8 months

It's been 8 months now as a family of 4 (5 if you count our faithful pooch). Ivy's 8 month birthday coincided with a busy busy weekend; today's the first moment I've found to talk a bit about the girl. (Yes, on a Tuesday. I am playing hooky from choir. Bad roads, at least on the way home from work, and a twice-as-long commute home leads one to not want to head back out into the storm one hour later. Even though its not even snowing now. But it COULD be, at 10.... Protestant guilt! oy.)

So, the girl at 8 months:

*Her middle name has been changed to Octopus. Her arms, they go EVERYWHERE. Nothing is safe. And if she can grab it, into her mouth it goes for a good chomp. Unless its finger food. Then it gets carefully held between thumb and forefinger, briefly regarded, and then dropped in favor of using both hands to clear whatever surface is in front of her. I see destruction of property in our future with this one...
*Especially as she is really threatening mobility these days. She is quite effective at scootching backwards on her tummy. She rocks on her hands and knees. She goes from sitting to tummy, and pulls up onto her knees from sitting. Nothing in a forward direction yet which leads to plenty of frustrated yelling. As does her newest trick-- rolling over to her tummy in her sleep. When this happens (about 3-4 times a night) she alerts us to the danger with some brilliant screaming.
*She's a side sleeper and prefers to fall asleep on her side with her taggy blanket shoved against her face, chewing on some part of it. She likes the sleep sheep, on the "rainfall" setting. She likes some ambient light in the room. When all these things are perfect and she is feeling well, she only wakes up 2-3 times a night.

Yep. 0 for 2 on the sleeping.

*She's crazy about daddy and her doggy and I really do think she's trying to use various combinations of "da" and "ga" and "gee" to refer to them. That or those are her favorite sounds.
*She loves Jack more than anything else combined. You should have seen her face tonight when I held her by Jack so she could give him a goodnight hug. She leaned in and put her head on his head and snoogled right in with this blissed-out smile. She adores that boy.

A side note: Jack, on the other hand, tolerates her. Most of the time. Unless she tries to put one of his toys in her mouth. This evening at dinner we were, as Jack aptly noted "all sharing the one water!" (why dirty more glasses?) and of course Ivy wanted in on the action (she loves water from a big glass. This is probably #4 in her list of preferred items, actually). Jack exclaimed, "Oh, IVY!! Oh NO! You'll get all drooly into it!!!"

*She prefers "found objects" to actual toys, unless of course the toys are Jack's hotwheels.
*She is very calm outside. Sadly due to the snowiest winter ever, we don't get out too much. But when we do, much like her brother at this age, she is unfazed by cold or snow or wind and just gazes out at the world...
*The rest of the time she is moving as much as possible. Kicking, bouncing, flailing or waving, she is in constant motion. A little athlete in the making? She also loves music and is beginning to try to clap and dance along to songs.

A few notes about the boy:
*After being sick with one thing or another for upwards of 3 weeks, he appears to be on the mend. I think I'd forgotten what fun he can be, resigning myself to the task of mothering the whiny, mopey, non-eating thing he becomes when he's not feeling well. Turns out, Jack-when-he-feels-good is pretty amazing. He's smiley and silly and so very very expressive these days. He can compare and contrast and categorize and do it all with lovely articulation (if you don't count initial /l/ and /s/ sounds, that is) and so much expressiveness in his little voice. He can be quite opinionated and he does not hold back from telling us when we are wrong-- and giving his opinion as to how we can improve ("Mommy, you need to cook the quesadilla SWOWER next time, OK??"). He loves helping to cook (even more than TV!) and has recently discovered games. He is crazy about those hot wheels and carries a rotating collection of 10 favorites in his car armor. His most recent acquisition is a green car with "two vroomers" that is apparently being driven by Taro (a character from the Hot Wheels videos he loves so much). He has named this car Fruuchie. It was, for a brief moment, "Banooki" but Fruuchi seems to have stuck. Sunday night, after our playroom had hosted 4 toddlers and 4 babies during Soup Supper, we could not find Fruuchi. Can I tell you the feeling of love that welled up in my heart as I watched this little boy walk around the room saying "Fruuchi??? Fruuchi? Where are you???"
He loves preschool and is a whiz with using the mouse (chooses all his own youtube videos these days and can play a number of online games on PBSkids all on his own. Better watch him or he'll be ordering things off Amazon soon! He sings now, pretty well. He gave me a lovely rendition of Frere Jacque the other night. In French of course. And he makes silly songs as he plays, too. He loves using his big tape player to listen to books on tape in the background, particularly an ancient copy of "Frog and Toad are Friends" (Grandparents, wouldn't you like to record yourself reading some favorite stories for him??) He has these bright, twinkling, ornery blue eyes that I can't get enough of...

Oh, I could go on forever about him, I think. I am falling back in love with this boy after weeks of wondering why I became a mother in the first place (two sick kids in alternation for 3 weeks'll do that to you...) Best to wait on the blogging until these moments of love, don't you think? (Credit for the good mood also goes to the amazing father of my children who's been having me sleep upstairs in my office these past few nights. Far from being cruel as it sounds, this means he handles all but one of Ive's night wakings while I snuggle in to what is actually a very lovely spot to sleep, there by the window looking out to the trees in the backyard, with a nice combination of pillows on the bed. This morning, I woke up feeling almost well-rested...)

Nestled in now, in Nat's office, Hotwheels on the computer, boy dancing as he watches, Nat editing his dissertation introduction as coffee percolates and the dog sleeps at our feet. Baby quietly asleep downstairs, for this moment at least, and a powder-snowy wonderland outside. Goodnight all.