8 months old!

Dear Colterman,

What a great month! This is by far my favorite time of year and we have had so much exploring the world together! Speaking of exploring, this month was a big one- you are now mobile! You have been on your hands and knees for many weeks, and then all of a sudden you started moving forward! It is so fun to watch you crawl around the house checking out things that you have never been able to before- the door stopper behind the bathroom door, the basket full of shoes, all the different toys in your room, the frames on the ground, and even left over puffs that landed on the carpet. I have been saying "no touch, danger" and "no touch, dirty" quite a bit lately.

Needless to say, I have been washing your hands quite a bit more these days! You also love to explore outside. The minute I set you down, you start feeling the grass with your hand and frantically crawl after leaves that have fallen down.

You love to study and think about things you see. On the way to check the mail, I usually stop at a tree by our house that has turned fiery red. You grab the leaves and squeal in delight as they krinkle in your hand.

You have also started pulling yourself up, mainly on your toy basket. You still love to stand, and are definitely getting stronger. You are experimenting with lifting both hands off of whatever you are standing by to play with toys. You can hold it for a few seconds before falling to the ground.

You are getting taller and taller, and are now wearing size 4 diapers, and mostly 12 month size clothes. You have thinned out quite a bit since you have started standing and crawling the majority of the time. You are also cutting your first tooth! I was so surprised when I felt in your mouth and discovered the pokey little ridges of your first tooth. You haven't seemed too bothered by teething yet, just giving me lots of poopy diapers to change.

I am biased because I am your mom, but I think you are an absolutely beautiful baby. From your deep blue ocean colored eyes,

to your long lashes,

to your golden hair that is turning blonder daily.

You are SO chatty all the time now. It is amazing how much you have to say.. I just wish I knew what you were thinking about. It's so fun to watch you see something and then see you start talking about it.

You continue to love to eat. You don't seem to be getting full from the purees I make, so we've started to feed you some chunky food like squash, toast with applesauce, shredded cheese, turkey, cheerios, and pears. You've started to rub the food into your hair when you are eating, which gives you an interesting look.

Some of your favorite toys this month are your yellow giraffe chew toy, the smallest cube of your alphabet blocks, paper, the long caterpillar, the triangle jingle man, the jumperoo, your standing activity center, and anything you can stand up on or by- the chairs, sofa, and tree trunks.

You love to shake and jingle things with your hands. Things that you wish were your toys but mom ruins it for you are my cell phone, the laptop, the scale in our bathroom, the sliding drawers on the entertainment center, and the trash can. You still love water and really enjoy splashing. You are really getting into peekaboo, and especially love it when we both go under the blanket to surprise dad. You love music and always perk up when I play your kidz in motion cd or caspar babypants. Your favorite songs (mine too) are googly eyes and freeze. You love being outdoors, especially swinging at the park.

As far as sleep goes, nights are totally hit and miss... some nights you'll sleep until 4 or 5 and then go back to sleep until 6ish, other nights you're up at 9:30 SO mad and it takes a while to get you back to sleep. BUT... with regards to naps I have some fabulous news! On my birthday, you woke up early from one of your naps and I really didn't want to ergo you. I decided to let you cry for 30 minutes and much to my surprise, you fell back asleep! From that point forward, I have not ergoed you one time this last month! Some times you take a short nap, but most times you take an 1 1/2 hour nap. This has been such a huge blessing for me.

One of my favorite new developments from this past month is that you now reach out for us when you want to be picked up. I love coming in to get you after you wake up. You are usually on your hands and knees rocking in your crib and the minute I open the door, you start to crawl towards me, usually making a panting excited noise. You are starting to have some separation anxiety- you definitely like to have one of us around. I have been paged to get you out of nursery a few times because you have been fussy... it makes me giggle inside when I round the corner to get you and the minute you see me you start to lurch forward and amp up the crying. You will often be standing at something, and will turn around to see if I'm still there. When you realize I am right behind you, you will turn around and fall into me, giving me a big hug. I think you are really close to learning how to "give kisses", but don't do it all the time.

Your dad and I love you SO much.

Love, mom