Dear Junior

Dear Junior,

Here at Ama and YeYe's house, we three (you, Daddy, and me) are sharing a single room, so we all sleep in one queen-sized bed with you in the middle.  (Only when nursing does "Mommy in the middle!" happen for a few minutes.)  I was trying to sleep just now, but ended up just watching you sleep peacefully beside me.  I realized that it is a gift to just lie down next to you and watch you sleep.  Daddy gets to do it pretty frequently, since he often puts you down for a nap in the big bed right before Mommy comes home, and he lies down next to you to read or do work.  But Mommy doesn't see you do this hardly at all; most of the time when I'm home, you sleep in your crib.  So I love watching you sleep up close.

My dear ducky, you are almost eight months old.  I keep thinking that we are only four months away from completing one-eighteenth of your time at home (assuming you follow the usual schedule).  How is time flying by so fast?  Let me note some of the special things that are going on with you these days:

• You've long since moved on from the ducky bag for bedtime. Nowadays, you wear the ridiculous pajamas (i.e. very gobby-looking pjs featuring cartoon bunnies and bears and patched socks, with random English words and phrases like "Fun love friend welcome") courtesy of Daddy, with a sleeveless sleepsack over it. I miss the ducky bag. But I have finally gotten used to the ridiculous pajamas, and even enjoy watching Daddy do his whole "3...2..1...pantsed!" routine when he pants-es you before a diaper change.  You loved being pantsted too.

• You are ticklish.  We love pretending to eat your belly, with toothless gobbles from our big mouths to your belly.  You giggle and squeal, to our delight.  Other times, I tickle you with my forefinger, although you tend only to giggle or smile if I accompany the tickle with a very high-pitched "tiiiiiiickle tickle tickle!"

• You are my little adrenaline junkie.  You love all things that get your adrenaline going:  being "baby-pressed" (i.e. held high in the air, and back down again), being carried around as "Jamie Bond" (i.e. furtive, spymaster-style loping about the house and creeping around corners before pointing your wrist out and going "pew! pew! pew!" with your little fire-arm.  har. har. har), sudden drops of all sorts, running in the ergo, being startled ("Boo!"), and other such fun activities.  These things make you grin and laugh.  Your toothless grin is amazing.  I know I should want you to have teeth like a normal person, and I'm sure I'll be glad when those teeth come in, but for now...man, I love your toothless grin.  You are adorable!

• You're a little more vocal about your likes and discontents these days, which is actually quite helpful.  And you love sucking your left thumb. Sometimes you'll stick your pointer finger straight into your mouth, but the thumb-sucking is exclusively a left-hand affair.  And you look really cute sucking your thumb.

• You're getting used to eating rice cereal.  We haven't gotten too far on starting you on fruits and veggies, but we'll do that when we get back from vacation. For now, we just give you little tastes here and there of stuff.  You love gnawing our a peeled carrot stick or an empty watermelon rind or the middle of a large strawberry. Oddly, you also love sucking on lemon slices, which Daddy tried on a whim a couple days ago. Weird.

• You continue to struggle with your naps.  If we put you down for a nap, unless you're reeeeeally really tired, you resist it and flip onto your stomach. And you start to protest by protest-crying. So we play with you some more, and try again in a few minutes.  When you go down without protest-crying, or quickly find your thumb and start sucking and zoning, we know you're ready.

• Most of the time, you're pretty good about going down for bed. But sometimes we check in on you after a few minutes, only to find you flipped over on your stomach and grinning at us, in the dark, through the bars of your crib.  It always makes us laugh and shake our heads.  Funny ducky.  Time to SLEEP!  Other times, we go in and find you batting your pet frog or your two pillows around.  Sometimes you can go for an entire hour, quietly playing by yourself, before finally dropping down to sleep.

• You love pulling Mommy's hair. And tank top straps. And hairband.  You love watching us drink water (and always reach to get some yourself).  You love reaching for things that you're not supposed to touch on the kitchen table. You love sticking EVERYTHING in your mouth.  You love playing with all sorts of simple toys--straws, plastic cups, paper cups, placemats... and you love dropping them, over and over and over.  We now have a 3-drop rule.  Three drops, and no more picking it up. Sorry! It's for your good.

• You don't mind having your clothes taken off. But you tend to protest-cry when your clothes are being put on.  I'm not sure why.

• You love playing with the plastic ducky/water scooper during your bath. Between that and your left thumb, you are a happy camper.

• You still do that amazing thing when you sneeze...you sneeze, then make a cute little after-sound.  One time, I sneezed, and you made the after-sound. You little goofball.

• There's a picture of Mommy squatting next to a garden of daisies in Central Park hanging on our wall at home.  Whenever Daddy holds you up to the photo, you grin broadly and reach for the photo.  I love that you do that.

• The whole "Timber" routine doesn't make you grin on command anymore. Sadness. We'll have to find some other trick.  My "You are my Bathands" song still seems to have its magic charm in calming you down, though, particularly when Mommy holds you and rocks you at the same time.  :) Mommy loves it too.

• Not that it matters, but I have favorite outfits.  One is your striped onesie from Makie that you inherited from the Lee sisters.  I also favor your fleece jumper with large colorful polka dots.  Now that you have outgrown the ducky suit and your pink zebra outfit, those are my two favorites.

• Overall, you appear to be a very happy and content baby. You smile a lot, you laugh frequently, and you spend a lot of time sucking your thumb and taking everything in.  You are mild-mannered, not very demanding, and generally very chill.  You are so, so, so loved.  I think you know it. Hopefully you know it.

Love to Bathands,

Mommy