8 months

Dear Ransom,

You are eight months old today! With each month I hardly know how to write you...should it be a grocery list of achievements or more of a one snap shop of a particular moment that I don't want to forget? I'l go with a bit of both....
This month you've been working on how to become more "mobile"...currently you can scoot backwards(!!) on your stomach and bounce forwards when seated on your little rear. Who knows why you seem to find these two things easier than scooting/crawling forwards-but there you go...
You've also learned how to wave "hi" and "bye"...though you don't really do it exactly on demand but usually a good several seconds after it would be appropriate. Ah-well. Its cute nonetheless.
We've been spending a lot of time outdoors this month, since the weather has gotten warm-but not too warm ( at least just yet!) and you usually either spend your time bouncing in your outside exersaucer ( that I scored for $10!) and screeching at things that you're seeing in nature...or you lay on your back on a blanket and babble at the sky. Seriously, the sky is the best possible entertainment.
Your two favorite toys at the moment are your stacking rings, which you enjoy taking OFF the stacker and then waving around in the air one at a time. And then, you're all time FAVORITE FAVORITE toy...is...wait for it....an empty Emfamil Formula can. Its a little can that we got as a free sample before you were born and on a whim I gave it to you when we'd used up the formula. YOU LOVE THAT THING. You slam in on the floor, you bang on it with your fists or other toys and you wave it around in the air babbling at it. Pretty much making noise with that can is the greatest possible delight of your heart. Who knew?!
I suppose we should have never wasted any money on buying toys for you, because an empty can and junk mail envelopes will get you through the day.
One thing that WAS worth the whole dollar that I spent on it at a consignment sale, was a book called Peek-a-boo Zoo. Each page has an animal covering its face and then you fold down the flap to reveal the full face and it says..Peek-a...and then under the flap it has the animal's corresponding sound. When we first got it, I read through the whole book with you and you solemnly looked at all the pictures. The last page has a picture of a baby and it says, "And what do you say?" and then under the flap it says "BOO!"...and so I uncovered the baby and said "Peek-a-BOO says the baby!" and you just belly laughed!! It was as though you finally got the joke! All those animals had been playing peek-a-boo this whole time! And so we re-read the book, and this time you belly laughed at every single animal when it was revealed. What a great joke!

This month you decided that you wanted to go fully to having bottles for all your meals. This made me a little sad, since it was the end of an era for us, and it shows that you're growing up so fast! But I am SO happy that you decided to do this on your own terms and you absolutely love drinking your bottles all by yourself. Snuggling with you in the mornings with you and your bottle is still one of my favorite times of the day.
On a related note-you were teething again this month! And now you have a grand total of SIX teeth!!! Sadly this means that you are no longer a little vampire, but we had fun with that while it lasted ( which was several months!).


All my love,
Mommy