George had his 8 month pictures taken in his Packers & Bears outfits.  He was much more interested in looking at the football than the camera!  There are a number of things that have happened since our last post.  We had Thanksgiving with the Suwalski Family and George enjoyed some stuffing, sweet potatoes and turkey.  It was nice to see the family we haven’t seen for quite some time.  It was also the day George took his first tumble down the stairs.  He was fine, a bit startled, but he recovered really well.

Last weekend he also experienced his first snow.  He was in the stroller when it started to snow and he just opened his mouth and tried to eat the snow as it came down.  It was pretty cute.  He hasn’t played in snow yet, but after we get some good boots, we’ll get him out there.  Seeing we walk him to daycare each day we ended up getting him a snow suit.  He is too big for the a one piece, but we found a blue & red snow pants and jacket set for him.  It is funny to see him in it….of course we found a fun red hat to finish off the outfit.

Last weekend was pretty exciting as George took his first couple of steps on his own.  It was pretty exciting and he has since taken a couple of steps at a time.  It shouldn’t be long until he is all over the place.  We also put up the Christmas Tree and he does really well around it – he doesn’t really bother it much.  That is  a huge relief!

Other new things we learned about George include that he loves to feed himself cheerios and puffs, he likes cheese (like his momma), he laughs HARD when he hears you sneeze or blow your nose, he is ticklish under his arms and if you run your finger up his back, he prefers to stand instead of sit, he loves to pull all the books off the bookshelf, he can help you turn book pages, he knows where to touch on the touch & feel books, he calms himself by petting his parents’ arms and faces, he can fake laugh, he is big enough to move to the toddler room at daycare (starting January).

We had our first parent teacher conference last week.  His teacher enjoys having him in ‘class’ and says that he plays well alone and with others.  He likes to interact with adults and sticks near them if a stranger enters the classroom.  She also mentioned how he can look so intently at something as if he is trying to figure it out…overall a wonderful guy.

A final first was his visit and picture with Santa.  He didn’t cry and was a pretty good sport when we took him to Tis the Season at UWGB.  It was nice to see the staff there and we had a nice time.  George looked adorable in his St. Nick outfit!

Overall, we have really enjoyed the past month of watching him grow & change.  We can’t believe that he is almost walking, opening cabinets, and pulling things off of shelves.  We keep working with him on sounds, but we mostly get some strong babbles…however we think that he is close to saying ball.  He loves to play with balls and he chews on everything.  In addition to the two teeth he already has on the bottom we see two teeth on top & two more on bottom coming in.  This makes him quite whiney, but still in good spirits.

We can’t wait to see so many friends and family over this holiday season!