Letters to Nathan: Eight Months

Dear Nathan,

I feel like I say this nearly every month (uh, let's forget about the month that you didn't sleep, okay?), but this month has been the best so far. Your personality shines through more and more, and you're fun to hang out with.  You've got a silly sense of humour (you love peek-a-boo, surprising sounds, and you giggle when you toot!) and you are super smiley. However, you've also developed some stranger anxiety and when someone approaches that you don't recognize right away, you get shy or start to cry. It can take a bit of time before you are comfortable again, but I'm sure it's a phase that will pass.

This month I gave you your first haircut. You had really funny hair - short in some places and really long in others. When the hair on the sides of your head started growing down past your ears (and even Gong Gong mentioned a haircut), I knew it was time for a trim. You were starting to look like a baby hobo.

Happy Valentine's Day

Also, two major developments on the sleep front this month. First, you are sleeping through the night regularly now (about eleven hours), without needing a 4oz snack in the middle of the night when I used to dreamfeed you. Second, you no longer need me to bounce you to sleep for naps and lay down beside you. It felt bittersweet because I really loved our cuddly time together but I knew it was time for you to learn to sleep on your own for naps and you were getting too heavy to rock (you're about 21 lbs now, you little turkey). We have a certain routine before each nap and bedtime and you (usually) fall asleep with nary a protest. Considering the months of bouncing, rocking, soothing and outright pleading it took for you to fall asleep before, it's now downright magical.  So while sleep training is a controversial topic, for our family the pros outweighed the cons. We're all getting quality sleep now and everyone is happier for it. You're still taking three naps a day and they range from 20-90 minutes.

With Ah Ma and Daddy

You're getting more adventurous in your eating. Sometimes you like to be spoonfed, sometimes you like to pick food up yourself, and sometimes both at the same time. When you feed yourself not much of the food actually ends up ingested. A lot of it ends up on the floor or your face. You've tried cucumber, apple and pear slices and banana pops. Your favourite finger food is a Mum-Mum, a rice cracker for babies. I cringe when I see the huge mess you make but I try to let you explore your food as much as I can. I discovered that sometimes you don't really like your soft plastic baby-safe spoon, you prefer to be fed from a regular stainless steel spoon and use your soft spoons to bang around. Oh, and I also discovered that banana stains turn black! The laundry pile is getting ridiculous now that you've started to feed yourself.

You experienced your first big 30cm snowstorm and celebrated your first Chinese New Year, as well as Sarah's 2-month Moon Yuet.

With Sarah and your great-grandparents

Poh-poh discovered a second tooth on your lower gum, but you wouldn't cooperate with me to get a photo so I had to do some baby-wrangling.

Two teeth!

You're developing your hand-eye coordination really well. You are very deliberate in your movements when you want to reach out and grasp something, and you know that nearly everything will fit into your mouth. You sit up nicely too and you're improving your sense of balance. No crawling yet (I think your Buddha belly might be in your way, haha) but you've got strong legs and you like to "stand".

 

The rolls just keep on coming...

A hard day at the office

Your favourite time of day is when your dad gets home from work. As soon as you hear the key in the lock, you whip your head towards the door. When you see him, you give the biggest grin, start giggling and waving your hands like mad. It's the best.

You've got a 7pm bedtime, and when it gets close to that hour you start teetering on the edge of hysteria. I was prepping dinner in the kitchen one day when I heard some crazy laughter...

After eight months, I think I'm finally ready to admit that you're not a very laid-back baby. You've got strong opinions and you like to voice them emphatically. It's funny because when you were growing in my belly, I was so sure that I'd have an easygoing kiddo. But your dad reminds me that he was a pretty intense little kid and I had colic as a baby. Also, it's funny that when I was pregnant, I couldn't imagine what you would look like, and now I can't imagine what any other Jay/Michelle baby would look like. Check out the photos of me and your dad...it's almost eerie how much you look like a perfect little blend of both of us.

Who do you resemble more?

Love always,
Mumma