My goodness! Eight months! You are steadily chugging your way along to one year, and I'm trying to enjoy my snugly baby, before he is a toddler on the go!
Your smiles and giggles are delightful. Everything about you is so beautiful. I love your soft skin, your chubby cheeks, your bright, blue eyes, and they way you pay attention to everything around you. You love to roll around on the floor, and I have to keep a close eye on you and rescue you if you head to close to the furniture. You can't quite sit up on your own. For a few seconds, yes, but when you go reaching for a toy on the floor, you'll topple over.
I've been spoon-feeding you solids, and I'm going to begin placing things like cereal puffs and peas on your tray, so you can work on your pincer grasp. When I have given you puffs, you like to play with them and bat them around, but you do not try to put anything in your mouth just yet.
It's funny, but almost always, you nap on your tummy, but at night, you only sleep on your back. Your naps have improved dramatically in the past few days. You went from thirty-minute naps to over an hour, and sometimes an hour and a half. This is monumental! Your brother's naps took forever to be what they should be, and I'm happy to say that if you keep this up, you are on your way. In fact, you and I are skipping church today, since you've only just started to improve, I don't want the car ride to mess you up. (You'd be out in the car on the way back from church, and your hour and a half nap would be only ten minutes.)
That's the good news. The bad news is that nighttime sleep is still a mess. Last night, you woke up a little before 11:30, so clearly, we are going backwards with your wake-ups and not forward. Three times over the next hour, I got up with you, sang to you gently, and put you back down. It was only the third time that it stuck, and you fell asleep. Then you slept for roughly two hours. When you awoke, even though I didn't want to at that time (not long after 2), I was so tired from losing an hour of sleep, that I brought you to bed with me for the rest of the night. I don't really like to nurse you until 3 or 4, but I was too tired to argue.
I'm trying my hardest to not be mad about your wake-ups, while continuing to train you with the first wake-up to go back to sleep on your own, and I hope and pray that in time, you will learn. If not, I'm going to have to hire a body double to take care of you overnight so I can get some sleep! I am exhausted, my little man!
I'm so glad that summer is on its way, and when Daddy is off, we look forward to getting out, enjoying some fresh air, and doing some fun things as a family. Mommy is diligently being obedient to my six-month seizure-free driving hiatus, so you, Caleb, and I can look forward to a different kind of life this summer.
Caleb loves you, but lately treats you like his pet! He is constantly touching you, to the point of being too much. I often have to pull him off of you or stop him from batting you in the head with a toy or doing something equally inappropriate. It isn't in anger, but he just doesn't know how to handle you. Daddy says that he better watch out, because one day you'll be big enough to give it right back! Looking at you, that day isn't long coming!
My darling Silas, we love you. You fill our home with so much just by being you. I'm not the perfect mother. I could give a long list of my shortcomings. But I do hope that one day you'll be able to say, without a shadow of a doubt, that your mama loved you through and through.
Love,
Your mama
Updated to add: Just after writing this post, literally, Silas woke up from his first nap after only a half hour. Good grief!
