Update: Eight Months!

(Photo) Eight months old!

Dear Adrian;
This past month you have been channeling the spirit of Evil Knievil. You now lunge from furniture onto anything that will hold your weight, which causes me to have a million tiny heart attacks a day. To add to your death-defying repertoire, you have begun to pitch fits. Yes, at 8 months old, you are the expert at temper tantrums. I didn't think we'd have to deal with that just yet, but what do I know? I'm the woman who thought you'd crawl before you'd walk. You've decided that the whole crawling thing is definitely overrated, and you won't bother with it.

You've been a busy boy: learning how to wave, eating just about anything we'll give you (you have a deep love for plums and Thai food), and playing in the baby pool.

You're a water baby, through and through. You love to take a bath, play in the pool, or watch your Nana water her garden. We've resorted to bathing you when you're super grumpy in the evenings--it's as though the suds make you into a whole new kid.

The past few nights you've slept for 7 consecutive hours. I think you're just teasing me--you're not actually getting ready to sleep through the night yet. You've pulled this stunt twice before and I'm not falling for it this time, buddy. I've resigned myself to never sleeping through the night again. You are getting better about going to sleep, though. Now that your father and I have figured that you need to cry yourself to sleep, we let you. Way back when you couldn't even hold your head up, it seemed mean and cruel--now that we've made it a whole 8 months we realize it's crueler to keep you up and risk skipping a nap. That whole live-and-learn thing is really working out for us.

You've also developed a sense of the absurd, and when we play up to it you reward us with a full-belly laugh. Just this morning your Nana put your socks on your hands and you thought it was riotously funny. You also enjoy it when we try to squeeze our giant selves into your teeny tiny clothing. Not that it's that teeny-tiny--you now wear clothes for babies 18-24 months. We may have to start dressing you in toga-style bed sheets and tell everyone we're celebrating your Italian ancestry. How did you get so big?

We're a busy bunch with you around, and we look for all kinds of opportunities to take you places. You love to go out and see what there is to see. It doesn't matter how tired you are, you perk up instantly when we take you out of your car seat. The grocery store, the mall, restaurants, the zoo--all of it is the most exciting place you've ever been. You love to flirt with women--especially women with jewelry. You've retained your crow-like affinity for all things sparkly (which pleases me), and you're constantly trying to remove your Grandpa's jewelry. The rest of us find it hilarious, your Grandpa is a little less amused.

You may not remember the time we spent in Illinois, but I hope you remember that you're surrounded by people who love you.

Love,
Mama