Today we celebrate eight months. There are certain times where I look at you and suddenly I see a different boy. Yesterday was one such day. It’s as if all the small changes you’ve made are put together and now you’re just older. I see it in your face, your actions, and your mannerisms. You’re becoming a small child right in front of my eyes.
May offered a bunch of new experiences for you. Some were as simple as napping at someone else’s house, or staying up past your bedtime because we had to be in Dallas one evening. Others, like our trip to Michigan, were big changes. And with everyone, you adjusted quickly and handled them like a pro. Daddy and I are so proud of you.
The month started off by celebrating Mother’s Day. You slept in a bit longer than usual that morning and gave me lots of love and kisses throughout the day. After church, we spent the afternoon together as a family (Daddy had just returned from a work trip to Chicago) and went out to dinner. It was a wonderful way to spend Mother’s Day.
Recently, we purchased a few new toys for you. They’re geared for older babies, and you’re having a great time learning to play with them. You stare intently as we show you how to use the toy and you try to copy our movements. You also figured out that you could hold two things AT ONE TIME! My goodness, you were excited. You’re very inquisitive about your toys. You’ll flip them over in order to see what is on the bottom. And you try to figure out how to open the battery case.
I think the next thing on your learning list is to crawl. You’ve become increasingly frustrated with your inability to move. Sure, you can use your legs to spin yourself around while sitting, but that doesn’t help you when your toy is too far away! Right now, you can either get your front half or back half into the air, but not at the same time. I can put you into the crawling position, and you’ll hold it for a few seconds before sliding your legs down into a frog pose.
Around the middle of the month, we transitioned you from your baby carrier into a car seat. This was a bigger adjustment for me than for you. The car seat itself wasn’t a big deal, but now you ride in the grocery cart when we shop and sit in a high chair when we go out to eat. You love it! When you were in your carrier, you just observed the world around you. You were very quiet and calm. Now, you are constantly moving, looking around and saying “hey” to people. I have to remember not to park the cart too close to an aisle because you’re likely to reach out and grab at whatever looks interesting. bigsmile
About a week before we left on vacation, you came down with your first cold. By way of colds, it was very light and short-lived. You were not at all pleased to have a plugged nose and woke up a few times during the night the first two days. We raised the incline of one side of your bed and that seemed to help. By the third day, you were improving and it was rather amusing you listen to you breathe. You sounded like Darth Vader. wink Eating was interesting, as you were not used to having to breathe and swallow with your mouth so there was a bit of coughing until you figured out how to do both.
Our trip to Michigan began with you waking at 1:30 am on the day we were to leave, for no apparent reason, and deciding to stay awake for a couple hours. You’re generally a great sleeper, so this was not expected and made our 5am wake up pretty rough. The rest of the day went quite smoothly, though. We, and our ton of luggage, got to the airport on time. The bus ride from the parking lot to the terminal alarmed you a bit. You weren’t used to riding without a car seat. The minute the bus moved, you grabbed onto Daddy’s arm and didn’t let go until we stopped.
Our departure time coincided with your nap time, so you fell asleep before we pushed back from the gate and slept for over an hour. While the takeoffs didn’t bother you, the descents hurt your ears. You didn’t cry, but you would wince or exclaim any time your ears popped. After a quick layover in Detroit, we arrived in Grand Rapids and headed to Kalamazoo. It didn’t take you long to reacquaint with Grandpa and Grandma. You seemed to remember that you’d just seen them a couple months ago. smile We had a day to settle in before the rest of the family arrived and you easily adjusted to the time change and stayed mostly on schedule with your naps and such.
You met so many people while in Michigan – your cousins, aunts and uncles, Daddy’s extended family, both sides of my family, and lots of friends. At every event you were social and happy. We figured out that you could visit for about two hours before you were ready for a nap. Not too bad for someone your age.
A few people asked if you ever cry. While you are generally the happy baby that everyone sees in pictures, you did have a good cry at 4:45 am on Monday morning. Your gums were really bugging you and you were not pleased to have them waking you at such an early hour. The heavy duty teething continued through much of the day Monday. Tuesday morning we woke to a new tooth! Your top right tooth had popped though. Since then, you’ve spent lots of time running your tongue back and forth across it.
Our return flights home were in the late afternoon, so we kept you awake as long as possible. You had a short nap around 2 pm, and by the time we flew from Grand Rapids to Minneapolis, you were ready to sleep. On the second (longer) flight, you slept the entire time. The gentleman who shared our row was especially appreciative. smile We arrived home late, but still went about your normal nighttime routine – nurse, pajamas, books – and you went straight to sleep. By the end of the next day, we were back to our regularly scheduled program.
Your Daddy and I are so proud of how you did on this trip. You exceeded our hopes for how things would go! This is really good since I know we’ll be doing more traveling in the future.
I love you, son!
XOXO
Mommy