Eight Months

Well Little One, today you turned 8 months old. The last couple months have been busy ones. You have become as active, inquiring, mobile and intelligent as I hoped/feared you would be. You now have free run of most of the house and take full advantage of this freedom. I have learned that the bathroom door must be kept closed because you seem to enjoy the flavor of toilet paper. When you get some in your hands and see me coming to take it away it heads straight to your mouth. Toilet paper is much more difficult to extract from your mouth than I would have expected. You like to save the little bits of paper or wood or whatever that you find on the floor in your cheek like a wad of chew. Then later you will shift it out and start gnawing on it again, at which point I extract the last bit of paper though I was sure I had gotten it all earlier.

You are moving faster and faster everyday. Your current method of choice is a slightly gimpy crawl that relies more on one leg than the other but as far as I can tell which leg it is seems to vary from day today. But oh how you would love to be able to walk. To be able to take your booty with you as you flee the scene, or be able to follow me around clinging to my pants leg (sidenote: while clinging to my leg like that is incredibly cute and endearing it also prevents me from getting anything done and will likely lead to me falling on my arse one day soon). Though have not evolved sufficiently yet for an upright gait (insufficient balance) you are most definitely a tool user. Highchairs, toy chairs, playpens and laundry baskets have all been used to travel in an upright fashion. Fortunately, or unfortunately, depending on viewpoint (mine vs. yours) you haven't figured out turning. So when you hit an obstacle, most often a wall, you are done. At this point you proceed to try to pull your walker down on your head as a sign of your disappointment. You are also beginning to seriously work on climbing. So far you have only managed one stair, or the end of the couch, or your toy chairs.

You still aren't much of a cuddler, you are too busy investigating, climbing (falling, crying), and tasting for such mundane activities as cuddling. But every once and awhile when you are all worn out and winding down to go to sleep you will sit quietly on our lap sucking you fingers and we can hold you and kiss the top of your warm little head to our hearts content. One morning you woke up (far too early) crawled over to me and laid down with your head on my shoulder. My heart nearly burst and I forgave you every early morning all over again.

You seem to really enjoy spending time outside. So many noises, sight, smells, and tastes (if I don't keep a close eye on you). You will happily sit in your little chair outside while I work in the yard or hang clothes on the line. Looking around, playing with a toy or talking to the strap holding you in, perhaps trying to cajole it into letting you go. Animals are very exciting for you and you would love to play with the neighbors' cat, Stuart. Stuart is smarter than that though and rarely lets you get to close. I am trying to teach you to be gentle (to humans as well as animals) but the concept hasn't really sunk in yet. You like going on walks with mommy and Linda. You like Linda. One day she was carrying you and you talked quietly to her, sucked on her shirt, copped a feel ( you won't always be able to get away with that, just a warning) and laid your head on her shoulder. I was so jealous. You will tolerate most people holding you but if mommy gets close enough you will make a jump for it.

You are vocal and quiet by turns. You will spend hours not saying much and then you will yell and yell and yell. Oh, you do like the sound of your own voice. I think that when it gets to quiet you decide that, it is a dirty job but someone has to do it, so you yell. This has happened a number of times at the library, your "library voice" draws the eyes of everyone in the library. Luckily you are just so darn cute that no one cares. You love noisy machines. When daddy switches on the shop-vac you like to compete and see which of you can be louder. You love the chop saw, on or off. In fact you really like daddy's tools in general. When you are playing in the basement you inevitabley end up heading for the work shop, most likely the least safe room in the house. Once you are a bit older I predict that you will love to "help" mommy and daddy work. Hopefully we will remember to appreciate that you want to be with us and treasure the time eventhough your help with most likely involve misplacing small yet integral pieces or pulling up vegetables so the "pretty" weeds have room to grow.