8 Months

Dear Ilan,

You have two bottom teeth! If you look closely at these photos you can see them.  You are drooling ferociously, but these teeth are the only ones that have come through.

Most mornings you wake up happy, rolling around, calling "eh, eh, eh, eh." Your crib is in our bedroom, and is mostly blocked off by a shoji screen, so you can't see us.  In the morning you scoot yourself to the very edge of the crib, where you can poke your head out and see around the screen, and make baby noises at me until I wake up and get you.

You love music, and get excited in this manic and uncoordinated way when I put the iPod in the speaker dock to listen to songs.  I use the same iPod to play white noise during your nap times, and when the iPod emits this white noise instead of your playlist you always look so betrayed.

When you are excited you hold your arms out and twist your wrists and make this evil genius face that I've captured here:

You are not technically crawling, but are commando pulling yourself around the room.  Now that you can move, it's fun to see what captures your attention.  So far, it's A) whatever Roan doesn't want you to touch, B) the metal shelves in the kitchen, right next to our trash cans, or C) the fringe of the rug.  Our floor is littered with toys, but you consistently seek out the metal shelves or the rug fringe.

You are still small for your age, but I don't really notice because, to be honest, you don't have a lot of friends.  This is my fault.  With Roan I was always going to baby classes and playdates, but with you, we mostly just go to the park and tag along with Ro.  Your two baby friends are Luca and Adam, who we know because they happen to have older siblings who play with Ro.

You spend a lot of time in the water.  In baths, showers, the plastic pool, the water table; after many mealtimes I take one look at you and realize that a wet washcloth is just not going to cut it, so I strip you down and plop you in the sink.  You love the water.  You don't mind that your big brother is always splashing you or dumping cups of water over your head.  You don't even mind when you fall forward and your face goes under - you just pop your head right up and look around, mildly surprised (I nearly have a heart attack every time).

Happy 8 months, Lani Lou.