Dance, Dance, Dance

We have witnessed quite the jump in Ayden's cognitive development recently. It's like things have begun to "click."  He is looking for things that we name (now the list is up to Daddy, Mommy, cat/Polly, dog/Maverick, duck, light, music, books, and he can also locate his private parts on command) listening with wonder to sounds outside of the house (eg. trains, vehicles, dogs etc), he's choosing a larger variety of books, babbling in all kinds of syllable combinations and now, he is dancing!

We have exposed him to music since he was in utero and even now we have a song for everything.  He did this little dance over the weekend but we weren't sure if that is what he was doing or not because a) there wasn't any music playing and b) we had never seen it before.  But since he chose to do it several times today, and only to the music, I think it's safe to say that we have a dancer on our hands.  Now I can say, "dance" and he'll do it!  I suppose him waving counts as well, but it's still so hit or miss that we may be able to say that dancing is the first actual action that he is doing on command. 

He is also starting to immitate sounds that we make (his current favorite is a lip smacking sound that I would love to shape into a kiss) and initiated a game of peek-a-boo over the side of the bed yesterday.

It is as if reaching the 8 month mark opened up a new understanding of the world for him and it is so fun!

As for sleep, last night was much better.  Not great, but better!  I think he has reached the peak of this Wonder Weeks leap and is back on the downward slope to being more content and sleeping better.  He actually went down pretty easily tonight but it's the staying asleep part that is tricky for him. 

I will be making some homemade spaghetti sauce tomorrow and it's dance teaching night!  I am eager to see if any of my students lived up to my "no processed foods for a week" challenge.  Did any of you??

~Sarah