Baby Mac - 7 and 8 Months

Dear Baby Mac,

You are EIGHT MONTHS old.  Geez louise!  These monthly updates come upon me so quickly these days - so fast I didn't even have time to write a 7 month update.  How has it possibly been two entire more months already?  December flew by in a flash with all the holiday madness and traveling.  January was a complete blur of illness and work and paying catch up.  So here we are, almost February of a brand new year and you are closer and closer to being a little kid than a baby these days.  Man, it goes by so fast.  The days can feel long, but the weeks and months are slipping right past me without so much as a backward glance.  I have to constantly remind myself to stop and take a deep breathe and just be in the moment with you because it passes by so quickly.

My little man, you have just been amazing these last two months, as usual.  At the beginning of December you were barely sitting up by yourself and now you're full-on crawling and pulling up!  It's unreal how fast that happened. You've never been content to be in one place for very long, so you decided to do something about it and started crawling.  You were slightly uncoordinated for about two days, where your legs would go faster than your hands and you'd end up face-first into the floor.  Or your hands would go, but not your feet and you'd have to drag them behind you while you army crawled along.  But you got the hang of it amazingly fast and now there's no stopping you!  The first thing you really went after was the dog food bowl when it was down on the floor...now you're going after the dogs!  And you're FAST!  They're in trouble!  We all are!  We can't get the house baby-proofed fast enough!

You are also pulling up on everything.  While we were on vacation you pulled up in the pack and play one day.  I watched you try over and over and over.  You were so determined and persistent.  You didn't give up.  You didn't get impatient or frustrated.  You just kept trying until you did it.  And then you looked over at me and gave me a look like, "Pulling up...check.  What's next?"  You are seriously going to conquer the world someday, little man.  With persistence and patience and that winning smile - there's nothing you can't do.  You never cease to amaze me.

But crawling wasn't enough.  Oh no.  Now you're climbing!  Why crawl around something, when you can climb/crawl OVER it!  You love going over things: my legs, pillows, the laptop case, Sage.  We're going to have to start building obstacle courses in the living room to keep you entertained.  Yesterday at your grandparents house you went straight for the staircase.  You stood up next to the first step and then climbed right up it!  My jaw dropped to the floor.  I didn't know you could climb stairs!  I spotted you for while and you climbed about six stairs before stopping.  Un-freaking-believable.  

So now that you're mobile, you are really having some fun.  You love hanging onto the coffee table in the living room and banging the coasters on the table.  And throwing the coasters.  Actually, you like banging and throwing everything.  You're either going to be a drummer or a pitcher.  You are such a boy - your favorite thing in the world is to make NOISE!  The louder the better.  You drum on anything that makes a sound, you love shakers and your toy piano, you like banging things on the hardwood floors, and if it doesn't make a noise (books, stuffed animals, etc.) it's worthless to you and you throw it across the room.  You definitely have opinions on things!

Your personality continues to grow and become more apparent (and amazing) every day.  You are curious, but somewhat cautious.  You like to know that we're close to you and don't want to be left alone...even for a second.  You like to do things on your own, but you still love to be held and carried around close to us.  You now crawl over to me, climb up my legs and hold your arms up to me to be picked up.  It's the most amazing thing in the world.  And when I pick you up, I give you a few pats on the back - you now put your arm around me and pat my back.  I can't get over what a wonderful, sweet gesture that is and it makes me well up with tears nearly every single time.  And speaking of imitating - you are quite the little copy cat.  Whatever it is that we are doing, that's what you want to do.  You want to talk on the phone like us.  You want to play on the laptop like us.  The other day you picked up a remote control and aimed it at the TV!  I was blown away!  You are so bright and pick up on things so quickly - we really need to start watching ourselves more carefully!  I so desperately want to be a good example for you.

One of your newest tricks is WAVING!  Oh, it's wonderful!  At first you waved to us when you saw us.  Heart melted.  Then you starting waving the dogs every single time they'd come in the room (which is a thousand times a day).  Adorable.  And now you're becoming more and more outgoing around other people and you love to wave to everyone you see!  Your dad had you in the Baby Bjorn last weekend at Home Depot and you waved to every single person we passed.  And yesterday it took us 45 minutes in the grocery store to get 3 things because you waved to everyone we saw and they all had to come up and talk to you and tell me how adorable you are.  I never get tired of hearing that!  Obviously, I couldn't agree more.  I just need to start allowing twice as much time to do things so you can get your "Mac" on with all the little old ladies.  And the young ladies too - you now take a class at The Little Gym and apparently you have a girlfriend already.  Her name's Harper and you follow her around like a puppy and smile and wave to her through the whole class.  How did that happen so soon?!!

You are also so funny.  You love laughing and smiling and sticking your tongue out.  Your tongue is so expressive - it's always sticking out when you smile.  You still crack up at the dogs - they don't even have to do anything to be funny.  You also think that us sneezing and blowing our noses are the funniest things we can possibly do.  When I blow my nose, you lose your shit cracking up!  I don't know what is so funny, but you can't handle it!  You also love being tickled.  You laugh and coo and make the most wonderful little love noises.  You're not talking yet, but you think you are.  You say "Dadadadadadadada" on repeat.  I've been trying to get you to say "Mamamama," but it just comes out "Dadadadadada."  And that's ok!  I love it!

But as much as you like crawling, bath time is probably the highlight of your day.  You get so excited when I turn on the water that you nearly dive out of my arms into the empty tub.  I have to turn on the water secretly so you don't freak out.  You sit up all on your own and crawl all over the tub.  I finally put your little baby whale tub in storage because it just can't contain you any more.  Most of the time I get in the bathtub with you because otherwise you are so slippery that I can't keep up with you.  It's like wrestling a greased pig!  Not that I've done that or anything.  I have to wait until the end of our bath to add the soap because otherwise you're so slippery that I can't keep my hands on you!  You love splashing and kicking.  But the best thing you do now is leaning over and licking up the water like a dog!  How did you learn how to do that?!  It cracks me up!

You are still a wonderful eater.  You love feeding yourself and will eat nearly anything we put in front of you. I think steak is your favorite.  You only have two bottom teeth, but you go to town on a piece of steak!  You also love pineapple and yogurt.  They're probably your favorites.  Your grandma got you addicted to yogurt on vacation and now you can't get enough!  We also had a popsicle last week, which you were mesmerized with.  That was a big hit.  You are getting better and better at drinking out of a cup.  You're not really interested in your sippy cups, but you love drinking out of our glasses.  Anytime you see a cup or bowl you have to try to drink out of it.  And if it's empty, you look at me very confused and reach inside the cup just to make sure there's nothing in there.

The only lowlight of these last two months is that you were sick for a lot of them.  You got a little head cold on our third day of vacation and that seemed to last for weeks.  Snot, snot and more snot.  Then it turned into a nasty chest cold.  You coughed a lot and every cough nearly broke my heart.  You had a hard time sleeping because you'd wake yourself up coughing.  Sometimes you'd cough so hard that you'd throw up, which was the worst.  But you were always so sweet and loving, even though you obviously didn't feel well.  You plowed right through it.  We had a lot of middle of the night snuggle sessions in the rocking chair, lots of co-sleeping in our bed and lots of cuddling during the day.  We medicated with love.  I think it worked because you're on the mend and feeling great these days.  Please don't ever get sick again.  Please.

Oh Mac, I could just go on and on and on about how wonderful you are.  I still absolutely can't believe you're mine and I thank God and my lucky stars for you every single day.  You are such a happy, amazing, sweet baby.  I cherish every single minute I get to spend with you.  You are the greatest thing to ever happen to me.  I am so lucky to be your mama.  

Firsts:
- First crawl
- First airplane flight
- First Christmas
- First pull-up
- First time at the beach
- First time meeting Santa
- First New Year's
- First stair climb
- First sick doctor visit

Likes:

- crawling
- climbing

- eating solid food

- ripping mommy's hair out

- biting 

- scratching 

- throwing
- your grandparents
- noise
- being tickled
- being upside down
- splashing in the bathtub
- waving
- Harper
- music
- coasters
- the dog food and water bowls
- chasing the cat
- sneaking food to the dogs
- mirrors

Dislikes:

- your car seat (still...ugh)

- being still
- getting your nose/face wiped
- being quiet
- coughing
- getting your diaper changed
- getting dressed
- waiting 30 seconds for a bottle