulous break from work and daily life.  The four of us rented a house right on the beach and had a great time.  James and Logan ended up loving the beach, while Mac and I are still more reserved about it.  While I was a beach bum kind of baby, as an adult, all the sand and sunscreen and salty air kind of annoy me.  But I sucked it up and everyone was happy.
Logan thoroughly enjoyed throwing himself into the sand, particularly after getting a fresh coat of sunscreen.  How else would he get so much sand coverage?  Children's sunscreen is really glue.
James took a day or so to warm up to going in the water, but once he did, he quickly turned into a daredevil.  My mom says that Travis, my older brother, was always more reserved in the water, while I was diving into the bath tub from 6 months on and jumping off the high dive at 2 years old.  I think James is definitely more like Travis and Logan is more like me in that respect.  Now that the boys are taking baths together and Logan isn't so restricted by his baby tub, he's always going head first into the water.  Talk about a major heart attack for his mother.