Baby E: Eight Months

Baby E is doing all kinds of cool stuff, but still not crawling, which is perfectly fine by all of us (cats included).

Dude loves the bath. He grew out of this bathtub a few weeks ago and after one kitchen sink bath, I put him in the tub. Boy does he love bath time now! He splashes and pokes bubbles and sings. I bet he would stay in there for hours if I let him. When I went back to work, I got in the habit of handing him off to L while he was in the shower for a quick rinse. I like to think that his early shower exposure makes him totally cool with water on his face and dunked all over his head. We have a little tug boat bath toy that I use to wash his hair via filling it up and then dumping it on his head part. I felt a little bad the first time I did it, but he blinked a couple times and gave me a big toothy grin. So now I lather and rinse with abandon.

The state of Baby E's mouth is a pox on our sleep schedule. He's a perfect little angel at daycare, but as soon as I get him home, fed, bathed and pajama-ed, the evil teething ghouls come out and he screams and cries unless he's being held or is on the boob. Last night was particularly challenging as he's currently cutting three teeth on the top. The end is in sight as one of his two front teefs poked out this morning and it looks like the other two will make an appearance in time for his first Thanksgiving. We've become experts at administering baby Tylenol to a squirmy creature who has discovered that he enjoys spitting out anything you put in his mouth. The only collateral was a stained-pink crib sheet and a sticky face.

Thirty-year-old deathtrap/heirloom highchair.

E babbles up a storm and yesterday, getting on the bus, he yelled "Bob!" at no one in particular. I thought it was hilarious and he was just like "What? I love the bus." He does love the bus and making friends with fellow riders. He smiles at everyone and looks out the windows and gets very excited when someone pulls the cord to make the "bong bong" stop request sound. He's started touching people, which is okay most of the time, but sometimes people on the bus are not for touching, so I'm just waiting for that teaching moment to come. When he's particularly grabby I tuck his arms into the Ergo straps and he gets very mad.

He plays quietly and happily by himself while we do stuff like put off doing the dishes to binge watch the last season of Louie. We put all his favorite toys in a basket, set him down on a blanket and he methodically examines the basket's contents, then discards what he's not interested in and finds a block to chew on. He talks to himself a lot during this process. The cats like to join, mostly so they can sleep on his blanket, but he'll grin at them and offer them his toys to sniff.

He's finally chunked out and I love staring at his fat face. He's still got his knuckle dimples. I hope those never go away. He eats like a horse; favorites include pears, oatmeal, persimmons and sweet potato puffs. He hasn't quite figured out what to do with the puffs, so he just puts them in his mouth, gums them and promptly spits them out. Or he just drops them on the floor.

We're bonkers in love with this kid and he makes us happier everyday. We love you, Boogie.