8 is Great--Eli's 8th Month

Okay, once again mom is not on the ball. You turned 8 months old last Wednesday (like 10 13 days ago, last Wednesday). I thought that by staying home with you, all this free time would make itself known to me. However, any free time I have is spent cleaning, grading, doing laundry or watching missed episodes of Glee. I'm not sure how other stay-at-home moms do it (while looking fabulous)--Middlemarch has been sitting on my nightstand collecting dust, I haven't shaved my legs since 2008, and I'm pretty sure my hair looks like a past-its-prime mop on a daily basis. All this to say--I'm sorry.

Once again your fascination for all things new and unexplored amazes me. You definitely are a fan of the road less traveled. You have started crawling, and instead of crawling AROUND obstacles, you do anything you can to crawl through them or over them. And let's talk about your crawl. I'm pretty sure you're going to be one of those babies who is content to do the army crawl until he walks. I've seen you do the regular crawl, but you seem to bore of that easily and, instead, would like to work on your upper-body by roughing it through the brush. You've also mastered going from crawling to sitting. For a week or two you would roll over and just lay on your side like you didn't want anyone to know you were trying to sit. You would strike this pose like, "Hey, what's going on? What? No, I'm not trying to sit; I'm just chilling on my side." But, you finally got it.

Another milestone you checked off your list this last month was pulling yourself up to standing. I discovered that you had mastered this skill when I walked into your room one morning and found you standing (nearly falling out of) in your crib with a huge grin on your face (note: the crib has been moved to the lowest level). You've started walking while holding onto the couch or your activity table. You love to move. And falling doesn't seem to phase you (unless you're very tired at which point, you cry until the national guard has been called to deal with the conflict).

I'm going to move quickly through the rest of these, not because they weren't celebrated with high-pitched squeals from yours truly, but because I don't want to bore my loyal readers (i.e. grandma). You've also eaten, fingerpainted with, and zurberted out of your mouth a long list of veggies and fruits. You eat crackers and puffs (and ground them into the carpet). You use a sippy cup (mostly you chew on the spout, but you do occasionally imbibe the contents). You tasted prune juice (out of necessity--yowza). You cast your vote via text for Dancing With the Stars...aaaannnd two teeth--two painstaking teeth--two teeth that robbed your mother and father of precious, precious sleep!

This month was also the first time I spent the night away from you. Not one night, but THREE nights. Three whole nights and 2 whole days! We were separated for nearly 72 hours! You don't know how much I agonized over this. I was certain that I was scarring you by leaving you. Later on in your life, whilst talking to your therapist, you would have a breakthrough in discovering that the impetus for your crushing self-doubt and trust issues was the weekend your mother left you when you were only 7 months old! What a horrible woman! Your father, either sensing my inner-turmoil or fearful of facing 72 hours as a single parent, tried conjuring up illnesses to keep me from going, bless his heart. But alas, I had to go. And I came back...convinced we would have to re-bond all over again (I wasn't sure how I was going to start breast-feeding again--but if that's what it took...). I was convinced you would look at me with a confused look, "Who is this woman trying to hug me...get thee behind me!" All of my fretting, however, was for naught. We picked up right where we left off, like an episode of Friends. You were happy to see me; I was elated beyond measure to see you. Your father was glad to be done with his single parent duty (heehee...duty).

Being away from you only made me realize how much life has changed with you in it. This obviously isn't the first time I've made this discovery, but it was the first time I was able to step away from my life with you and see just how much of an impact you have made. You are so much apart of who I am now. Don't misread this, I don't define myself through you, but I live my life differently because of you. You are my sunshine; you'll never know, monkeypants, how much I love you!