Gessner Family: The little Hippo is 8 months!

Sorry this is so late! I have had the pictures on my camera for a few days and I just kept forgetting to load them.

First, I would like to tell you a little bit about my 8 month old Hippo. He is determined, funny, a fighter, outgoing, and of course HUNGRY! He has always been an eater (hence the name Hippo), even while in momma's belly. That is sort of where the name came from. When I was pregnant with Tristan, Mike started calling me triple H or the hungry, hungry, hippo. Then when Tristan was born, the name was past down onto him. He LOVES food so much. He gets mad when he sees other people eating and he does not get to eat. He will scream, kick, and cry until he gets some food. He used to eat the healthy food I made for him, but Nana, Popie, and Mike (yep I am pointing fingers at you) have turned him! He actually spit out carrots last night (his favorite!!!!) in exchange for a peach, graham crackers, and some turkey. Yes you heard me right, deli meat turkey.

As a parent, you have to go with the flow and that is what I am trying to do now with the food. I want him to make healthy choices and hopefully he will :)

These are the foods he loves right now:

Strawberries

Blueberries

Peach

Fig Newton

Watermelon

Pears

and our saving graces: Graham crackers and Rice Cakes

Notice how there are no veggies on the list anymore?! Oh well, we will figure it out. I believe the key is vegetables before anything sweet, although, that did not work for me last night with the carrots :( I am going to have to have a vegetable intervention! Oh, and about the berries. The Doctors and books say to stay away from berries until they are 1 year old (I think?) because babies have a high rate of berry allergies. Well, he accidentally got some a month or so ago and did not have a reaction, so we tried again and he still didn't have a reaction. So now...he eats berries. He pretty much loves them too.

I also wanted to take a section and talk about how my little fighter beats me up all the time so I have it documented. This way I can say "when you were a baby you did this..." and he will be able to see the blog post to prove it ;) When he first started "waking up" (coming out of his baby blob stage) when he was nursing he used to grab onto my skin or hair, pulling, poking, and prodding. Then, once he became awake awake he really started pinching me! He just wants to LOVE me so much he wants to grab me (that's what my mother always says). Now he bites me, scratches me, pinches me, pokes me, gives me hickeys, and all sorts of shenanigans! And let me tell you...it HURTS! I have pretty much tried everything, but if he is in a pinching mood, there is not much I can do to stop it. He also loves to pinch me with his little monkey toes any time he can. Hence, he beats me up :)

Woahhhhhhh