Month Eight

Liam,

You are now eight months old and let me tell you it's been one fun and exciting month. This month you've hit a couple big milestones, you're trying a lot of new things, and you love to explore. You're also getting more of a personality. You smile all the time but now you have a few different smiles. We've even named one of your smiles the "go-cart smile". Daddy and his friends came up with this name when they all smile really big for photos which is what you do so we thought it fit perfectly. You also love to stick your tongue out now. You do it more when you're busy doing something whether it's trying to stand up or crawl. It cracks us up. Daddy plays a game with you where he tries to grab your tongue and as he reaches to grab it you laugh. It is to cute!

"Go-Cart smile"

You said your first word this month which was momma. I was so happy to hear you say it and even more excited that it was your first word. You're still learning the meaning of the word and haven't said it directly to me but when we say the word to you, you will repeat it back to us. You're talking more and more but no other words yet. You say a lot of bababa's, papapa's, and mamama's so not sure what you're next word will be. Daddy is hoping for dadda. You've also started to wave. Not at anyone particular but more to yourself. You open and close your hand like your waving but you usually have your hand right in front of your face and then you just stare as you're doing it. I don't think you realize what you're doing because you just seem to be so intrigued by the movement of your fingers and nothing else. We'll get you to wave soon enough though! Another cute thing you do is you move your head side to side like you're saying "no" but really it's not no. At first we thought you'd only move your head side to side when you were dancing but now you just do it out of the blue. Sometimes we'll be talking to you and all of sudden you'll move your head side to side. We'll laugh and you'll do it again. I think you know we enjoy watching you do this so you just keep doing it. When I picked you up from daycare the other day you were moving your head side to side as one of the ladies was picking you up. When she handed you off to me I asked you, "Are you dancing?" and you moved your head right on cue. The ladies sure got a kick out of it and we all got a good laugh in. 

You're really cruising around the house now! No more army crawling, instead you full out crawl. We had to baby proof the house this month because you want to crawl everywhere. So we put the outlet covers in and a couple locks on the cabinets. You've tried to get into the cat food, actually almost ate some, but I got to you in time and moved you far away from it. You also got your first lesson on "hot" surfaces. You crawled into the kitchen when we were cooking stuff in the oven. You started to reach for the front of the oven to help you stand up and we had to stop you and tell you "hot" and not to touch. Daddy and I sat with you touching the oven numerous times and saying "hot" each time we touched it. You haven't tried to touch it since. Now that you're crawling all over the place, you'll stand up using any kind of furniture or object that you can pull yourself up with. You now know how to gracefully get back down to the ground too. Before you would just fall onto your butt, sometimes falling really hard. 

You still love bath time but it's become more of a challenge! Instead of just playing in the water, you spend most of your time trying to stand up or grab the water faucet. At first I tried to fight you trying to make you sit down but every time I sat you down you'd just stand up again. So I decided it wasn't worth it and I'd just keep an eye on you and make sure you didn't slip and fall back into the bath tub. Now bath time has become a quick process where we'll do the scrubbing and cleaning first. Then you'll play for a little while and eventually stand up. When you do stand up, you are really proud of yourself and will give us a big smile. It's to cute too!

Happy eight month birthday sweet little boy! We love you very much and love watching you grow.

Love,

Momma