Dear Henry: Months Seven and Eight

Dearest Henry,

Sloooooow down, dear one!! Ever since you mastered the roll, you pushed it into overdrive. You have started army crawling, you grew a tooth (nearly two of them), you agreed to your first bowl of baby food, you pulled yourself up and took a few steps along the couch. 

I couldn’t be more proud of you, son, but c’mon! That’s too much in one month for one Mom. 

I kid, of course. Mostly. 

These days and weeks are passing at lightning speed and I’m trying my very best to soak up every moment. Every smile, every giggle, every cry, every crawl, every tear. Of course, I don’t always soak them up. Some days seem too much to bear and I yearn for the end of the day and the comfort of sleep. But most of the time, I’m acutely aware of how fast time is flying and how quickly these sweet days will be over. 

I mentioned all of the milestones that you have hit these past couple of months, but what’s really been fascinating to watch is your growing interest in everything around you. From the big empty boxes (that are inexplicably in our living room) to the teeniest tiniest piece of sock fuzz, you will zoom as fast as your arms will drag you to inspect it. You couldn’t care less about most of your toys (sigh), but LOVE anything that looks like trash. 

Empty pop bottle? Awesome. 

Colorful stacking blocks? Boring. 

Crumpled up receipt? Score. 

Musical ball? Lame. 

Which, let’s be honest, is fine because we have a ton of trash to keep you interested. 

We celebrated Christmas this month, and although you had no idea what we were doing, you were still a happy little guy. 

We also took our first big road trip to visit my cousin in Iowa. It’s about a three or four hour drive for normal people. For us? It took us eight. And other than a couple of bouts of crying, you did remarkably well. 

By far my favorite part of this month happened the other day. You were army crawling around and started to get a little fussy. I was folding laundry on the couch when I looked down and noticed you were tapping me on my foot. You looked up at me and were clearly saying “Hey lady, pick me up!” But it was the first time I felt like I knew what you wanted. No guessing. No speculating. Just plain communicating. It was wonderful. 

And even though I can wait to see what you do next month, I will be right here with you soaking up every minute (nearly). 

Love you,

Mama