Wow, time is just flying by here in the great, frozen North.  Holden is now 8 months old—and while one could argue that the past 8 months went by quickly, it also feels like the longest year of my life.  

Holden is doing great!  Except for the teething.  He’s been really irritable during the day and will cry out many times during the night…a sure sign of discomfort from teething.  Our sleep has suffered a lot because of this—Holden is usually in our bed by 2AM where he stays until he wakes up for the day at 6AM.  Between 2AM and 6AM he sleeps fitfully.  Ergo, between 2AM and 6AM, Rob and I also sleep fitfully.  I don’t care what anyone says, there’s really not a whole heck of a lot you can do about teething pain other than try your best to deal with it and provide comfort and distraction whenever possible.  Actually, the thing that always gets me is when people quickly glance at Holden and tell me self-assuredly “Oh, he’s definitely teething.”  I mean, isn’t this one of those self-evident truths?—he’s an infant, and one of the tasks of infanthood is cutting teeth, which is more or less a continuous process.  I would be stating an equally obvious truth if I looked at Holden and said “Oh, he’s definitely digesting that breastmilk he just had for lunch” or “Yup, definitely exhaling carbon dioxide.”  

And yes, I’m definitely being sarcastic.

So what is Holden up to these days besides teething?  He has been sitting unassisted since November, but is finally able to transition from a sitting position to other positions.  He can transition from sitting to being on all fours.  He is able to pull himself up to standing from a sitting position using whatever available furniture is around (usually his crib).  He also gets up onto his knees and will “rock” back and forth—and after a few minutes of this he usually starts fussing because he wants to be crawling and he isn’t quite there yet.  He moves a few inches but not much.  He’s starting to show frustration and impatience with his inability to do certain things.  He will fuss because he can’t crawl, can’t walk, and most recently, he is dissatisfied with being fed by spoon.  He prefers to put the food in his mouth on his own.  He has perfected his pincer grasp and will readily feed himself whole grain puffs, corn, bits of salmon burger, etc.  Holden will eat anything.  There isn’t anything that he has disliked so far.  He even likes pickles.  At this point, he is starting to share lunch with me, and we are pretty much at the point where he can eat our dinner too.  Last night we had dinner with some friends; he enjoyed spaghetti, tomato sauce, and yummy garlic meatballs.  I still have a lot of pureed food in the freezer but I don’t think I’ll be making any more new purees.  

Holden is still obsessed with his cat and is beginning to be more interested in his rabbit.  He also loves dogs which is unfortunate for him because Rob and I are very much anti-dog and will never, ever own one.  Holden still loves story time and will turn the pages when I tell him it’s time to turn the page.  He loves music, especially classical guitar and Bjork, for some reason.  He also loves the iTunes visualizer.  He loves women, especially older ladies.  Flirting happens in every grocery store queue.  Holden is finally over his phobia of certain sounds.  From about 6-7 months, Holden would get very upset if he heard any of the following sounds:  a tape measure being retracted, mini-blinds being pulled up, cereal or uncooked macaroni being poured into a bowl, the crinkling of plastic bags.  It was very strange.  Holden is also beginning to call me by name.  He will say “Mama” and tug at my shirt when he wants to nurse.  Here’s a funny story from the other day.  I had the 2nd plugged milk duct in a week’s time (the unfunny part of the story) so I spent 24 hours soaking in the tub, massaging the plugged area, pumping, nursing, etc.  At one point, I was in H’s room pumping.  H was in the living room.  He started crying and saying “Mama!”  I stopped the pump and ran into the living room to find him wedged under the ottoman.  Somehow, he had crawled backwards and gotten his legs and butt stuck under the ottoman.  His upper body was sticking out from under it, his arms flailing wildly and his expression frantic—I actually had to lift the ottoman up to get him un-stuck.  The point of the story is that he definitely knows to call me when he’s in peril!

Some fun activities we have done recently include a playdate with Jasper, who is almost exactly a month older than Holden.  I took prenatal yoga classes with Jasper’s Mama and I used to work with Jasper’s Papa, so it’s especially fun to see the little guys rolling around on the floor together:

We also recently had our annual family trip to New Hampshire for the weekend.  Holden got to meet his Great Granddad Friesel for the first time (pictured here with cousin Colby as well):

And here’s the whole gang all together—-Have you ever seen so many boys?!

I’m pretty sure that’s drool on my upper arm.

During our trip to New Hampshire last year I was around 23 weeks pregnant and we were still in the dark as to whether we had four generations of Friesel men representin’:

And now we know!  Our mystery baby is Holden!