P.S. I've somehow managed to lose BOTH of my memory cards this month, and failed to take any pictures on my camera. So I've committed the ultimate mom fail, and only have grainy iPhone pictures. I'm sorry, sweet boy.
You're not crawling yet, but my heavens you're trying so hard to. Inevitebly, one of your chunky little thighs get caught underneath you, so you just sit there in this awkward tripod position. You've gotten both of your knees underneath you a few times, and you're great at crawling backwards. Otherwise, you just sit and rock on your hands and knees. While part of me is excited to see you conquer this new milestone, the other part of me wants to knock you down every time you get close to crawling. You're excellent at rolling over and bending forward. Since you haven't mastered crawling yet, you just lean reallllllly far over to get what you want if you can't reach it. This has resulted in quite a few bathtub scares as that little rubber ducky floats juuuust out of reach. There's nothing like a baby face plant in the bath tub to get a mama's heart racing.
You've learned to give kisses, and it makes this mama's heart so happy. There are some days that we just sit together for an hour and I soak up your kisses. I can't get enough! Plus, I'm fairly confident that the biggest argument for having babies is so that you can teach them tricks to perform on demand. We'll take this show on the road soon, and I'll set up a top hat. We'll collect tips for your college fund. "Come one, come all! Come see the kissing baby who also loves to give high fives!" I mean, I'd drop a 10 in your top hat!
I love watching you discover little things about yourself. You love that voice of yours, and will squeal until the cows come home. Daddy and I will squawk back and you - you LOVE that, and will squeal back. You still love slapping your belly and bath time. You've umm...discovered that you're a boy. And so the lifelong battle has begun to keep your tiny hands above your waistline.
you love miss Elizabeth!
be still, my heart.
You're currently rocking 9-12 month clothes. I don't have a clue as to what you weigh, since we don't have a checkup this week. My guess is roughly 22ish pounds. You outgrew your Baby K'Tan and your bucket carseat this month. Technically, you can still ride in your bucket car seat. But you're entirely too heavy to carry in that car seat, and it made you angry to ride in it, so we went ahead and changed you into a big boy car seat. We also got a Moby Carrier (not the wrap), and you love riding in that as well. It's nice for mama to have both of her hands available when we're shopping or hanging out around town.
the time we realized you were probably a litttttle too big for the daycare swing.
You're ready to adjust your schedule again, I'm just not sure how to adjust it. For about the last month, you've not really been interested in your afternoon bottle. So today, I told daycare to try and push back your morning bottle, and we'll see how you do skipping your afternoon bottle. Fingers crossed! You're still sleeping through the night (most nights). Your mama loves you more and more every night you sleep through the night. My heart does break a little since you don't like to be held to fall asleep anymore. I knew that day would come, but not so soon. If I hold you, you stay wide awake and cry. As soon as I lay you down, you reach for your stuffed animals, sigh a deep breath, and are out. Don't get me wrong, I'm glad I won't have to rock a 5 year old to sleep, but I'm just not ready to let you grow up yet. We put away all of your "baby" things. Besides the car seat, we put up the rock n'play (which you hadn't used in a while, but I couldn't bare to put it away), your bouncy seat, and your swing. I've also packed up alllll of your "baby" baby clothes.
The many sleep positions of GTG:
you slept like this for over an hour.
leg up in the air, mid feeding
trying out sippy cups with our avocado.
You had a busy month, but yet again - that's become the norm. We started off the month visiting with your mama's friends from her first job out of college. While I don't miss that job at all, I do miss those ladies. Maggie, Sarah, and Kacie loved loving on you!
We spent the Fourth in Alabama. It was your first trip since you were a month old. Your personality has changed so much since that last trip :) You had your first trip to the Lion's Club Kiddie Carnival, and had a blast! You were such a trooper and stayed up wayyyy past your bedtime (I'm fairly confident you were up until about 10:00 - your bedtime is normally 6:45). You also sat through your first full church service. When we go to church at home, you go to nursery, so it isn't a big deal if your feeding falls at 11:00am, or if you need a diaper change at 10:30. However, when we visit grandparent's churches, you never make it through a full service - UNTIL July 5th. Woot Woot!
in your July 4th shirt you made at daycare :)
We helped Uncle Corey & Aunt Katie move last weekend - you were NO help. Quite frankly, neither was I. Friday night, we were there pretty late so we put you on their king size mattress, which was just sitting on floor until they got the bed set up. You were so tired and were crying when I laid you down. I came in to check on you after about 15 minutes. Somehow, you wound up sitting up on the floor. I'm assuming you were so angry, you just flailed yourself off of the bed :) (don't call DFACS on us - we normally put him a crib...)
Mama and Daddy hosted a baby shower for your new friend who will be here in September this past weekend, so you spent some time with Mema and Poppa. Mema took you to visit Pepa & MawMaw, where you got your first Carter Burger Donut (once you get older, you'll understand just how lucky you are to experience this). When mama was growing up and would go to Pepa & MawMaw's, they'd always have a bag of donut holes with our name on them (just like Granny & Pop would always have a bag of twizzlers and milk for me - your mama has always loved sweets). I'm still pretty sad that you didn't bring me back a bag of donut holes, but I'll forgive you this time.
Mema found you a booster seat that is cow print (EAT MORE CHIKIN)
You also experienced your first cow appreciation day. You were dressed head to toe in cow attire, so you got a free chick-fil-a meal. Of course, you couldn't eat it all (or even an eighth of it), so your daddy ate two meals. You did enjoy some pieces of chicken though! You are your mama's boy :)
I remember first listening to this song when you were about 1 week old as I was feeding you. Of course, my hormones were raging, and I was sobbing. Here we are, 8 months later. My hormones are in check, and I'm still teary eyed listening to this song. I know you'll grow up - I can't stop that process. I follow @thegraygang on instagram - sometimes she captures the words of my heart so perfectly. One of her more recent posts reads like this:
"The hardest thing your children will ever do is grow...and I used to think that the sacrifice of motherhood was all about endless feedings and sleepless nights. and redefining yourself, your dreams, your marriage, your social calendar, and your five year plan. But I am beginning to realize that the real sacrifice is just watching them lose teeth, grow outta their shoes, learn to shave, get their hearts broken, and walk into the big ole world that awaits. It's both sad and happy. You can not have one without the other. Sadness needs happiness and happiness needs sadness. They must coexist in order for you to embrace the fullest that life has to offer. This is all part of the blueprint. so let those emotions run wild; leaving you feeling alive...and march on, mamas. March on."
My prayer is that you grow up to be a God-fearing Christian man, who respects and is respected by those around him, and of course loves his mama. You have the sweetest little personality, and every day I'm reminded just how blessed I am to be called yours. Happy 8 months, sweet boy. I love you.
