8 months

Dear Emery,

Today you are 8 months old! The past two months have gone by fast, and it seems you are learning and changing everyday. At 7-1/2 months, your dad noticed that you were getting a tooth! Since then, another one popped up and you are now working on your third. You gnaw on everything and drool everywhere. I'm amazed at how much drool comes out of your tiny little mouth. As far as your temperament goes, you've been a champ. I really haven't noticed a change in your fussiness or irritability level. Mainly, you continue to be a happy, fairly easy-going baby.

It's funny to think back to the days when you weren't eating well, because now you love to nurse and are making good progress on solids. You eat oatmeal every morning and in the evening have squash, green beans, or your new favorite: black beans. Sometimes I give you cold apple slices to gnaw and suck on and you really like that as well.

In the past two months, we've been two busy girls. Here's some of what we've been up to:

Running! You didn't like the new jogger stroller for a while, but now you do just fine in it on our daily runs. The picture below is you and your buddy, Ryker. He's about twice your age and seems twice your size. You guys are pretty cute together. We go running with him and his mom, Lindsay, nearly everyday. Having a running buddy has been very effective for me. On those days that I just don't feel like running, I usually get a text message like this from Lindsay: "How does a run sound?" and I usually say something like, "Terrible. I'll meet you outside in 10 minutes?" Thus we push each other...out of bed and out the door...up the hills and down the hills...all the while pushing you and Ryker. It's a good system we've got going.

City Adventures! We went to the world of Coca-Cola when your Uncle Tim was here. This was something I wasn't too excited about, since we don't drink Coke and I'm not too interested in soda in general. However, it was really fun to learn about how coke was invented (by a pharmacist in Atlanta) and see and taste all their many different soda and juice products from around the world. We also went to the Georgia Aquarium with Lindsay and Ryker and had a great time. You were really excited about the penguins (forgive the blurry penguin picture...I was holding you in one arm and trying to take pictures with the other).

Friends! Clara came over to play one day. She's exactly one week older than you and as the youngest baby in her family with three older brothers, she wasn't phased a bit by your poking and prodding of her. You had a fun time playing together.  Another day, we made dee-licious caramel apples with some of your dad's classmates: Jenny and Jackie. They had fun playing with you (and the caramel apples were to die for. I might have to make more before this autumn is over...just in the off chance that I don't live to see another caramel apple season. Because they were just that good. Recipe here).

At 8 months, you're trying really hard to scoot/crawl and I'm wishing really hard that you slept through the night (you usually wake up twice, sometimes once if I'm lucky). You weigh a little over 16 pounds and seem pretty short to me. Your feet are the tiniest little things...still in the 0-3 month shoe size. I've started buying you 6-9 month size clothing even though you fit perfectly into your 6 month clothes still. (I know these details are probably kind of boring, but they're things I want to be able to look back on and remember). You continue to be super cute and we continue to love you more and more as time goes on. Keep growing, little one.

Love,

Mom