8 months

Liam, three days ago you finally produced a tooth. Make that teeth. Yes, two at once! Suddenly, it became much easier to forgive you for morphing into a monster these last few weeks. These teeth aren’t the bottom front teeth that are 'supposed' to come first; they’re uppers, and spaced widely enough at this time that I am pretty sure they’re not the middle ones. (Who knows, they may even be fangs.) They’re still just tiny sharp nubbins right now, definitely not fully emerged yet; I can’t wait to see your first toothy smile. In the meantime, you are busy making goofy faces by moving your tongue around to try to figure out what is going on in that mouth of yours. I know you are getting sick of me sticking my finger in there and I promise I will quit it sometime soon… just as soon as the novelty wears off.

You still eat everything in sight, having now moved on to finger foods: Cheerios (which you couldn’t get into your mouth just a couple of weeks ago, but are now able to shovel in… one at a time), Baby Mum-Mums, shredded cheese and Mini-Gos. You have even started eating carrots, much to my delight. You don’t make quite such terrible faces when we feed you chicken any more, though I am reluctant to try the beef again after such a bad reaction last time.

You continue to find new ways to entertain us. Lately it’s been by producing a series of fake coughs that you know will get our attention. You’d better be careful; I worry that you are The Boy Who Coughed Wolf, and that one of these days you will truly be choking on something and we will (horrors!) ignore you. You are starting to form true syllables when you flex your vocal cords, saying ma-ba-da-wa rather than just unintelligible nonsense (as if this were any more decipherable); though you also have discovered the joy of screaming just to hear your own voice.

In various attempts to entertain you, I have taken you out in the snow to make snow angels; arranged one-on-one playdates with Autum; and started to make use of the Children’s Room at the library. Of course, owing to the time of year, we also seem to spend a ridiculous amount of time shopping. Thank goodness for your short memory, because I have bought most of your Christmas presents with you in tow.

As Christmas approaches we have had fun sharing our traditions with you, decorating the tree (while trying not to let you break anything), wrapping gifts (while trying to keep the paper out of your mouth), and taking you to sit on Santa’s lap (while trying to stop the tears long enough to get just one picture!) I am so excited about the holidays this year. You will have no clue what’s going on, but I am beside myself to see how you react to the festivities. Will you remember your far-flung family who are returning home? Will you get a kick out of the presents we chose for you? Will you will yourself to stay awake as long as there’s a party going on, or will you shut down and go to sleep once it all becomes too much to handle? The coming weeks will tell.

Today, at 8 months old, you woke up at 7 a.m. You had wheat cereal with fruit and apple juice for breakfast, drinking from your sippy cup with almost no help from me. You wore your dark rinse jeans and a snowboarding graphic tee, with your basketball Robeez (and, of course, your bear hat and coat when we went outside). Your first nap was at 9 a.m., exactly on schedule, for about 75 minutes. After your nap I took you into the office; it turned into a long trip, as we had to stop and see grandma, my old department, my new department, Chad’s department, and miscellaneous coworkers throughout the building. You did cry a bit during this visit, when the crowd became too large and the strangers tried to hold you; but you settled quickly when you came back to me. For lunch you enjoyed Cheerios, a Mini-Go, and half a banana: a perfect meal of all your favourite foods! Next we went to the mall and got you weighed at Imagination Ink: 17 pounds 15 ounces. From the mall we went to playgroup. Your favourite toys today were the Fisher-Price fish bowl and anything that would make noise when you shook it. You also went after the other kids’ hair. We made a handprint Christmas ornament from salt clay, and then you fell asleep right as Circle Time was coming to an end. You napped at home for another 75 minutes, waking up just as Chad came home. We tried playing with you for a while before dinner, but it was becoming evident that you have caught your first cold, and you weren’t really in the mood. For dinner you had peas, rice and banana cereal and applesauce, though you didn’t eat as much as you normally do. We measured you after dinner – 27.75 inches. You still enjoyed naked playtime and a bath, and nursing (for the 4th time today) before bed, but your bedtime was definitely fussier and more prolonged than usual. You were finally in bed at 7:30, with the vaporizer running and the infant Tylenol at the ready in case you need it later tonight.