I can't believe how much time has past since my last posting!  I started a couple posts in between, but never finished them, which doesn't surprise me!  Caring for a child is much more time consuming than I imagined.  Actually, everything is more than I imagined (in a good way!).

Kingston just turned 8 months.  EIGHT MONTHS?!  It'll be interesting to go back and read the last postings of him.  I skimmed through them briefly and I was rambling on about colic.  That was so many moons ago!!  Looking at him today, no one would ever believe how much he screamed in the early days.  His pediatrician was right; at 3.5 months old it's like a light switch turned off... the screaming stopped and all of a sudden I had this bright, happy, joyous son.  He has the most infectious smile and contagious laugh.  He's a jokester and is always keeping me on my toes.  We received Kingston's Christmas present early from my parents and thank goodness they are allowing us to use it now!  It's a large playpen that we set up in the living room.  Mom suggested we get something to cage him in when we need to do something and take our eyes off of him for a few minutes, and she was so right!

I'm just starting to feel like I can get things done here and there around the house.  I don't know if it's a boy thing or a Kingston thing, but this little dude is all over the place and wild!  He's been crawling for awhile now and is fast, especially when he sees something he knows he can't have; mostly dog's toys, their water and food bowls and electrical cords.  I observe my friend's babies, who are mostly girls, and they seemed pretty subdued and content most of the time, while Kingston climbs me like a jungle gym!  I took his 8-month pictures today and propped him up on his rocking chair where all of the other pictures have been and just like always, it was so challenging to get good pictures.  Today was harder than usual; I couldn't manage even one good photo or one semi-good photo of him sitting down looking at me.  He takes Barnsie the teddy bear (who's been in most of his photos), pushes him down and bites his ear, so I end up tossing him aside.  I started putting the month sticker on the chair so he wouldn't chew on it, but he notices it ever time now and tries to tear it off the chair.  He likes to stand on the rocking chair and looks like he's about to launch off onto the floor.  I finally just said "screw it!" after snapping like 30 photos.  The ones taken are exactly who Kingston is and that's who I should celebrate.

Kingston absolutely loves his puppies and thinks it's hilarious when they are on the couch or dog steps looking down on him.  He laughs hysterically at them, which I call "the sillies."  I feel like he can tell them apart and knows who he can be rough with.  Kazoo is always in his face, making out with him while Banjo is a much more sensitive dog.  I have to make sure to tell Banjo when he's being a good boy around Kingston, which you can tell makes him proud.  When Kingston pets Banjo it's usually soft and gentle, and when Kazoo comes up to him he'll grab her face or her fur.  She will let out a yelp, which I correct him, but she doesn't seem phased by it.

He loves TV too, which I allow him to watch VERY sparingly (only for about 20 minutes in the morning on weekends).  He loves the baby channel and I try to interact and sing the songs along with the show while he watches.  It's pretty funny how he asks for it though; I put him in the bed in the morning with me to nurse and once he's done he turns around and just stares at the TV.  He gets excited when it actually turns on.

Several months ago I bought a hand puppet at a second-hand baby store and he is so funny interacting with it!  It's a pig, who I named "Mr. Piggy" and I try to throw my voice and talk like I am him (of course I'm not very good) and even though I'm not moving my mouth, Kingston will look at me like he's trying to figure out if I'm making the noise.  Regardless, he's still very entertained by Mr. Piggy.  When Mr. Piggy asks if he can give Kingston a hug, K will sit there and let Mr. P snuggle his neck.  When asked if he can get a kiss, K opens his mouth when Mr. P gets near (Kingston hasn't learned about closed-mouth kisses yet).  And when Mr. P tells him he's going to give tickles, K screams in anticipation.  It's the cutest thing!

For Halloween a couple of friends and I got together and painted our baby's butts like pumpkins (which I'll post here).  I didn't post any on social media, because I'm paranoid about perverts out there.  I showed my co-workers the pictures, and they nicknamed Kingston "big booty."  He really does have a big butt!  There is this ridiculously stupid rap song I've heard a couple of times (I have no idea who sings it), but some of the words are "bubble butt... bubble, bubble, bubble butt."  I sing that to him quite often and he thinks it's pretty funny!  Kingston also has the nickname "Carlos" at work, after I hung the picture of him in his shades taken this summer at the beach.  Several people said he looks like baby Carlos from "The Hangover."

I think the last post I did I had just started going to a breastfeeding support group, which was life changing!  I luckily never had problems with breastfeeding, but went more to socialize with other new moms.  There's a group of 6 of us that stayed close even after we all went back to work and we have frequent play dates.  I'm particularly close to one of the ladies, who happens to be Kingston's girlfriend's mom.  We kind of joked about it in the beginning, but they took to each other very quickly and are so sweet together!  The last play date we did, Kingston was started to grab the other baby's (all girls that day) shirts, but when Callie (his girlfriend) showed up, he was so gentle with her.  That's the day my friend told me to look up, just in time to see them both open mouthed going toward each other to kiss.

Kingston has had his two bottom teeth for awhile and nothing more, which surprises me, because he is biting the hell out of us!  It's been a couple of weeks since he bit me while nursing, which fortunately doesn't happen too often.  He does however, several times a week, bite my shoulder, arm or thigh.  He likes to crawl up to people and bite their thigh and he bites hard!!  One of the teacher's at his daycare says he tries to bite their toes.  Daycare is going great and I'm very lucky to have found the one he goes to.  All of the teachers are fantastic and some have even said Kingston is their favorite.  The lady who opens greets him with "Hola hermoso" which means "hello beautiful" followed by a lot of gushing Spanish words I'm not familiar with.

It was incredibly hard to go back to work when I did; especially since his colic had ended about 3 weeks prior and his personality was starting to shine, but it has gotten better.  I still hate leaving him though and am so grateful to have Fridays off.  I don't know how people work 5 days a week with a little one.  I get off at 4:30, but with traffic, I usually don't get home until 5:30-5:45 and I start his bed time routine around 6-6:15.  Night time is a mad dash to hurry up and try to soak in some quality time before he goes to bed, then the rest of the night is spent getting ready for the next day to do it all over again.  I feel like I would never see him if it wasn't for Fridays!

I am so happy the Christmas season is here!  I love all things Christmas, and even more now that I get to share them with a child.  I know he has no concept of anything associated with the holiday other than thinking the lights are pretty, but I know eventually he will.  I'm also aware presents under the tree are more for me, but it just so happens I haven't bought him much of anything in a long time and he needs to toys to lean against and that will help him learn to walk.  He currently LOVES to stand now... all of the time and I really want to get him something other than the coffee table with sharp edges.  Speaking of, one morning several weeks ago, Lee got up with him and let me sleep in.  I maybe slept in 30 minutes before I heard Kingston beating a toy on the coffee table while Lee encouragingly sang Michael Jackson's "Beat It."  The dogs were doing their normal crazy morning barking session while wanting their toys thrown and my zombie self shuffled into the living room, one eye open with a facial expression to say "could you keep it down?!"  Once I saw Kingston's smile and Lee laugh, I couldn't help but smile.  It's a crazy zoo in the Stewart house now, but it's MY zoo!