8 is Great

Little Meips, you are 8 months old! I can scarcely believe it. In fact, I still pause whenever anyone asks me how old you are. Time is zipping by all too quickly, and much as 1-2 is my favourite age, I still want to hang on to your baby-ness for a while longer. Especially when you’re just so impossibly cute.

There have been big changes in our home this month, with Aunty M leaving and a new Aunty M taking over. Unsurprisingly, you were not happy about it, though all things considered, you adapted pretty well. For the couple of days after she left, you looked a bit confused and kept looking around. It looked like you were wondering where she was. Poor baby. We gave you extra cuddles over that period and fortunately, after a slightly more fussy couple of days, you were back to your normal self.

The other good change that happened this month is Mummy stopping work and having more time at home with you. That has been a good thing at least I hope! Certainly Mummy here is glad that I’m able to be by your side a bit more as you explore the world around you.

And explore you have!

These days are you crawling all over, standing when you can, and cruising as you please. I’ll bet you can’t wait to walk, especially when your Gor-Gor overtakes you on foot as you are on-route to some prized object. There are times when you would recklessly let go all support, whirl around and lunge in another direction, giving me a bit of a scare in the process. You’re my little daredevil in disguise, all ready to rock and roll.

You are also lightning quick with your hands, and a real nom-ster. Everything, and I do mean everything, continues to go into your mouth. Your favourite item? Tissue paper, followed closely by mail. I’m sure you know you shouldn’t be chewing on these items because you’ll casually hold the items while I’m watching you, then when my back is turned, you quickly go for the kill.

Luckily or unluckily for you, being #2, I’m pretty relaxed about your chewing tendencies, since I know it’s just a phase, and I figure it wouldn’t kill you. Still try to lay off the paper won’t you? Just today you ended up with blue-tinged lips from the construction paper. Ack.

I’ve tried to give you finger food instead to encourage better eating habits. Your teething rusks have been quite a hit, as have the all-time favourite, Baby Bites. Your Gor Gor still loves those so he’s constantly fighting for them with you! I’m sure the fact that things are always getting snatched out of your hands has enhanced your death grip, because you sure do have one! Man, is it hard to pry things from your fingers!

But while your grip cannot be faulted, you still have quite a lot of work to do on your pincer grasp. I’ve started giving you yet another of Gor Gor’s favourties, the Gerber stars to help you practice. It’s been entertaining for me try to see you figure this out! For you, not so much I think.

So your self feeding needs a bit of work, but otherwise, you’re doing great in the food department. I did manage to put you on 3 meals and you’ve been polishing off your food with gusto. Your milk intake has taken a bit of a hit though. For about a week, you hardly drank in the day despite milk being offered to you repeatedly. I was more than a bit heartbroken from having to pour away some bottles EBM. Of course it figured that the day I left instructions to spread out your feeds when I was at the office, you decided you were ravenously hungry for milk, which led you Popo to question my judgment. Sigh! Your intake generally is on the low end, but I since you eat quite a bit — between 100 to 120ml of pureed goodness at every meal — I haven’t been overly concerned.

Sleep — such an important commodity these days! Sleep has improved somewhat from the previous month, though we still have our good days and bad days. It has helped that your daytime schedule has settled down somewhat and you’re now able to nap for longer stretches. It has made it harder to bring you out because you obviously sleep better at home and I prefer to keep you well-rested. Over-tiredness for you only means sleepless nights for me! But when the stars are aligned — you are not sick, you are not feeling too warm or too cold, and you ate and drank well in the day — you sleep through the night. Otherwise, I could be trudging to your room through the night. Ah well, it’s part of the job isn’t it? It does make me quite a grouch when your father wakes me up to send him to the office in the morning though.

Oh, by the way, you’ve moved from being a thumb-sucker to being a pacifier baby these days! Your Popo managed to get you to take it and you’ve been sucking away happily since. It has made it easier to put you to sleep, and sometimes, when you wake up and see your pacifier, you’ll pop it in and drop back to sleep. Unfortunately you’re equally prone to pulling it out of your own mouth when trying to sleep and yelling about it.

When you’re awake, your days are full and happy. You’ve got the biggest smiles, and that has everyone eating out of your hand. You are happy and you are loud, shrieking with excitement when you’re playing. Even when sitting, you’ll bounce up and down on your bum when you’re excited, usually when Gor Gor is running around.

And you’ve learnt to wave! It really looks more like you’re banging the surface in front of you, but it’s a wave nonetheless.

I am very grateful that you are a relatively independent baby. As long as I am in view, you are happy doing your own thing, which usually involves munching your toys or Gor Gor’s things. You do get rather unhappy when I walk away from you though. If I wait, I will hear the purposeful sounds of your hands and knees as you come searching for me.

You still show a very clear preference for me, which kind of makes up for the times you keep me up at night!

As for your Gor Gor, it seems to be a love-hate relationship at the moment. You get excited when he’s around, but he can get a bit too much for you. And when he starts taking things away from you, or gets a bit rough, you have learnt to howl, and howl loudly, for help. I have been telling you not to cry of course, but I know and you know that it works!

And so, just like that, it’s been 8 months.

We love you, our little sweetheart. You and your girly ways. The way you lay your head on our shoulders or cuddle up to us randomly. The way you throw back your head to look at me and go “Ah!” expectantly to chat. The way you cock your head to one side. The way you give me little unexpected kisses on my face. You have been a little ray of sunshine since the day you entered our lives. We are so glad you are ours!