Today Madelyn is eight months old. That sounds so old. I feel like everything past six months and on the other end of that half year mark is basically almost a year. She’s starting out her final third of her first year and I’m a little sentimental about it.

What I’m also not okay with is that if she’s eight months today, there’s only one month left until she’s nine months old. And you know what’s unnerving about the nine-month mark? As soon as I start to complain about the post partum mother’s body I currently possess, people say, “Oh, but it took your body nine months to grow and stretch while you were pregnant! Don’t worry! It takes nine months to get your body back.”

Well shit.

I have a measly four weeks from now to have a body whose reflection I last saw in November of 2010. No pressure.

Oy vey. Don’t worry: I’m still boot camping and eating all the good-for-you foods. Definitely making progress, but I’ll tell ya what, I’m not done. You know how I know? I bought a bathing suit with Spanx. ‘Nuff said.

Oh, right, this is about Madelyn turning eight months old.

She’s just such a joy. I can’t even gush and do her justice. We just adore this little matzo ball to pieces and I still can’t believe even after eight months that this little nugget is a masterpiece that I had anything to do with. Bryan, well, he’s a gem. But me? Psshhh.

This month, Madelyn:

• Is a crawling machine!! When she started to crawl on March 15th, it took her no time at all to master this new skill. The first couple days she’d go a few scooches before losing her balance and starting over again, but after that, boy oh boy, she zig zags around the room with no fear at all. She’s definitely enjoying her new freedom and is finding ways to get into everything!
• Stands up with a little help from her inanimate friends. Ottoman, crib, chair, dresser — you name it — she is scaling these things like Spider Woman and pulling herself up. She doesn’t always stay up or even finish off on flat feet, but she’s a strong one and gets pretty vertical. This means we had to lower the crib on its lowest setting so in order to accommodate Miss Curious, I now have a broken back from leaning so far in to get her down and out. Also, I’m sad about this because now the really cute dust ruffle is too low and long for the crib, so we had to remove it from the ensemble. C’mon, Madelyn. Stop these new tricks. That dust ruffle from Pottery Barn Kids wasn’t cheap!
• Can make consonant sounds. It’s only a matter of time until our innocent little mute starts to talk back and use whiney attitude on us. Oh dear. She makes “g,” “y,” and “d” sounds. Waiting for the “m” and “aw” sound combined and repeated once… hint hint.
• Discovered the pincer grip! She feeds herself puffs and Mum Mums and string cheese bits using her thumb and pointer fingers. It’s really adorable because she still puts her entire fist in her mouth after she’s picked up the food and brought it to her lips. I had been feeding the puffs to her myself and then as soon as I put them on her high chair tray, she was able to pick them up herself. She seems to proud of this accomplishment. Well it does involve food, so I guess I don’t blame her.
• Got ticklish! Play time is so much more fun now that she giggles when tickled. Madelyn is ticklish under her arms, her neck, and on her sides. We wiggle our fingers over her and say “I’m gonna… I’m gonna… I’m… gonnagetyoooooou!!!!” and then tickle, tickle, tickle. The belly laugh comes from her toes! She laughs so hard and smiles so big, we can’t even see her eyes. She really enjoys being tickled and likes to be teased.
• Puts evvvvverything in her mouth. Be careful and fair warning: nothing is safe from her curious gums. Toys, shoes (ew no! I don’t let that happen, but she’s TRIED), my appendages, the couch, Princeton’s tail (ew no! HE doesn’t let that happen!), and the most coveted item of all, our iPhones. This kid wants to taste it all. However peas and green beans, still not a total fan of putting THOSE in her mouth.
• Still sleeps like a champ. She goes to bed at 6:30 p.m. and wakes up between 7:30 and 8 in the morning. It’s quite glorious. I don’t mean to brag since I know not all parents are sailing this dream boat (no pun intended), but we worked hard to get her on a schedule that works for all of us. She still takes two to three naps per day which she usually doesn’t fight and they last about 90 minutes to two hours each. Sleeping Beauty indeed!

Cuddle time with my girl after she had just pulled my hair.

Because every post needs a handsome dog...

Madelyn has experienced a lot of fun things this month and I will be writing about them individually in the next few days, so stay tuned!

Happy Eight Months to our little Maddie poo.