Sleep or Lack There Of

8 months 4 weeks

You've changed so much in the past few weeks. You hair has gone from brown and wavy to blonde and straight. You're losing your chubby cheeks and getting the face of a little boy which is completely devastating to me! It's so tormenting to see your child grow so fast. It's exciting to see you learn and grow but then at the very same time it wreaks havoc on your heart to know that you will never be that little baby again. It's such an odd thing to process. To constantly be happy and sad all at the same time? No wonder parents go grey. 

So I don't mean to brag at all but I'm pretty sure you're the single most beautiful creature in existence. You are so calm and laid back. People comment all the time on what a good baby you are. I've had women at cash registers after I have paid for my items that they rang in for me, look at me with shock as I bend over and pick your carrier up off the ground, and say "You have a baby with you?! He didn't make a sound!" It's true, you are very well mannered. Just a sweet little boy, who's completely content on hanging out and taking in the scenery. 

There is one thing however about you that is less then perfect. You don't sleep well at night. It drives me nuts how many people ask me "Is he a good sleeper?" NO! No he's NOT a good sleeper, thank you for asking! Should he be a good sleeper?! He's a baby after all! Do babies sleep?! by the way, if they do it would be in your best interest at this moment to lie and tell me they don't! Grrrrrrr! No, you are not a good sleeper. There was a time you would get 5 - 6 hours straight then wake up to feed and sleep for another 2 or 3 hours. BUT now that you are learning more, and able to do more, I'm fairly certain you have a very difficult time shutting things out and relaxing long enough to sleep, because now you wake up ever 2 hours or less. Thank god for coffee is all I have to say. 

I've learned to trick you back into sleep though. As soon as you start to stir I run to the kitchen, grab the maple syrup, dab your soother in it and stuff it into your mouth. You're distracted by the yummyness long enough to get you to relax again and pass back out. I'm sure however, the sugar in the syrup is counter productive. But I'm yet to find an alternate solution that works as well. 

You've learned to crawl in the past two weeks. It's kind of a weird little crab crawl. You use a multitude of maneuvers to get yourself mobile which propel you forward but make you look a little like a crab. 

I started to put you on the potty to pee. Most people think I'm insane for trying so early to potty train you but I think you're smart enough to figure it out. The very first time I put you on you peed. And you've been peeing on it since. My mother told me that your uncle Steve and I were potty train by the time we were one and all she did was put us on the toilette every time we woke up or looked like we were relieving ourselves. So I decided to try it with you, and amazingly enough you are pretty good at it. If you don't have to pee you shake your head no and lean forward to wrap your arms around my neck to get down. And if you need to pee you sit there contently and pee. Your favourite part is flushing the toilette and shutting the toilette seat. Today you even mimicked me and grabbed the toilette paper out of my hands and pushed it over your peter to wipe your self dry. Hahahaha! I was so excited to see you do that! You are so smart! I had NO idea how intelligent babies could be. You blow my mind every day.

Today you learned how to wave bye bye and clap. It hardly takes you any time at all to do new things. We barely spent any time teaching you those two things. But today you hung out with Ryleigh who knows how to clap and wave and apparently you decided that if Ryleigh can do it then so can you. Auntie Megan said that today after seeing you, Ryleigh is now crawling like a crab too. Looks like the two of you learn a lot from each other. I'm already dreading the many things you'll be teaching each other that are better left untaught! Like shoving things down the toilette and watching them flush.