Ocho Meses - Koze is AWESOME!

Koze,
You are eight months old! If I had to sum up this past month in two words they would be "grab" and "chew". You are also SO MUCH more vocal than before. At this very moment you are kind of shrieking/singing in the next room. And you have made up your own kind of sign language - when you are hungry or want whatever it is that I might be eating you look at me and smack your lips together, mimicking chewing. Pretty adorable. You also seem to enjoy pounding on things, although I haven't figured out what that means yet. You are an old pro at eating now and have been trying lots of new things. I think your favorite was the vegan cheesecake that Marcy gave you - against my wishes. ;) Other foods you have tried are, broccoli, zucchini, summer squash, carrots, bananas, avocado, 1 cheerio, vanilla yogurt and of course APPLES - still your fav. You have also become a big fan of snuggling, especially with Gramy, GG and Marcy, and you LOVE having your back rubbed. This just started in the last couple of weeks and it is pretty sweet. You are on the verge of crawling, so close. In fact when you are on the bed you can skootch around very easily. I have been trying to come up with a good layout for our room in order to make it safe and also to give you a special space to explore once you become mobile. I got you a giant stuffed hippo for your 8 month birthday and will incorporate that as well as your elephant and giraffe, Sophie, into this space.

I started out the summer going to school full time and about three weeks into the term realized that I had bitten off more than I could chew...or at least than I wanted to chew. I'm not sure if it was how hot its been or how stressed out I've been but for some reason you were having a pretty hard time falling and staying asleep and you were fussier than usual, so getting school work done in the evenings wasn't really working out. Long story short I decided to withdraw from all but one of my classes so I could be a more present mama. I feel so good about this decision and am looking forward to spending more time and having fun with you this summer. I can't believe July is already almost over!!! This first year is flying by.

Love you, kid.
Mom

Ps. I cut my hair this month. short. I really love it.