Month eight letter

Dear Maddy,

Today, my girl, you are 8 months old. And these have been the hardest, yet most amazing, 8 months of my life.

This month you have learned to (belly) crawl, sprouted 2 teeth, fell in love with feeding yourself (and the mess that ensues) and every day show us something new. A new sound, a new smile, a new activity. Everything changes daily. Yet you are still enamoured with singing, even mine, and still find tongues sticking out funny, and love to be bounced, and love to go out and see new things and meet new people. You are starting to look more like me but still look so much like your dada. It's fun to see you take something from each of us and turn it into a whole new fabulous person.

You are fearless, as only an 8 month old can be. You will touch and taste anything that you can. Dirty or clean, edible or decidedly not, bolted down or free - it is in your hands and seconds later in your mouth. We have the house pretty child proofed. You can't quite open cabinets or the kitchen drawers, but you are days from doing it. So I better get those locks on before... Same as the dropping of the crib mattress. You are not standing (yet) but you will be. And to prevent you from tumbling headfirst over the railing, your mattress has been dropped. Harder on my back, easier on my mental state.

You are selfish in the same way you are fearless. You can't understand the world apart from you (and your needs) in that world. This is the one time in your life where you are allowed to completely selfish, so enjoy every second of it my girl. There is no "later", no "in 5 minutes" in your world now. It really is a joy to try to guess your needs and provide what you want, when you want it. No, it's really more an honour. And, no, that wasn't sarcasm, my Nunu. It really is an honour to be your mom.

Today your dada and I were talking about love. Dada and I love each other very much. We are best friends and committed to spending the rest of our days together. But the love we have for you is so different. We love you for who you are, the characteristics you have shown us to date. You have the sweetest and most charming personality. And you are so free with your smiles and giggles! You are an explorer and a thinker. You are independent. But you are still pretty easy-going and will let us cart you around anywhere and will happily visit with almost everyone. But beyond that, the love we feel is not a choice, it's biological. It's primal love. We created you and we made a vow to care for you forever. We love you with every cell in our bodies.

As I was typing this out you crawled on your hands and knees for the first time! You were grumping as you did it, but you crawled! Oh Nunu, it's happening so fast. And we're loving every speeding second of it!

I am loving every moment with you and also can't wait to see what is around the corner. Happy 8 months, my girl, my Madds, my Nunu, my perfect Maddy.

Love,

Mom

A perfect Fall afternoon

Today Neil, Madds and I went for a walk to the nice park nearby to swing on the swings

Slide down the slide

and ride the horsey!

We then went for about an hour walk through the neighbourhood, talking about the houses in the neighbourhood (and their cuteness), about our future homes and about childhood memories of autumn. It was a truly perfect Fall afternoon.

She pulled herself up

Maddy loves to explore the electronics. Her love motivated her to pull herself up on her knees to better explore... The old VCR is now going to be stored. I am once again looking for a smaller stereo to replace our ancient one from the 90's.

Right now I am just placing everything up high and out of her belly reach. And soon that won't be enough, I'll have to start hanging things off the roof. Or actually find a place to put everything away. And in a house with little storage? It is not easy!

The toothy smile

If you look closely, on the bottom, in the centre and slightly to the left... there is her FIRST TOOTH!

Tooth number two!!

Maddy now has 2 teeth! One is all out and about a millimeter high. The second is JUST peeking out of her gum. Both are in the center, bottom gums. As soon as there is something to actually see, pics will be coming. Although I am going to do my best to get a pic of Madds with her little tongue stuck out as she plays with her new teeth.

She's also trying her HARDEST to crawl on her hands and knees. In the past she'd move a hand or a knee (a millimeter or two) and then drop to her belly and go. Now Madds weebles and wobbles on her hands and knees, trying her best to coordinate them to go in the direction she wants. She can move on hand appreciably forward and one knee and then it's too much and she's back on the belly. She's just days from full out crawling! And everything is now in her little tiny, yet frighteningly strong, hands.

With this tooth out and once she crawls the way she wants I am hoping her fragile and grumpy mood stops. Because she's been QUITE the bear the last few days!

She's a follower!

Today I was hanging with the Nunu. We were in the living room and I needed to go to the kitchen to make a bottle. While in there, I was talking to Maddy. She saw me in the kitchen and started her belly-crawl towards me. In the past she'd just crawl to the edge of the rug and hang out there. Today? Today she ventured off the rug and through the hall and all the way to the kitchen!

Before she reached me, though, she passed the dogs' bowls. And tried to practice feeding herself by grabbing a handful of kibble. I was watching and cleared the kibble out before she tried to swallow them. Then put the bowl on the counter, only to be taken down during naps and after bedtimes. She also made a bee-line to the stairs leading to the back door. So now that door is perpetually shut. Life is compartmentalized now!

But she's now leaving rooms and entering new ones. She's also into EVERYTHING, refusing to nap any length of time and refusing purees she used to love. So, it's all good but grumpy. So good and so very grumpy...

Keyboard yum

On Sunday Madds and dada were hanging out together on the couch. Dada was showing Maddy his favorite video game and Madds was loving the images and randomly hitting the keys. Somehow Madds managed to kill dada's toon (her first WoW death!) and while Neil was telling me, he turned to look at me. He turned back to the laptop and noticed something wrong. There was a key missing on the keyboard. I grabbed Madds and Neil carefully stood up and we started searching for the key. After a few seconds I noticed Maddy was gumming something... Could she have? She could. She did. Madds somehow (in about 5 seconds) pulled a key off the laptop and was eating it. Well, key was removed and replaced and Maddy was a little put out her "food" was gone. Life with Maddy seems to be one heart attack after another...