You've now been outside in this world for as long as you were inside my belly. What an amazing thing, your life! Zach and I are having so much fun with you - and you seem to be having a pretty gosh durn good time with us to.
In the last few months you've made some amazing advancements. For a long time you were crawling - backwards. Which was funny in a way, but we could see that it was frustrating to you. But you kept at it. Every time we put you down on the floor you promptly rolled over into crawling position and started scooting - backwards. And of course, just when we started worrying that you wouldn't figure out the forwards, off you went.
Watching you learn to crawl, and watching the neighbor's baby learn to crawl, has shown me how different each of you are, even at this young age. He was mobile months ago. By mobile, though, I don't mean he was necessarily crawling, per se. He was mobile really by any means necessary. At first it was a sort of butterfly, wave, thrust thing - I liken it to throwing your body in order to get it where you want it to be. So for months he has been scooting around his house. I must point out that he's a very proficient crawler at this point. But what's interesting to me is that mobility is very important to his personality - he's very active. You, on the other hand, are not quite so. And yes, I realize that you're 6 weeks younger than him. But the differences remain. Where he was mobile months ago, you spent a long time watching. Content to chew on a toy and see where he went with that. And later, you were still content to get on all fours and rock - just practicing and getting ready.
And then one day I came home from work and started our evening routine and everything changed. I put you down on the rug as usual and you got on all fours as usual. And then you crawled. Just like that. You took one hand and thrust it purposefully forward. There was no doubt about it, no question what you were doing. You were crawling. In perfect form, and within a few days you were almost completely proficient in crawling.
And almost as quickly you moved on to your next challenge: standing. You are a very skilled crawler, but, unlike the neighbor's baby, you're just generally less mobile and more content to study the toys at hand. Neither approach is better, it's just really interesting for me to see the differences. So now you crawl when there's something to get (or when you see Sadie - it's very hard for you to resist the magnetic forces of Sadie the cat) and at almost all other opportunities you practice standing up. Pulling up. Pushing up. Doing whatever it takes to stand up. Sometimes we try to get you to walk a little while you're up, but you don't seem so interested yet.
Often folks ask us how you are and what you're like. Mostly we use the word "mellow" to describe you. And mostly that's true. The few exceptions seem to be when you're getting a tooth (and then you just sporadically get upset and wake up a lot at night) and with the whole sleeping through the night thing. I never know how to answer that one when folks ask if you sleep through the night. Most of the time you sleep throughout the night. But you also wake up a lot. Sometimes more than others. Since I'm still not inclined to let you cry it out, at this point it's mostly just something we accept. Yes, there are nights when Zach or I have reached our limit, but as good partners in parenting one of us always seems to be able to pick up where the other can no longer.
We also tested the limits of your mellow-ness by taking you on a whirlwind tour of the east coast. We flew in to NYC and hit Manhattan like a storm. Or, perhaps Manhattan hit us. Either way, you were as wonderful as one could expect an 8.5 month old baby to be. Yes, there were issues - like one night where your sleep patterns were reminiscent of a newborn. But what else could we expect when we plop you on a plane and fly you three time zones away to stay in a tiny apartment you've never seen before? You were also fantastic when we spent 3 hours in Grand Central Station at the StoryBooth. What better way to improve your immune system than to let you crawl around on the floor there? ;) Although at the beginning of the trip you had an uncanny sense of timing, invariably falling asleep just minutes before we would arrive at our destination, by the end of the trip you were a pro at falling asleep in whatever place we found for you - be it a nest of pillows at Stacy & Jesse's apartment, or a Pack'N'Play at Warren & Ann's house.
Like I said - you are just amazing to us. And you compel us to do crazy things like quit our full-time jobs. Whenever we start to wonder what we were thinking leaving those stressful jobs we spend a beautiful afternoon watching you learn how to bang on the wooden drum that my brother made. Then we remember that you never hear someone regret spending too much time with their child.
So, for every month that we can continue to make it happen, we're so happy to have you help us learn how to live in today. Thank you for making our lives richer - and much more drool-filled.
