Eight Months: A Letter

Dear Nicholas,

You turned eight months a week ago. I say this every month, but you truly have grown and changed so much in the last few weeks. The biggest development is that you're crawling. At the very end of your seventh month, you were occasionally scooting a few inches forward on your belly, but you weren't consistently crawling. Then, on the morning of August 31st, Daddy came into our room and told me you were apparently ready for college football (the season kicked off the next day on September 1st) because you had crawled all the way across your room to get your Oregon football. (Grandpa was very proud to hear this.)

Since then, you have taken off and now crawl easily throughout the entire house. And you are fast. If we take our eyes off you for a second, you are in the other room. Your crawl is army-style, with your belly on the floor, and when you're moving fast, it actually looks like you're swimming. Maybe this is why they call it the "crawl" stroke. We joke that we should just attach a Swiffer to the front of your shirt and our floors would be sparkling.

The other big development of your eighth month occurred the day before you started crawling. On August 30th, we noticed that your right top front tooth had poked through. Now you have all four of your front teeth. The bottom two are fully in and the top two appear to be about 2/3 of the way in. And they are big! It's hard to see them unless you really open your mouth, but it's so funny to see these two big chompers that look like they belong to a five year old in your little mouth. After your second top tooth came in, you seemed to take a break from teething for the rest of the month, but this hasn't stopped you from continuing to chew on just about anything you come in contact with. The other night Daddy found you gnawing on a stray Frito you found wedged under the stove. Despite being freshly bathed, you smelled like greasy snack food. Lesson learned. We're going to have to be a lot more diligent about keeping the floors clean.

You are also growing like a weed. You don't go back to the doctor for an official weigh in for another month, but we think you're just shy of 20 pounds. You are wearing mostly 9 month or 6-12 month clothing. I still put you in some of your 6 month summer clothes, but that's pushing it. Many of your footy pajamas are starting to get holes in the toes because your legs are too long. Time for Mommy to go shopping.

You continue to become more and more vocal. You still make your tropical bird shrieks, but this month you started babbling consonant sounds. Your favorites are dah, duh, gah, and guh. 

All of your physical activity this month has really revved up your appetite. You still have your picky days, but now, more often than not, you will eat a full 4 oz. jar of pureed food for dinner. We also started consistently serving you a solid food breakfast. You nurse about 5-6 times a day, usually around 6am, 9am, noon, 3pm, 6pm, and possibly a middle of the night feed (more on that later.) I usually supplement the noon, 3pm, and 6pm feedings with anywhere from 2-4 oz. of formula. You also eat about 4 oz. of oatmeal cereal around 8am and then eat about 4 oz. of puree for dinner around 5pm. You love any kind of fruit puree, and then most of the sweeter vegetable purees, including sweet potato, carrots, and squash. This month we also branched out with a few new flavors like sweet corn & tomato and vegetable pasta. We are still working on getting you to self feed a bit more with table food. Currently, you'll happily eat little pieces of string cheese, baked sweet potato fries, and, increasingly, mashed avocado or banana.

Sleep continues to be a little hit or miss. You have evolved into a good napper and will now consistently take a 1-2 hour nap beginning between 9-10am (usually about two hours after you wake up) and then will take a shorter (40-60 minute) nap in the afternoon beginning around 1:30-2:30pm. In the evenings you are usually pretty good about falling asleep on your own, and you consistently hit the hay around 7pm. But, you struggle to sleep through the night. This month, you had several stretches where you would sleep 11-12 hours for a few nights in a row. But then you would regress and start waking up in the middle of the night again. Cry it out worked well for naps and going to bed in the evenings, but it doesn't seem to work as well for night wakings. We're hoping we can make some progress in this area over the next month. Regardless, you sure are cute while you sleep!

Your favorite activities include bath time (especially chewing on your rubber ducky); going to Gymboree; singing songs (favorites include Take Me Out to the Ball Game, Old MacDonald, and Fly Fly Fly Your Plane); listening to Mommy make all sorts of crazy sound effects, including animal noises (pig, bumble bee, and lion sounds), space ship noises when I pick you up in your bouncy seat, and chomping noises when I pretend to chew your fingers; playing rough and tumble with Daddy; jumping, running, and swinging in your Sassy Seat; and drinking water out of your new sippy cup with a straw. Dislikes include diaper changes and being contained or constrained in any way.

You are such a smiley, joyful little guy, and your happiness is infectious. You brighten our days and make us laugh all the time. We love you buddy.

Always,
Mommy