8 months

Dear Janice,

You're 8 months today. I used to look at an eight month old baby and thought how big, how responsive they are. I can't believe that my little beanie is now 8 months. This month you are really less of a baby, showing us your character, your adoration and your playfulness.
I brought you out today to meet daddy for lunch at Sunnybank, something rather rare for you on a regular week day. It brings me so much warmth to see you really excited to see daddy. You're going to be a daddy's girl because I can see how much your playfulness takes after daddy. I'm looking forward to you heading out with daddy for runs, soccer games and rolling on the grass.

You're generally very independent. You're able to sit and play all by yourself for sometimes up to an hour; sometimes you're contented by me just calling out your name from the kitchen. You're obvious in loving certain toys you have and many times I catch you fiddling with the little details of the toy. The funny thing is that you even press the button on your jungle zoo toy (A present that Gu gu and uncle Adam bought even before you were born) every now and then so that you can be entertained by the music while you play with other toys. You notice details well, like stitches on cushions and even imitated people who wriggles their fingers/waving hand gestures as they converse with mummy.

Sometimes you can be very sticky though. Especially in the evening. I can't leave you further than a metre away. You will cry out to me until I sit next to you as you play. This makes dinner preparation and evenings generally a stressful time for me because of the number of things that need to be done within that one hour, from preparing dinner for everybody, getting you fed, changed and wind down etc. I couldn't have gotten through without the help of daddy sometimes.

Funny things tickles you, like mom's coughing, daddy tossing your bowl, your friends crying. Its fun to make you chuckle because those chuckles are contagious and light up our lives. Our mobile phone memory is slowly depleting because we've been taking videos of your tickled moments so much this month. Many nights after you've fallen asleep, Daddy and I will be hiding in the blankets replaying the videos over and over, we'll never get tired of them.

You've been consistently sleeping through most nights and there were only a couple of occasions through the month that you woke up with a big lenghty hard to settle cry. Most times you've learnt to settle yourself by playing with your bed buddies Mindy, Monkey and Soph. There are times when we miss you so much that we want to grab you out of bed with us, but the consequences that could follow, we decided not to dabble :)

Thank you darling, you've brought so much to us. We look forward to waking up each day to your cheekiest grins (that always come with grinding of your teeth). Little munchkins, I love you more each day.

Love, Mummy