Eight months

My dear boy,

I'm sad to say that I am starting this report the same way I started it last month---you're sick! It's just terrible. Runny nose, congestion, cough, lack of appetite, lack of sleeping. You had your first trip to Urgent Care this afternoon to rule out an ear infection. Unfortunately, a little peace of mind doesn't come without a price--a 30-minute drive, a $25 co-pay, and a 45-minute wait. Oh well. Glad to know it's nothing life-threatening!

In other news, you are eating lots of different foods. Your favorite thing to eat is yogurt with bananas. You aren't crazy about your vegetables! And you still love mangoes. :) You also have more teeth to "chew" food with--the two on bottom and four on top! Ouch.... You were starting to sleep a little better before you got sick. For two nights in a row, we didn't hear from you until 4:00 am! That's a big deal around here. It's hard to believe that you actually slept through the night for two weeks back in July. Not sure what happened!

You are having a great time playing with Connor everyday. And you enjoy the girls, too. They mostly just make you giggle. So does Homer the dog! When I say, "Where's the puppy?" You look around until you see him. You're brilliant. :)

You experienced your first Halloween a couple of weeks ago. It wasn't really any big deal, though. I got your costume on to take a picture with Connor and Kaelin, and we stopped by Mimi and Poppa's with it on to help me justify buying it in the first place! It was a freezing cold night, so it wasn't worth going to anyone else's house. We only got one family of trick-or-treaters at our house!

You are talking like crazy. Unfortunately, none of it makes sense yet. Lots of "bababa" and "dadada" and "jafkeicajvuoawut," which I think means something in Slovak.... Sometimes you'll wake up in the morning or after a nap and just start talking to yourself. You also like to stand up in your crib and shake it like crazy. It's a very funny sound through the monitor.

We are SO looking forward to the holidays with you. Thanksgiving is this week. And Christmas will be so exciting! I have a feeling you're going to be a spoiled little boy. It will be very interesting to see what you do with a Christmas tree. Your big thing lately is pulling yourself up on things. If you do that with a tree, you'll end up on the ground with a tree on top of you. Not a good thing. We'll have to talk. We have gates everywhere to keep you out of trouble. Poppa made a terrific gate for the stop of the stairs. And there are gates at both entrances to the kitchen to keep you out. It took you breaking a bowl and measuring cup and getting into the cat's water one too many times, but the gates are up!

You are growing like crazy. We look at pictures from when you were first born and we can't believe you were ever really that tiny! And you weren't a tiny baby! It's so fun to watch you grow and learn new things. I love every stage you go through, and I can't wait to witness the ones yet to come. Thanks for being a swell kid!

Love you,
Mom