8.5 Months Old

Natey is 8 1/2 months old.  I just love love love having a baby in the house.  I love looking down from preparing a meal and seeing my industrious baby crawling across the floor like some adorable wind up toy.  Sometimes he has a sock in his mouth and then he looks like an adorable wind up puppy.  I can't get over how hard he concentrates to get his fat, dimpled hands to pick up tiny pieces of peaches to shove in his mouth.  There's no better sight than his sweet, soft face sleeping next to me during a nap.

Sometime in November he started to stand.  He just rises straight up from the floor instead of pulling up on something and then letting go.  Lately, he's been squatting to play.  He looks like a tiny, clothed Samurai playing with blocks.

He's recently developed strong opinions.  Here are a couple of his opinions from the last day or two.

Hey, that looks like delicious ice cream.  I would like some delicious ice cream.  Where is the ice cream for the baby?!  Iiiiice Creeeeam!

Hey, it appears that you are playing Go Fish.  The baby would like to play Go Fish.  Please give the baby a Go Fish card.  I need a card.  I need a card!  I need a caaaaard!

He has four little teeth that came in all at once over Christmas.

He does not sleep particularly well.

The older kids climb into bed with us in the morning and argue over who gets to hold and love and squeeze him.  I almost lost my mind tonight in the grocery store, because Ellen and The Bairn wouldn't stop grabbing Natey around the neck or leaning on him in the cart or generally loving him too hard while we waited for my prescription to be filled.

He is such a gem - sweet and cute and lovely.