You've also been spending lots of time in a crawling position - on your hands and knees, and rocking back and forth. Like if you could only get your arms and legs to do what your brain was telling them, you'd be zipping around in a flash. For now, if you go anywhere, it's backwards, which is very endearing. You do sort of drag yourself forward like a soldier with your arms, but you don't make it very far. And just on the 18th, your official 8 month mark, you began pulling yourself up to a standing position in your crib. Time to lower that mattress! I am just astounded with all the new things you are doing - your body has become so strong, and your will to get places is even stronger. Your daddy keeps trying to show you all about crawling - I'm just fine if you want to hold off a little longer on that - more work for me once you are mobile!Aside from learning lots of new things, eight months has been fun in the food department. You're able to try lots of new things now, so we've introduced butternut squash, apricots, and…I'm less proud to admit - french fries and pizza! Just little pieces - mostly to keep you content while we were eating, but it's fun to be able to give you little bits of real food now and see you work on it. You discovered your tongue, which sounds kind of weird but is the cutest thing ever - you stick it out all the time and make funny faces and run it over your lips - it's this little pointy thing, it kills me when I see you playing around with it. Add to that your third tooth (on the bottom - kinda crooked!) and there's all kinds of stuff going on with that mouth these days.
You've also had an adventurous month - we've taken you all sorts of places. You saw gospel choirs perform at Eastbrook Church, saw the Watoto African Children's Choir perform at Brookfield Christian (that was cool!), you went with me to vote in a recall election for the governor of Wisconsin (my little activist!), AND - we went on our first family vacation! We took you up to Door County for a little over a week - we always take a vacation to celebrate our anniversary (it was SIX years this time, which is hard to believe). I love your daddy so much and look forward to these trips all year - and it was such a blast to have you along for the ride. Definitely different, vacationing with a baby, but still loads of fun.
We spent the first four nights in Ephraim, which we've never done because it's usually straight up to Washington Island, and tried to squeeze in all of the things we say we want to do as we drive by on our way to the ferry. I think we tackled most of them - beaches, eating at the little cafes and restaurants, Penninsula State Park, antiquing, and my favorite memory of all - a drive-in movie! Your dad and I wanted to attempt this on the day of our anniversary, so we very strategically put you to bed that evening in your car seat, and whisked you off unknowingly for the 9pm movie. Of course, you woke up 20 minutes in, but proceeded to stay awake and watch the movie with us, from your daddy's lap, in the front seat! We could not believe it, and the memory still makes me chuckle. So your first movie experience was at the drive-in, just over seven months old, and you saw Men In Black 3. Not the most cultural film ever, but it kept you entertained! The little cabin we rented turned out to be a less of cozy, quaint log home and more of a dark, dank, one-room shoebox - which was a little challenging with a baby who goes to sleep at 7 pm, but we made it work by putting your pack 'n play in the kitchen, hanging an ugly afghan over the door, and doing our best to not have to go to the bathroom, get anything to drink, or make too much racket the rest of the night. Needless to say, we were glad to head to the island for the second half of the trip. We spent the rest of the week playing in the sand, hanging on the sunny deck, riding bikes and taking walks on the beach. It was perfection. I couldn't help but picture what it would be like if we are blessed with more children - to spend the days watching you play with your little brother(s) or sister(s)…how sweet it will be!
So, Toots, I'll wrap this up. I love you so very much I can practically feel my heart getting squeezed in my chest. I love watching you learn and showing you new things, taking you new places, running all over with you and your daddy. He especially enjoyed this month, since it was the first time except right after you were born he got to spend a whole, uninterrupted week with you. It was hard for all of us to get back to the "real world". I can only imagine what the next month will bring!
Love,
Mama
