Eight months

Dear Jack,

Eight months old today buddy! Where has my little baby gone? I think someone stole him and replaced that baby with a creature who grows more into a little boy each day.



In the last month, you have done so many "big boy" things. Just this weekend we put you in the child seat of a shopping cart for the first time and you loved it. I died a little inside looking at you sitting up tall, hanging on to the cart handle like you've been doing it for years. You reached out to grab my hands and my face periodically while we were walking through the aisles as if to say "Hi Mom! This is so fun isn't it?"

This last month has been a whirlwind of playdates, weekends with family and new classes with Mommy and Daddy. You started Kindermusik and absolutely adored it. Your class is a mix of kids ranging from 3-16 months and you love singing the songs and dancing and watching the big kids run around. You even "sing" along with the music and are definitely the most vocal member of the class. I think you have developed your first teacher crush too, because you smile and giggle at and generally groove on your instructor.



You also started swim lessons with Daddy. You boys head over to the gym pool for a class once a week just the two of you and you have a great time, from what I hear. You again love to watch the other babies and have a great time singing songs and splashing.

I think you love these two classes so much because they involve so much movement. And seriously, if you're not moving, you are simply pissed off at the world. You can crawl now, so you rarely sit in one place for more than a minute. It's like a whole new world opened up for you when you managed to drag your body along behind your little arms. You don't even have the patience to learn to properly crawl on all fours. Nope, too many toys to play with and cords to inspect and cats to chase.

Oh how you love chasing the cats now. Poor Max and Lucy are weary of your antics, but you don't notice because you give them huge, gummy smiles every time you see them and squeal with delight when they walk by you. Recently, Mommy and Daddy and you were hanging out on the couch with Max when you decided to see what this long appendage hanging off Max was. You grabbed on for dear life and squeezed. Max looked at Daddy like "Ummm, DUDE, that hurts. Help me!" And you started to pull. Max yelped and got right in your face, but Daddy managed to extract the tail from your hand and prevent any nasty biting incidents. We're still working on the concept of "gentle" with you.



We need to work on that so you know how to treat other babies as well. For a few months, you were the laid-back baby who didn't know how to fight back when another baby poked you or took a toy. But now, it's every man for himself. You have done your share of poking and toy-stealing and grabbing. You don't do it with a malicious look on your face, more of a curiosity thing or trying to bring them down to your level.

While you enjoy the crawling for now, there are many times (scratch that, 90 percent of the time) that you want to walk laps around the house holding onto our hands. You can take a lap of the entire floorplan and when we try to sit you down, you howl and hold your arms up and practically force us at gunpoint to take another one.



You would think all this movement would make you tired enough to take long naps. HA! Good one. That's hilarious. The King of the 30-Minute Naps' reign of terror continues throughout the land. You rule with an iron fist, let me tell you, because there is no playing or lying quietly when you wake up. One minute you're asleep, the next you are crying -- with real tears, just to show us you mean business. You can sometimes be cajoled back to sleep with a boob or some rocking, so maybe you're starting to get the idea that naps should be a restorative period of no less than two hours.

We had just gotten you sleeping through the night this month, and then Mommy and Daddy went away for the night and you got all out of sorts again. After a week of five or six wakings a night, your parents were desperate for some sleep. There was talk of "crying it out" but the female parent in this house just couldn't do it. Instead, the decision to rock you with your pacifier when you woke up was put into effect.

Imagine our surprise when after a night of numerous and prolonged wakings, we discovered you were sick. The wakeups were your way of telling us "Hey -- I feel like crap over here. Help a baby out won't ya?" There was fever, eye infection, congestion and an ear infection. Your first baby illness! Let's mark that in the baby book, shall we? We got you some medicine and you were back to your old self within 24 hours. Here's to hoping this is the last of the sickies for this fall and winter.

This was also the month of babbling. If you're awake, you're making noise. When you eat, you make "mmmmm" sounds whether you're nursing or eating your solids. If you're not pleased about something, we get a "mmmmmmmmmmmm mmmmmmmmm" kind of moan from you, accompanied by the slamming of your heels on the floor. If you want something RIGHT NOW, it's usually "MAAA-MUH!" If you want to converse with us, normally there's a bunch of "mamama bababa" and recently, you started throwing in a few "la" and "wa" sounds. The "da" sound is apparently still reserved for the first Tuesday of months beginning with S when there is a full moon and the temperature is above 60 degrees.

You're still pretty skinny, but now you have developed a little buddha belly. Well, it's not exactly little. You look like you have a serious beer gut. It hangs over the waistband of your pants and looks so cute from the side. It's even funnier when we get you out of the tub because there's this gigantic belly that disappears completely at your scrawny hips and rock-star skinny thighs.



Clearly, the three meals a day you are now eating are going straight to your tummy. We're got you eating what seems like a lot, but you're not turning away, so we figure you must be hungry. You get oatmeal and fruit at breakfast with a few little pieces of banana for finger food. At lunch, you get two jars of veggie and a half-jar of fruit. Dinner is two jars of veggies, some yogurt and a half-jar of fruit. This week you started trying to feed yourself organic cheerios and you are so determined. You get about one of every five in your mouth, but you look so satisfied when you finally do.

This month has been so much fun. You are learning so much every day and have the ability to interact with Mommy and Daddy so much more. We can show you how something works, and you can sometimes replicate the action. You can mimic some sounds back to us. You know when the door to the garage opens, to look and see Daddy when he comes home from work. You also are able to sit and play by yourself, which makes it so much fun to watch you as you figure things out. It's like we have this little friend to hang out with now, instead of just a baby who needs us to entertain him 24-7.



As I write this, you are across the room spinning yourself in circles on your stomach, trying to decide which toy to play with next. You'll pick up a toy, inspect it and then look back over your shoulder at me and smile. Then you'll crawl a little, stop and look back and smile. I know this is what babies your age do now. You explore, but still look for reassurance from Mommy to make sure it's OK. And right now, I am realizing this is only the beginning.

Next you'll be walking away and looking to me and my oustretched arms for balance. Then you'll be walking though the door to school, looking back at me waving and telling you how fun it's going to be. Sooner than we realize, you'll be walking away from the car as we drop you off at the mall, and you won't look back at all because you'll be embarrassed your PARENTS drove you to the MALL and my god, like, everyone saw! But a few years after that, you'll walk into a dorm room and look back at me for some money. And eventually, you will walk down the aisle toward a life with your new bride. And I hope at that moment, you'll look back at me and remember all the times I told you I loved you and cheered you on. There will never be a day I won't be behind you, encouraging you and loving you.

Love,
Mommy