May the long time sun shine upon you.
All love surround you.
And the pure light within you.
Guide your way on.
-Irish Sun Blessing
I love this blessing. I learned it when you were in my belly and we were doing pre-natal yoga classes together. We would end every class by singing this song 3 times. Once for our babies, once for ourselves, and once for each other as a community. I ended up singing it to you quite a bit when you were in my belly, and we played it at your name blessing ceremony in our backyard in Venice when you were 2 days old! Now it is one of my go to lullabies to rock you to sleep.
8 months! It feels like yesterday that we went on a hike to celebrate your 7 months! The days are going by fast and you fill each of them up with your sweet and sassy personality. You love to smile and laugh. Sometimes your smile stretches so wide I think the corners of your mouth might split! You have a mouth full of 7 teeth (they just keep coming!). Once you get accustomed to your teeth, it seems a new one sprouts up and you have to figure it out all over again. You still love to play with Leon and he can get a good laugh out of you. We play peek-a-boo, make silly noises or sing silly songs to hear your sweet squeal. The winter Olympics have started in Sochi, Russia and you think it is hilarious when I sing the Olympic theme song. Your new joke is cocking your head to one side and waiting for us to cock our head the same way. You'll go back and forth and watch us copy you. You think this is so funny!
We went to the doctor for a vaccine a couple of weeks ago and they weighed and measured you. You were 16 pounds 1 ounce (20th percentile) and 29 inches long (over 100th percentile!) You are bound to be long and lean just like your mommy and daddy! Your cousin, Genevieve, (who is 2) just measured 31 inches! You have long, sweet feet and big blue eyes. There is a cute brown speck in your right eye. People always comment on how beautiful your dough eyes are. I agree! You are going to work me over with those sweet eyes. Your hair is slowly but surely getting longer. It is a brownish-blonde and the longer pieces look like might be curling up! I love your chubby little hands and feet. It is finally manageable to trim your nails without thinking I am going to cut your finger off!
You are a big eater these days! We do a breakfast, lunch and dinner most days. You really like it! You are still nursing (and I have even caught you doing the sign for milk in sign language!), but you are getting a taste for real food and you demand it sometimes! Some foods you have been eating: oat cereal, crackers, avocados, carrots, apples, bananas, chicken, egg yolk and potatoes. You have not rejected much! You love straws. Sometimes I will suck water up a straw and let you suck the water out of the bottom of the straw. You are starting to become a messy eater, so a bib is necessary!
Your nap schedule is pretty sporadic these days. Sometimes you'll take 1 nap, 2 naps or 3 naps depending on the day. Your first one is usually around 9 or 10. Your second one is anywhere from 12 to 3. Daddy is the BEST at putting you down for naps. He dances and sings to you. He can get you to nap in your crib. When it is just you and me, you will cry when I lay you down in your crib, so I usually let you sleep on me. This means I do not get many of my chores done...but that is OK! What has been consistent is your bedtime routine. We have dinner at 6, then take a bath, put PJs on, and rock/nurse to sleep. You still love bath time. You are a water baby! You will play contently in the bath for 10-20 minutes. You are usually snoozing in your crib by 7.
You love to wave hi and bye to people and you are so PROUD of yourself. You will sometimes get shy when you are not in your element, and you will not wave until the person is gone. You practice your wave often. You are not crawling on all fours, but you have mastered the army crawl. You are so fast! You use your right big toe for leverage and get wherever you need to go. You just glide across the wood floors. You even put a hole in the big toe of one of your PJs! You have pulled up a couple of times by yourself and a million times with a little assistance. You like to stand at the ottoman, the couch, the bathtub, or just holding on to our hands. You have not gone from laying to sitting position yet, but you have started to sit in pretzel position which makes me think it is any day now!
You love to dance!! We sing "Jump! Shake your booty! Jump! Jump! Shake your booty!" or "Shake shake shake, shake shake shake, shake your booty! shake your booooty!" You break into a wide grin and start to shake your head and wave your arms. It is so cute! Our neighbor gave us this plastic fisher price activity station that plays music and you love to dance to this!
Your toy of choice would be cords of any kind but especially dangerous ones. You still love the remote control, our coffee cups and our iPhones (generation 4S for your future self). I gave you your own baby coffee mug that was mine when I was little and you broke it in less than a minute. oops. You are getting more into the interactive toys (like the activity station that plays music). You like to knock over block towers. We made the bottom shelf in the kitchen kid friendly and you like the tupperware and plastic items. You are still obsessed with paper. You could play with paper all day. I would let you if you didn't eat it! You are fast about it. I will be staring right at you while you hold a piece of paper and somehow you'll get a bite out of it. I even found a whole warning label in your poop. Not sure where that came from. Oh the irony.
You are getting more into your baby dolls. You like when we make them sing and dance with you. You enjoy getting into the record collection. Your daddy found an old beat up record and gave it to you to play with. You, of course, would rather go through the good records and try to take the plastic sleeves off of all them. Books are still not your favorite. I have caught you flipping through the pages of some when you are exploring on your own (you'll explore the living room, go a little further into the record player area, and then hit up your nursery). You just get frustrated when we try to look at a book with you.
We still hear an occasional "Bubba", "Dada", and "Mama" but you have been mostly practicing your "Th" sound and making a "Shla" sound. You sound like Gollum from Lord of the Rings, like at any second you'll say "my precious". You will also yell "Ahhhhhh" and then we will mimic you and yell "Ahhhhhh" back. We will go back and forth like this like we are having a conversation.
You love to be outside. You go straight off the blanket to the grass and leaves. Leaves are like paper. They always end up in your mouth somehow. It did get a little cooler for a couple of weeks (think...60 degrees instead of 75 degrees), but we managed to get outside. We have been to the beach, farmers market, walks around the neighborhood, the park (you are getting more into the swing), and our backyard. Your Nana and Happy came for my 31st birthday weekend and you had some good bonding time. You are my little social butterfly and love when we have friends over. You especially love when we hang with your baby friends. You are starting to interact with each other so much more and it is cute! Your best buddy right now would be Wilder. You are not so much into sharing yet. You are more of a toy stealer. One day at yoga, you crawled right up to a baby who was laying on her back (about 4 months old), picked up her toys one by one and then nabbed the toy she was holding right out of her hand! When you are playing with Wilder, you always take the toy he is playing with. This is your sassy side.
Your toy of choice would be cords of any kind but especially dangerous ones. You still love the remote control, our coffee cups and our iPhones (generation 4S for your future self). I gave you your own baby coffee mug that was mine when I was little and you broke it in less than a minute. oops. You are getting more into the interactive toys (like the activity station that plays music). You like to knock over block towers. We made the bottom shelf in the kitchen kid friendly and you like the tupperware and plastic items. You are still obsessed with paper. You could play with paper all day. I would let you if you didn't eat it! You are fast about it. I will be staring right at you while you hold a piece of paper and somehow you'll get a bite out of it. I even found a whole warning label in your poop. Not sure where that came from. Oh the irony.
You are getting more into your baby dolls. You like when we make them sing and dance with you. You enjoy getting into the record collection. Your daddy found an old beat up record and gave it to you to play with. You, of course, would rather go through the good records and try to take the plastic sleeves off of all them. Books are still not your favorite. I have caught you flipping through the pages of some when you are exploring on your own (you'll explore the living room, go a little further into the record player area, and then hit up your nursery). You just get frustrated when we try to look at a book with you.
We still hear an occasional "Bubba", "Dada", and "Mama" but you have been mostly practicing your "Th" sound and making a "Shla" sound. You sound like Gollum from Lord of the Rings, like at any second you'll say "my precious". You will also yell "Ahhhhhh" and then we will mimic you and yell "Ahhhhhh" back. We will go back and forth like this like we are having a conversation.
You love to be outside. You go straight off the blanket to the grass and leaves. Leaves are like paper. They always end up in your mouth somehow. It did get a little cooler for a couple of weeks (think...60 degrees instead of 75 degrees), but we managed to get outside. We have been to the beach, farmers market, walks around the neighborhood, the park (you are getting more into the swing), and our backyard. Your Nana and Happy came for my 31st birthday weekend and you had some good bonding time. You are my little social butterfly and love when we have friends over. You especially love when we hang with your baby friends. You are starting to interact with each other so much more and it is cute! Your best buddy right now would be Wilder. You are not so much into sharing yet. You are more of a toy stealer. One day at yoga, you crawled right up to a baby who was laying on her back (about 4 months old), picked up her toys one by one and then nabbed the toy she was holding right out of her hand! When you are playing with Wilder, you always take the toy he is playing with. This is your sassy side.
Oh, I just love you so, Miss B. I love staring at you in the quiet moments when you are nursing or sleeping. You go from being this on the go, active, toy stealing baby to a peaceful, loving wonder. You do give us some loving, snuggle time when you are awake. For just a few seconds a day you will go limp when I give you a big hug and let me kiss you all over. Or when you nurse and lovingly play with my necklace. I live for this snuggle time!
You are our absolute joy, Breckin! We love you so much.
Love,
Mommy and Daddy
Love,
Mommy and Daddy
1 comment:
What a precious letter to a precious daughter and grand daughter. I'm so proud of your loving family.
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