Erin Loves Brad: Letter to my Little Lily: 8 Months

Friday, December 16, 2016

Letter to my Little Lily: 8 Months

Lily-baby,

This past month went by in the blink of an eye. Since my last letter, you've celebrated your first Thanksgiving and begun celebrating your first Christmas season. It's been so fun to see you enjoying all of the fun and bustle going on around you. You are still the happiest baby that there ever was, and you are thoroughly enjoying life.

You're sitting like a champ these days and almost never topple over anymore. You can also army crawl really well. The tricky thing is that you haven't quite figured out how to go from a sitting position to your tummy- a situation that Daddy and I work to our advantage. Because you're our second baby, we are very aware that we should prevent your independent mobility for as long as possible. So, we often just sit you on your bottom, leaving us free to walk away with a safety blanket of sorts. One day, you'll figure out how to get on your stomach and all will be lost, but until then, we're doing it our way. We're also not-so-secretly hoping you'll scoot like Claire did. And guess what? You are starting to scoot a taddy bit! Victorrrrrrry!

Army crawling.

Sitting!

Another fun thing from this last month is that you're making some new fun sounds! It seems that your favorite one to make is "ta." You say it in the sweetest little baby voice, and we try to get you to say it all the time. Daddy is also working- hard.core- to get you to say "da da." Claire has joined him in trying to help you say "da da," which makes him really happy. I've been working on getting you to recognize and identify Daddy, Claire, and me. I tell myself that it's working, but it has not been objectively confirmed.

You've also been blowing big raspberries and rolling your tongue. It seems that the Boswells are 2 for 2 with passing along our genetic ability for tongue rolling. Maybe I should draw a punnett square for you to prove our tongue rolling superiority in this family. I'm sure you'll be so happy to have that one day.

We are marching along with the solid foods, too. You still mostly love everything. We've taken a little more of a pragmatic approach with you, as we started giving you "table food" a lot more quickly than we did Claire. And you're rocking it! I still make baby purees for you and serve you some at almost every meal, but I also give you things off of my plate (really small, soft bites, seeing as how you still don't have teeth). Just last night, we gave you an apple slice to gnaw on, and you went to town. You gnawed and sucked on it until it was basically just a peel left. And, you seemed pretty proud of yourself, I must say. Your pincer grip is still in the works, but we put Cheerios on your tray regularly to give you practice. It seems to catch you off-guard every time you actually pick one up, surprising you and causing you to drop it. Oh well. You'll get there.

In a parenting move that might be somewhat questionable, we- just this month- stopped swaddling you at sleeping times. I KNOW. Crazy. In our defense, you are a crazy flail-er and we have these awesomely massive swaddle blankets (courtesy of our beloved Devers). We kept swaddling you because you were just so restless if left to your own devices. But one day, we faced the music and realized it was time. You LOVED the freedom! It took a few days for you to actually lay down in your crib (rather than rolling onto your tummy and happily popping your head above your- BREATHABLE MESH- bumper). You still pop up occasionally, but you've figured out that the crib is for sleeping, which has been a huge relief to Daddy and me. Whew.

This is your preferred sleeping position.

You love your Jenny Jump Up, playing with Claire, chewing on teething rings, taking baths, and being right in the middle of the action. Smiling is your favorite, and it takes quite a lot to upset you. Your sleeping patterns are settling into a routine that works for all of us, and we could not have asked for a happier, more content little baby.