8 months old - 22 pounds of pleasure

Yesterday Miles turned 8 months old. For some reason that age just seems SO OLD to me. Though he is still an infant he's now a mobile infant. And that mobility makse such a difference. It's still not walking unassisted but he can really get accross a room now, whether holding on to furniture and "cruising" as they call it (I just picture babies at bars with cigarettes when I hear that) or belly wiggling accross the room or even actual crawling which he will sometimes engage in.

He's knows plenty of baby tricks to get his point accross without words.

Exhibit 1: Morning time circa sunrise. Infant Miles awakes delighted to be alive. Looks over at sleeping Mommy and determines that she has had enough sleep and should now wake up and entertain him with belly tickles, raspberries on belly, kisses and wrestling. So he approaches Sleeping Mommy with 2 pronged attack. First, pull hair, preferably the hair near the front, small bunch so it really hurts and alarms her to protect self from possible bald spot. Next close in with open mouth really sloppy, I mean to say extremely wet baby kisses that also go "mmmmmmmmmm". Aim for Sleeping Mommy's mouth but failing that suck on chin or nose. When sleeping mommy opens eyes very irritated at possible bald spot he gives a bright smile with twinkling eyes and roll back to engage me to chase him around the bed and play. Repeats as necessary until I give up and am awake and playing at 5:30 in the morning.

Exhibit 2: About an hour after waking it is bottle time. If he is hungry he will start whining when he sees the bottle but not full out crying. He watches me make the bottle and makes this little anticipatory whinging sound only bursting into full tears and crys when we sit on the couch and the bottle is 2 seconds from landing in his mouth. Why does he do that? I can only guess it is his way of cheering me on to get the bottle made then giving me some negative reinforcement by the relief from hearing the crying.

NOTE:
This post was a lot longer but I lost a lot of it when the internet went down and right now do not have the heart to try to recreate. Suffice it to say that Miles is doing many typical 8 month old baby things and is progressing to adulthood in, ahem, baby steps.

Happy Birthday Granny Annie

Dear Granny Annie,
Happy Birthday from Miles and Cindy. We hope you have many more happy and healthy birthdays to come. Miles is doing well and sends you a big sloppy wet kiss!

If Miles had a sister...

This is what she would look like. His great grandmother, my grandmother knitted him this outfit and I have to say he is so cute he makes the Gerber baby look like a cigarette smoking wrinkled old hag.

blogging from Trinidad

We have been in Trinidad now for a few weeks and it is very difficult getting a good internet connection, far less downloading pictures. Fortunately we have found a good place and hope to keep blogging.

It is hot down here and the rainy season has begun so it is also very humid. Unfortunately there is an outbreak of dengue fever so we have to be very vigilant about mosquitos. So far so good though.

Miles is enjoying life down here as he has many hands to hold him and he is actually getting a little spoiled, he crys now if he is put down to play by himself where he used to play by himself quite nicely.

He went to the beach for the first time and it showed that he is his father's son. He is not a big fan of the beach much to my surprise. I love the beach and thought for sure with his love of swimming class that he would take to the beach but not so much. He was curious about the sand and played with it a bit but when I took him to put his feet in the water he was more overwhemled than excited. We didn't go in, just a dip of the feet and he didn't cry but he didn't laugh or seem pleased either.

He loves being in a hammock though, I put him in this hammock at my aunt's house thinking that I would get in too and we would play, but he immediately got really quiet and relaxed and within minutes was asleep with his book on his face. It was very adorable to see him sleeping very seriously with his book in the hammock. We may have to set up a hammock in the living room when we get back.

He is 7 months old now and still does not crawl or have any teeth. He does do a serious body drag when he is motivated to get something though. He looks more like a flailing beached fish than anything else as he squirms and grunts his way a few feet to his destination. But he is quite good at pulling himself up and even holding and walking if the environment is right. He can almost get to sitting all the way up from lying down which is one of his most dearly desired feats, he tries to do it all day long and cries tears of frustration at his inability. But in true baby fashion he is unstoppable in his squirming and trying and I have the bruises on my arms and stomach to prove it ; )