Macario is 8 months old!

Dear Son,

Today you are 8 months old! You have grown into quite a friendly, loving and smart little guy. No month has flown by quicker than this last month. Maybe it’s because we’re so busy with the holidays that I haven’t taken the time to savor every minute with you or maybe it’s because you’ve changed so much more in the last month than you have any other month!

I’d like to say it’s because of how much you’ve changed as I’d hate to think I wasted one second not appreciating you as much as I should. That probably really is the case though as you are well on your way into toddler-hood and you’re taking fast lane!

In your last update, I mentioned that you were still not “technically” crawling. You could get from point A to point B with no problem, but you did it while dragging the lower half of your body by the strength of your upper body. Well, you’re definitely a crawler now! You are so good at it now and it literally happened from one day to the next. You just got up and started to move right before our very eyes!

That’s old news though, because ever since you’ve perfected that skill you’ve moved on to bigger and better things. You, my big boy, are now trying to walk! You grab us by the hands and walk all around! When you get really excited you even pick up the pace to a little baby run, squealing as you go!

We bought you a walker for Christmas, but it doesn’t work well in our house because of the carpet. The only place you can really get some speed in that thing is the kitchen, but there isn’t a lot of room for the walker in there, so we still walk you around by the hands a lot of the time.

You are trying to walk on your own, but you don’t have enough balance for that just yet. You can pull yourself up on the couch and from there we’ve seen you try to take steps toward things without the support of the couch! At this point you fall over every time you let go, but you keep getting back up which leads me to think it won’t be long before you’re walking all on your own!

With all this walking, Daddy and I decided it was time to buy you some shoes. We hadn’t been putting shoes on you because we felt it was best to let your little feet be free, but now you need something to cover those little feet while you try to walk so we’ve bought you a few pairs of soft soled shoes which are so cute and really make you look like you’re all grown up.

Another new development is that you’re really good at playing on your own now! This is great because it can buy me a little time when I’m trying to get some housework done or make dinner. It’s really cute to watch you play with your stuffed animals. They all have smiling faces and you love smiling back at them (see you’re so very friendly)! I also love to watch you bang things together when you play. This is also something new you’ve learned over the last month and it’s cute to how excited you get when you hear the banging sound the toys make.

Even though my hands are freed up now that you’re able to play contentedly on your own, I’m still a little restricted because you’ve gotten to the “separation anxiety” stage.  If Daddy or I stray from your line of vision, you drop what you’re doing and come crawling to find us as you whine and cry. You’re quickly quieted as soon as you find me or Daddy.

I may have mentioned that you had some sleep troubles at your last update (if I didn’t then I should have because that was a special time *sacrasm*). I’m happy to say that things have gotten much better. We had one really rough night this month, but that was because you had your first ear ache!

It all started out with a little cold. As I usually do, I watched your behaviors for signs of the cold worsening or turning into an infection. I always observe you for things like you pulling at your ears which would indicate an ear infection, but you never did. Then one night you screamed when I went to lay you down at bedtime. It worried me a little, but you sometimes resist bedtime so I didn’t think much at first. You continued to scream every time I tried to lay you down. This continued until you exhausted yourself at 4 am!

I called the advice nurse at one point during the night and she explained that you were probably just teething and that I should do things to make you more comfortable. My gut told me it was more than that. I insisted that I thought you had an infection as something was bothering you that I could not see. Finally, I was given an appointment for the next day and was not surprised to find out that you had an infection in your left ear! I felt really bad when the doctor told me (not your normal ped.) because I kept making it worse every time I tried to lay you down that night as that increased the pressure on your little ear. That night we gave you your antibiotics and a greater dose of Tylenol and you slept like a dream.

The antibiotics you were on gave you a little trouble and we ended up back at the doctors this weekend to get you looked at for that.  The doctor was the on-call doctor and not your regular doctor. She was so nice and completely mesmerized by you. She kept getting taken off track and would just stop to admire you and your big round eyes. I totally get why she was distracted because there are moments where I get side tracked from looking at you. You’re just the most precious boy there has ever been!

You are the most precious at bedtime. That sounds funny, but I don’t mean that like it might sound. What I mean is that bedtime is the most sacred part of our day (mine and yours). I love that you snuggle into my arms and drift off so peacefully each night as I sing to you. From my perspective, the view of you as you drift off to dream land is pretty incredible.

Your bedtime routine is still the same, however, we have tweaked one thing. You now take your baths in the bathtub not your baby tub over the sink!  Daddy bought you a froggy gripper for the tub this past weekend, but before that I kept a good hand on you to make sure you didn’t slip. With the gripper in there you’re a little more free to play (I still keep a close hand on you). You love to try to pull the gripper off the tub and you also love to play with your bath toys. There is one that squirts and you seem to think it’s really funny when I use it to squirt water at you. With your baths being in the tub now, we’re a little more active than we used to be at bath time, but you still go down easily (most nights) so you don’t seem to be getting too worked up by the play time in the bath.

 Other things to note are that you know how to drink from a straw now and you can waive! You waive at me when I leave for work, you waive at Daddy when he walks in the door, you waive at strangers and warm their day with your sweet smile, you’re a waiving fool! It’s about the cutest thing I’ve seen you do so far.

I feel so blessed that I was chosen to be your Mommy. My life has never been the same since you came into it. I continue to try and savor every last drop from each day with you, and I only hope that our time together means as much to you as it does to me!

I love you forever and ever, my sweet baby boy.

Happy 8 months!