Eight Months

Is it time to break out the ol' "where'd the time go" cliche? I think it is. Seriously, eight months? How'd that happen? The first four months seemed like a year, the second four months have seemed like a day.

And what to say about Mr. Christopher? Smiley? Check. Eating solid foods? Check. Loving his sister? Check.

He doesn't have any separation anxiety, but he is at the stage where he will be fine until he sees me. Then he realizes he has a problem. He is all smiles for everyone but me. Well, he smiles at me too, as long as I have assisted him with all of his needs first. So demanding!

I've been nursing him to sleep, and we decided we should try to move away from that, so I've been letting him cry it out a little. This works beautifully at nap time. (He cries while I put his sister to bed. By the time I am done with her he is asleep.) At bed time, not so much. In fact, I usually cave. I hate that sad cry; it is almost physically painful to hear it. Also, I want him to go to sleep so I can watch the 9 p.m. rerun of The Big Bang Theory. (We don't have cable.)

I've been working on sign language with him. He makes the milk sign, but I think he is using it when he is hungry, not necessarily when he wants milk. He has started waving, though. It is so fun when they start to communicate in ways other than crying. And he is pretty pleased with himself when he does it. He is babbling like crazy, and will make really, long angry speeches when I am not attending to him fast enough.

He loves books with pictures of animals - he tries to touch them. He loves the grass and sand at the park and has probably ingested a bit of grass. Clare hates the neighbor's leaf blower, but Christopher thinks the loud noises are funny. I know babies aren't supposed to have any screen time, but he gets such a huge kick out of watching videos of himself that I can't resist showing them to him.

Everyone who meets him talks about how happy he is. Of course, they're not here for his nightly meltdown at dinner time, but mostly they are right. Each morning when I get him out of bed, he grins and flails and then wraps his arms around my neck and nuzzles in for a morning hug. It is the best part of my day. My happy, happy little guy.