letter to henry : 8 months
April 25, 2010Dear Henry,
You turned 8 months old a few days ago.
When you turned 7 months old last month, I missed another letter. I don’t have a good reason. I don’t even remember what was happening at the time. All I know is I started to write it one morning while you were napping, saved the half-written file when you woke up, and then you turned 8 months old. At least that’s what it felt like. Seriously. The days zoom on by and you are growing just as quickly.
The second half of your life has been full of so many firsts.
You ate your first solid food: rice cereal. You didn’t seem to know what to do with those spoonfuls, and I thought you needed to get the hang of it. But when I fed you bananas next, and you had no problems slurping and swallowing the sweet stuff, I realized it was just the rice cereal you weren’t eager to eat. Now, we’ve added other good foods to the mix–sweet potatoes, carrots, peas and more!–and you eat it like a champ. You also drink water out of a sippy cup. Of course, sometimes you’re happier to gnaw on the cup’s handle than drink the water.
You sat up unassisted for the first time too. I was away when it happened. When I came home, you were sitting on the floor with your papa. He had his camera in hand and you had a toy in your mouth. He took dozens of photos and a couple of videos, thinking you were sure to fall over any second, but you kept balancing yourself and sat up for more than 30 minutes. We were so proud. Now, sitting is old hat for you. You rarely lose your balance. And when you do, it’s because you’ve lunged for something just beyond your reach and ended up on your belly. You’re on your way to crawling, I think.
A few other firsts include your first playground swing ride (fun for you), first photobooth (fun for me) and first time sitting in a shopping cart (fun for both of us).
And just this week, you’ve started clapping your hands. I’ve been trying to teach clapping to you for a while now, and you surprised me the other day by clapping on cue. (“Clap, clap, clap!” I sang. And you responded with three claps, just like that.) Now you clap all the time: When we’re singing, when you’re eating, when I’m cooking, when we’re playing. You were already a cheery little guy with your smiling eyes and big ol’ grin, and now you’re adding claps to the routine.
It’s such an honor to witness and participate in these firsts with you. You are soaking up the world around you every second of every day, and I am watching you with baited breath, wondering what you will do next. My money is on your first word. You already have so much to say (or squeal, grunt and babble).
At least every other day, your papa and I look at each other, smile and sigh, and say how happy you make us, how wonderful it is to have you around, how lucky we are to have you as our son.
I love you so much, little Henry. More than any letter could ever say.
Always,
Your mama