He's 8 months old!

Well yes....it's been a month since I've posted :(  In my defense, I've been really busy! I'll hopefully get around to posting about all that later, but until then, here's an update on our sweet boy!

First, some videos!

One time a few months ago, I was giving Nikolai a bath and I sneezed--and Nikolai cracked up laughing! Apparently sneezing is funny! Since then, we've used this as a cheap way to get him to laugh :) 

Here's Nikolai in his Johnny Jump-Up--he loves it! 

And finally, Nikolai's favorite game: spitting out his baby food when we're trying to feed him!

Some stats/feats: 

-Nikolai now pulls up to stand on furniture and walks along them to get where he wants!  Occasionally he lets go and stands there for a second without holding on, but that doesn't usually last long. 

-He has FOUR teeth!  Looking back at last month's post, he didn't have any, which means he got all 4 this month.  WOW! But the good news is, he was only fussy for the first two :)  

-He loves exploring--he crawls everywhere and explores everything!  He also loves to come find us when we leave the room--frequently I leave the room to get something from the back or go to the bathroom, and when I head back to the livingroom, there he'll be in the hallway, coming to find me! It's so sweet :D

-He loves giving kisses! He still doesn't know he's supposed to close his mouth but we'll work on that one :) Something sweet he does is this:  if either of us are lying on the ground, Nikolai crawls over to us and plants his open mouth on our face to give us a kiss!  Also, related to that, he'll crawl all the way over whoever is lying on the ground.  We call it "climbing Mt. Dad."  

-His favorite things include: banging on the piano, listening to mama sing (and then laughing afterwards), babbling "dadadadadada," reading pop up books (they make him laugh!), and sitting in the grass.  

-One last funny thing he does: when he's tired, he gets really attached to whatever thing he's holding, and if you try to take it away (it doesn't matter what it is) he'll scream.  He's also really good at holding on to items without you noticing, so frequently we'll be in the middle of changing his diaper before we notice he's still holding my phone or the tv remote! The other day, we went to pick him up from his nap, and found him like this: 

Oh yes, that's the remote.  And yes, he's cuddling it like a teddy bear.  Sweet boy. 

And lastly, two pictures: one funny, one sweet: 

Thanks for being ours, little boy! We love you!