8 months

Hey Keat,

Your brother likes to grab your shoulders and put his forehead against yours and say "Oh Keat, Keat Keat - on!"  It's usually when you're grabbing his jumbo puzzle pieces or pulling at his shirt to get his attention.  You are so interested in everything he does and I try to let you join in the fun as much as possible.  But, oh boy, when you are fully mobile we are in big trouble.  I'm stock piling toys that are safe for you and slowly filtering out the too small stuff... This is like baby proofing to the extreme the second time around.

You are more and more aware of those around you.  You had your first serious case of the daddy clingies around the middle of the month.  Right when you heard him come home you would call for him and keep calling until he scooped you up.  You love to say Dadadadadadaaaa and you say it more often when you see your dad.  You love being a daddy hat with your little hands gripping tightly to dad's hair.

You are a slobber monster. The panda tongue is out full force which is such a cute stage but it just generates more sloppy slobbers.  You love giving raspberries and it is sometimes so well timed in a conversation it makes us laugh. Tssssbbb, that's what I think about that!  Aiden says that your zurberts sound like you are "a puddle monster singing the puddle making song!"  They certainly generate puddles of the slobbery product you like to try to smear in my hair.

You've started one of Aiden's former favorite baby games were you try to feed us slobbery play food or your sock.  Your hands are always grabbing at something.  You even grab at the circles printed on our sheets thinking they are rings.  I thought you might have an ear infection this month because you really liked grabbing at your little ears.  Around that same time, you spent an entire night just wanting to play and fussing at us for not turning on the lights.  Whoosh, glad that idea only lasted one long night.

Your fun building toy became even more fun when I realized you could put batteries in it and it will spin.  You like to sit with you legs tucked under like a lap desk.  You will accidentally scoot a toy under it and then a few minutes later you are bending down to look if it's still under there. With stuffed animal friends you are usually looking for tails to pull and naturally you pull it right into your mouth. The fluffier the better...

At carpool, one of the teachers at Aiden's school came out to help get Aiden in, and he made Aiden laugh by saying that it looked like you had "your office" all set up.  Your band of toys seem to do the trick to keep you busy working in the car most days.  You were doing better with the car and I thought you were reformed.  Now if you see me sitting in the chair behind you, you are angry I won't pick you up.  You look at me with your pouty lip pointed, and oh man that is tough.

You've just started standing and bouncing at your leap table a bit.  You will lean in with your knees bent for a while to get at the fun spinner.  There is some swaying up on your haunches but no real crawling.  You prefer to be sitting or on your back.  When you are lying on your back you like to kick and slide across the floor shimmying on your back.  But for the most part if I put you in one spot you stay there, and I know my days are numbered before you are bouncing off the walls around here.

You started clapping your hands together at your grandparents this month.  I believe that you'd just entered a sensitive period  (a la Maria Montessori) when the robot puppy and enthusiastic grandparents came into to seal the deal.  I love your surprised face when you get your hands together in a real clap.  It is the same kind of surprise when you make a loud noise by dropping something.  You will look at me with concern as if you are saying, "Hey mom where did that come from?!"

Bath time is brother bonding time.  We've taught your big brother that he can swap toys with you but only if he convinces you to trade.  No nabbing toys out of your hand.  So it's funny to see him try to make a deal with you.  You somehow manage to protect your original toy.  Getting out of the bath is not your favorite... but we can usually get you to quiet down with a quick chant like "drip dry the little guy" while bouncing you around in front of the mirror.  All bets are off again when it's time to get jammies on tho...

Thanks to all the mirrors in this house you understand that if you see me in the mirror that you can look over your shoulder to find me.  A good look in the mirror can calm you or get you really worked up because you want to play with that baby in the mirror.  If your brother starts googooing at you in the mirror you will reach out to grab him.  The giggles that you two create with each other is my reward after building a tall tower to knock down or after a long night of cuddling a sniffles guy while the other wakes up at 4am hungry.  Oh, those giggles make me feel so grateful.  That and when your brother bounces out the door to school and says "Cya later tiny alligator!"  Reason #588999 to have siblings ;)  This upcoming month will be another month filled with reasons to be grateful.
Love, Your Grateful Mama