8 Months Has Been The Most Fun and The Most Difficult - Hoping For a Relaxing Autumn

The last month has been a very busy time for the Iosua household.  We seemed to have every weekend booked, mostly for fun things, but also for other commitments.  This is part of the reason why I am really looking forward to fall.  This may come as a surprise to those of you who know me, but my favorite thing about fall is Football Sundays.  You see my husband LOVES football Sundays.  He does the fantasy league, red zone thing and looks forward to it all year long.  So a few years ago, we made a deal.  I wouldn't schedule plans for us on Sundays, if he did all the goofy fun fall things with me every Saturday.  (After recently getting into the show The League, we found out there is an actual name for this - Terrific Lady Saturday.)  So while we get to do all the fall things I love - apple & pumpkin picking, corn mazing and Big E'ing - it also forces us to not go away for the weekend, stay home, enjoy our house and just relax.  No BIG plans (with one exception - Harvest Fest in York, Maine...though Sunday will be spent in the Union Bluff Pub playing pool and watching Football). 

Anyways, Bryce turned 8 months old at the beginning of September.  This past month has proved to be so incredibly fun.  Bryce is his own person with a strong personality and is doing so much.  He is crawling, trying to figure out how to walk, standing on his own, and climbing on everything.  He is so curious and loves learning about all the new things in the world He has the most infectous laugh, loves his dad and me, and is obsessed with Daisy.  He has so many words and is learning new words everyday.  So far he says, mama, dada, Daisy and ball and knows what they all refer too (though somtimes he thinks the rubber ducky is ball also - its a work in progress.)  He also says mommy and daddy on occasion, but Rob says I can't count those since they are just variations of mama and dada. 

While the last month has been incredible, it has also proved to be the most difficult as it has brought on teething (at least that's what we think the culprit is).  Bryce has had his two bottom teeth since before he was six months and they were fairly painless.  Whatever teeth he is working on now (doc says at least 3 are trying to break through), they are proving quite the opposite.  He has been waking up multiple times at night and sometimes it takes an act of God to get him back to sleep.  We don't always deal with this so well, since we were so used to a baby who slept through the night from early on.  Call it payback, or Karma, but either way its tough.  I get so frustrated with Bryce some nights when he won't go back to sleep....which inevitably just leads to mommy guilt the next morning.  For example, Bryce woke up last night at 3am and didn't fall back asleep til 5am. Then, guess what went off at 5:30am - my ALARM!  On top of this, the same kid who you used to not be able to shovel food into his mouth fast enough, now HATES the food out of a jar.  We are lucky if he takes 5 bites.  We have a little more success when we just cut up our food and give it too him, though I think he is just playing with it more than eating it.  From what I hear from other parents and my own research, lack of appetite is pretty normal with teething, but I worry that he isn't eating enough.  Hopefully these teeth break through and this phase passes soon and we can all get some sleep.

Here are some pics of what we have been up to this last month...its been a lot of fun - vacation in York, ME, first apple picking, corn mazing and so much more.  Enjoy the cuteness!