8 months old!

Dear Cooper,

Today you are 8 months old! You are getting to the age where you make us laugh on a regular basis. Almost every day you're attempting to do something new, which usually looks so funny.

Here's what you're up to lately:

Instead of dropping you down to 3 bottles a day, I've dropped you to 6 ounces, 4 times a day. You were seldom taking all 8 ounces at any of the bottles and I was having a hard time figuring out what times to give you the 3 bottles, so we're sticking with out same times, just smaller amounts.

You eat 3 meals a day (usually). For breakfast you typically have baby yogurt or fruit with cheerios. I've learned that you must have something you can feed yourself while I'm attempting to feed you your food. Eventually you'll feed yourself the entire meal, but for now I don't think you get enough if I rely solely on you to feed yourself. For lunch you typically have a fruit or a veggie with fruit puffs or saltine crackers. For dinner you have a baby food dinner, like spaghetti or turkey and veggies sometimes with cottage cheese, and I'll give you small pieces of whatever we're eating so that you have something to feed to yourself.

You're starting to outgrow some of your 6-9 month size clothes, but for the most part, you can still fit in them. I'm hoping that will continue until the weather gets permanently warmer because we have no cold weather 12 month size clothing. As soon as we use up all of the size 3 diapers, you will be moving up to size 4's. You've had too many leaks in the 3's, so I'm tired of that.

You still have not cut a tooth!! I'm so tired of all the drool and crankiness. I still can feel where one is slowly making its ascent but I am more than ready for it to pop through. And I know you are too.

You aren't much for baby babble. You prefer squealing/shrieking/screaming. But sometimes when you're fussy you say "mama". With Garrett, I stressed about his babbling and then later on his speech. He didn't really start talking until he was 2 1/2 and now I can't get him to stop talking. So I have no stress in the babbling area. Eventually you'll start and then I'll wish for a moment's peace. For now I'm enjoying the relative silence. Most of the time you have your paci in your mouth, which is probably why you don't babble as much. But I'm ok with that. :)

Physically, you are learning something new every day. You have completely mastered sitting yourself up from a laying down position. As well as moving from a sitting position to being on all 4's. You like to lunge forward when you're doing this in order to try and get yourself moving forward. You have finally started crawling forwards, after crawling backwards for a few months now. You're still slow and mostly do an army crawl rather than being on all 4's, but between army crawling, backwards crawling, spinning around on your stomach and being able to sit yourself up, you get around really well. Thankfully you haven't attempted to get out of the living room yet, but I know it's coming. The baby gates are ready and waiting in your closet. Your newest determination is trying to pull up. A negative to this is that we really don't have anything that you can attempt this on. So I've brought out a table of Garrett's and you try to pull up on it all the time. So far you've managed to get on your knees.

Your favorite toys are balls, anything with tags, and anything you can open and close. You love opening and closing books. You also love toys with music, as soon as the music starts, you start rocking back and forth.

You've also started shaking your head no and yes. Though it usually means nothing when you do it, it's still funny to watch. You did it for Nana and Pawpaw on Skype the other day and they thought it was hilarious.

You still love to jump in your jumperoo. But you've stopped jumping when people are holding you. I can tell you're trying to figure out your balance now so that you can stand upright.

You sleep 11-12 hours at night, which is awesome. I've discovered that you've decided you like throwing your paci's out of the crib. Unfortunately you only do it on the side of the crib that's by the wall. What's up with that? Throw them into the middle of the room so that I can actually get to them. You take 2 good naps a day. The first one is usually from 9:30-10:30 and the second one is 1:00-3:00. Those are approximate and obviously differ on the days Garrett has school since we have to pick him up at 2:00.

It's just amazing to me how much you have learned in a short period of time. I'm really enjoying seeing your personality shine and grow. And you're still my cuddler and enjoy lots of time being held whenever you can get it.