Sleep!

The past three days I've woken to light streaming through the window. My first instinct has been to race to Tate's room to check on him, only to find him slumbering peacefully in his crib. Yes, our baby is SLEEPING THROUGH THE NIGHT. Since this marks the first time I've gotten more than 3-4 hours of sleep in a row in 2011, it definitely calls for the use of all caps. I'd love to say it was the result of one of the sleep books I've been slowly ploughing my way through, but it's actually due to one that hasn't been written yet called "Hey Mom, Did You Ever Think Maybe I'm Just Hungry?" Seriously. I was in the middle of an internal struggle about whether to employ the popular (and apparently effective) cry-it-out method of sleep training when I came across a feeding chart my sister had given to me. Even accounting for the fact that Tate started solids a little later than some, he wasn't eating nearly what the chart indicated he should be for his age. So I doubled up the cereal at his next meals and added an additional cube of fruit and bingo, sleeping through the night! I've been reading a little more about attachment parenting (which surprisingly seems to be a philosophy that appeals to me), and one of the things that stood out was that crying is viewed as communication, not manipulation. In this case Tate was apparently trying to tell us that he needed more food!

Family photo day

So sometime right around 8 months I decided that if I couldn't make time stand still I could at least capture this stage of Tate's life by having some photos taken of him. We got a referral to a really great photographer named Jen Soares from someone in my new moms group. Jen was so awesome! You can see a preview of the photos she took on her blog. I love the shots of Tate, and it was so nice to get some pics of all three of us together. The photos also commemorated one of the few times the three of us were showered and wearing clean clothes at the same time. Even our house was clean. It was a good day.

8 Months!

Tate just keeps getting more and more fun--and more and more mobile! We put a quilt down over our living room rug and he loves to roll around on it. We can't turn away for a minute, because he's really fast at rolling under the couch now. He also loves to grab things. Anything within his reach is fair game. He especially loves things he's not supposed to have, such as the TV remote, cell phones, and Brad's computer. He also has a special fondness for zippers and tags. And Brad's baseball hats. He loves to chew on the brims of those. He also says da-da-da-da-da, especially when he first wakes up in the morning. A couple of times we've sworn he's said "hi" to Brad (ha da-da). We're torn between being excited to watch him grow and develop and wanting to hold onto each stage just a little longer.