My darling baby. You are 8 months old.
You drink through a straw.
You stand on your own two feet.
Your noises sound like words.
You reach out for me when you need me.
You crawl to my feet and pull on me when you need to be held.
You try to eat food..even though you prefer your honey milk more.
You are 8 months old and your dad and I are madly in love with you.
This month has been full of so many fun changes.
You make so many new sounds now. da da da and ma ma ma. Mostly da da da though. It's hard for us not to imagine you are calling out to your dad..so we just pretend you are.
You and I still sing together. You love singing! You join in whenever hear a tune. When I sing you your morning song or any other song for that matter you lock eyes with me and match my tone. It absolutely makes me dizzy with delight.
After our duets I usually try to kiss you for about 5hrs but you just want to get down and move.
You move CONSTANTLY.
You are a pro crawler now but could kind of care less about it. All you want to do is stand.
The only purpose of crawling is to get you to where you can stand. The edge of the couch. chairs. foot stools. windows...anything you can paw and pull yourself to standing.
We can only imagine how exhausted you must be by the end of day from doing pull ups non-stop.
You stand and bounce from excitement.
Sometimes you get daring and go one handed or the ole' lean the shoulder against the couch trick. "No hands Mom!!"
Standing means falling.
You have bruised your eye lid, banged you head, cut your lip and recently gave yourself a black eye.
It's amazing to see how fast your body heals. And every time it does I think about how my body made that body and I feel like super mom. The novelty of my body creating another body has still not worn off.
We have started baby proofing the house. We know it won't stop the occasional bonk and bruise but hopefully it will lessen the blow.
Can you do me a little favor? Wait at least two more months before you start walking?
Your fingers can touch and poke and explore so much. I love watching you lay next to me in the mornings and just touch the edge of your blanket and look at the tiny piece of fabric in your hands with such wonder.
It must be amazing to experience all of your senses for the first time.
All of the things we take for granted you are transfixed by. The pattern on our cement floors. The light filtering through the blinds. The tiny bit of carpet fuzz stuck to the bottom of your feet. All of it is such a wonder. You help us look at things we have been ignoring or forgotten about. You help me see more clearly.
Waking up next to you is still one of my most favorite things of all time. You smile and snuggle and like to lay across my chest and stare at the big windows and chatter with the morning light. You pull on dad's hair and go back and forth between us so happy to have mom and dad all to yourself.
You like being touched as you fall asleep. If you are in the car you need one of us touching your cheek before you can drift off. I touch your cheek & help hold your binky in as you hold on to my arm in a death grip. You are a skin to skin baby.
You have started nuzzling your head down in the carpet and rolling around asking to be wrestled with. You love some tickling and kissing.
Big belly laughs whenever we blow on your belly or tickle your rib cage.
You love, love, love when we get on the floor and play with you. Daddy will play follow the leader with you as he crawls and you follow. You shriek and giggle.
You basically love all interactive play time.
You smile through pretty much everything. Rain or shine.
You love other babies. You are so stoked to play with Winston. You chase the boys around and pull at them. You also get so excited and do your really loud shriek/yell when you are around other kids and scare most of them.
You are still our baby-a-go-go. We just got back from Boston visiting your Aunt Jenelle and Uncle Conny and today we leave to shoot a wedding in New Orleans.
You are really good on planes but travelling with you is still one the of the most exhausting things. I am so glad we are two against one. How do other people do planes with multiple children?!
You have discovered splashing in the tub.
Favorite toys: remotes, iphones, big bowls and this tacky standing leap frog learning table.
I am totally stressed that you don't have more shoes (to me it is the difference between me being a good mom or a bad mom..foot coverings. Ridiculous. If only I lived in Hawaii..I wouldn't be bothered by dumb shoes).
The problem is your heels are narrow and your feet are long. Nothing fits. Argh.
I also stress about you choking. You are such a gagger even on pureed food. We just need to ease you slowing in to the world of swallowing more than milk. We try but you are on your own schedule. We will follow your cues.
Hopefully we will always be aware of you enough to follow your cues and give you what you need.
Where are your teeth?! Seems like you have been teething for 3 months already.
Dad joined the photo business!!!! We are kind of freaking out about it.
He is home more to share Nova time so I can try and scramble to get caught up with work. Having him with us is pretty much the best ever.
We bought you a wooden camera which we named the "Nutty Cam" in honor of the joint venture.
This last month my hard drive crashed on my iMac. I thought I had lost the journal I wrote for you while I was pregnant. Apple said, dead. Another recovery place said, dead. Sent the HD to Drive Savers and guess what? They retrieved ALL of it. Every last word of my madefromscratch word document. We had to pay a pretty penny....but we decided it was worth it. I put myself in your shoes and decided it would have been worth it to me. Happy Birthday and Merry Christmas for the rest of your life.
Your one year birthday seems to be creeping towards me...but I am trying to hide.
8 months of our lives being completely turned upside down. 8 months of holding my very own daughter in my arms. 8 months of being a mother. A full-on mom. A breastfeeding, clothes not quite fitting, hair being pulled out, sleep-deprived , madly in love, can't believe how amazing life is MOM.
Most days I feel completely unworthy and overwhelmed at the task of giving you every single opportunity you deserve. Most days I still feel like I am 18yrs old and am not quite sure how I ended up with a career a husband and daughter. Most days I wonder how I could ever split my attention with other future children? Most days I want my life to stay exactly how it is right now (minus the extra body weight).
Thank you for choosing me. Thank you for letting me be your mom.