Eight Months

Morgen is eight months old now. Well, actually she is eight months old and three days. This is her belated month-a-birthday post. I'm happy to say that her food strike appears to be over, and she is regaining some of the lost poundage with the assistance of a large silicon spoon that she teethes on in between bites. It's pretty cute. She still demands iron-fortified oatmeal and rice cereal at every meal though, so let's hope she keeps her fruit and veggie intake up or, well never mind.

With this latest birthday comes a few mixed feelings. On the one hand, I'm having some nostalgia for the first few weeks of Morgen's life, when we were lost in a hazy, sort of mystified and sleep deprived fog and could carry her around all day and let her sleep on our stomachs as we lay on the couch.  She was so little then, and she seems so big now. On the other hand, I'm looking forward to the next stages of Morgen's life. She'll start feeding herself soon, maybe even with her favourite orange spoon. She'll start talking. She'll start chasing after the cat, and becoming the aggressor in the battle for daddy's lap. I'll return to school and get as much done as I can before Gavin finds a job. But lest I leave out the beauty that is the present: right now Morgen is giving big kisses and smiles, learning to give us high 5's, and stubbornly refusing to play on her tummy by exercising her right to roll over at every opportunity. She's thinking about adding some consonants to her vowels and squeaks. She's growing out of most of her 6 to 9 month outfits and spends most of her playtime demanding to be helped up onto her feet so she can tip forward in that adorable baby walk that for some reason reminds me of a zombie's stagger. Our lives are becoming a bit more balanced these days. Ever so slowly, we're starting to fall into our new family routine. What took you so long, you ask? I don't know. I can only repeat what a friend wrote to me recently - sometimes you never know how you will handle something until you actually live through it. There is still some headway to be made to make sure that Gavin and I find the time for each other that we need. But the babysitters are coming forward, and we're looking forward to showing them the diapers and heading out for a few hours of adult time. I'm loving Morgen at eight months. Yes, I loved her during months one through seven as well, but I'm feeling more myself these days. It's a bit of a relief.