Dear Sawyer: 8 Months!!!

Last night, I lay awake in bed unable to sleep due to various thoughts bouncing around in my head.  Not one of these thoughts were significant enough to keep me from sleeping.  I thought back to the time we brought you home from the hospital, you ate every two hours leaving me an hour tops to fall back asleep at night.  I would lay there visualizing a black circle and try to think of nothing else, literally boring myself to sleep.  Reminiscing on that time forced me to that realization, once again, of how quickly time passes.  Here you are, eight months old, sleeping through the night, taking naps like a champ, sitting up on your own, eating tiny pieces of my food.  You are my boy now.  Boy.  I can't say baby and it makes me sooo happy and equally sooo sad.  

Man, I'm not really sure what to say.  You amaze me every day, every minute, and each day that passes we know each other more in depth.  I'm noticing that you one of my best friends, we hang out every day, read books together, roll around on the floor, squish food between our fingers.  It's fun.  I'm teaching you how to grow up and you are teaching me how amazing the simple things are in life are, like texture, colors and sounds.  The world is an interesting place, I'll give you that, and I'm so thankful that I get to help you explore each ounce of it one step at a time.

January was a good month.  It was calm, I'm sure everyone felt the calm.  The holidays were over, the traveling was over and it was just me, you, and daddy hanging out, taking a breather.   We went back to our basic schedule.  Wake up, eat, play on the floor, read a book, have some cereal, take a nap, repeat (Plus or minus the cereal part.).  It was nice having things calm, normal, and though it sounds boring, we were busy.  You no longer are content playing alone, even for a little bit.  You require me to be there, you like to show off, you like to do something (Bang on a toy, dump toys out of a bowl, push a button to make music play, etc.) and make sure I watch.  If not, scream to get my attentions, do it again and smile, like, see mom, see how smart I am?!  Yes, I know you are smart, once again, you amaze me every day, but lets work on that scream thing, shall we?

Onto the screaming.  Wow, where did this come from?!  Full blown screams!  Screams of joy, screams of excitement, and sometimes, those dreaded screams of anger, COME PICK ME UP NOWWWWW!   This is something we will have to work out, screaming out of anger is not acceptable, my love.   Daddy or I will set you down and try to get something around the house done, we'll get maybe five minutes out of you, and you are sooo over solo play time.  You want one of us, usually me, and it starts with some crying, then,  "mamammammmama", to full blown screams.   Relax.  We are here, we are your parents, we are crazy about you, we love to hold you, but we can't hold you 24/7.  It's not good for either of us.  A scream like that now means you go straight to the crib.  Once this started happening, your fits, I decided to read about about it and what to do regarding these fits.  Eight months old and we are getting fits, ALREADY?!  Just like every time before, I researched, read whatever I could get my hands on and the consensus is... no discipline until nine months.  Nine months is the magic number.  You've got one more month to go, if I were you, I would milk it!

This month we officially booked our sailing trip.  June, we are charting a boat with Becky, Dave and your buddy Ethan.  You will be one year then, I'm thinking of it as a 'happy birthday Sawyer', and 'good work mommy for pushing that thing out' sort of gift.  I can not wait for this!  Of course I couldn't help myself from buying you and Ethan a little sailing shirt.  They are totally adorable and I can't wait to take a million pictures of you two little guys out on the open sea.  Speaking of our buddies, this month they moved away from us.  They are only about forty minutes away but that is a HUGE difference than three blocks.  We had a sleepover at their new house and each time we drove up their mile long (no joke) driveway,  I couldn't help but think of all the fun you two are going to have and how much trouble you are going to get into together.  We are going to have to keep our eyes on you two!!!

This month, you realized that rolling over can get you to where you want to go.  You roll in your crib, you roll around on the floor but you always decide the rolling over game is finished when you are on your stomach.  You still HATE to be on your stomach.  You scream for me to come pick you up, reach your little arms toward me and of course I cave it.  Your pouty face is one of the cutest I've seen! 

 This month also marks the first month you liked your bath.  You splash!  I know, I shouldn't be excited, or even encourage it, but when you acted like bath water was some sort of acid to your skin, curling up trying to avoid being placed in the tub just last month to enjoying your bath and splashing this month, well, it is a feast to my eyes.  I was so excited the first time it happened.  I'm also realizing now that you are enjoying water time, mommy can get a few dishes done next to you.  Before a bath was all business to you, get in, wash body, wash hair, rinse and get you out of there before  you start to cry.  BUT with this new splash stuff going on, bath time is a whole new world for both of us.  I'm sure next month my letter to you will be me pleading for you to stop soaking the floors, but for now, I'm enjoying the water logged kitchen!  

I can't end this letter without talking about one thing I am extremely thankful for: Cuddling.  You are cuddling with me!!!  My eyes just about water ever time.  You reach for me, put your arms around me like in a big hug, and rest your head on my chest.  It's amazing.  You were never a cuddler, ever, even as a new born.  Once you could hold that head up, you kept it up.  You wanted to see the world, everyone around you, what was going on but now, NOW, you cuddle, and have cuddled on more than one occasion.  It has been at least once a day now, for a few weeks.  I can't get over how much I love this, how much I missed you not cuddling with me before and how much I realize you are going to be able to walk all over me and get away with it by just one cuddle from you, my boy, my eight month old.

I love you big boy!  Happy eight months mister!

Your mama