Dear Barrett: Month 8.5

Dearest Barrett:

You are 8.5 months old now, and a friend's son described you as joyful the other day as you were in the midst of getting THREE TEETH AT THE SAME TIME. Though you've been kind of crankier and napping much less, joyful is still a wonderful word for you. You smile easily, laugh quickly.

There's more movement in your world these days. While you're not crawling, you are making an effort to move forward in a lot of ways. You try to scoot when you're sitting, and you can literally fold yourself in half to get a toy (although this has been disastrous once or twice when you've landed flat on your front teeth instead of anything else!). Standing is your thing, though you can't figure out how to get yourself there or what to do once we have you standing. You can scoot and "crawl" backwards, but not efficiently. The cool thing is that most things you're interested in come to you via big brother. He's happy to roll a toy back to you or bring you something new when you get bored. You're pretty lucky to have such an awesome big brother.

We've still been doing hikes and geocaches in the woods, which you happily tag along for. Everywhere you go you make people smile, and I love thinking about how your smile always brightens my day but may brighten someone else's, too. Babbling is a big thing for you, as is chewing on my cell phone case.

Foods are going much better these days. Some of the more interesting things you've eaten include garlic sauce, salmon, tart cherry ice cream (that was so daddy!), shredded cheese, mujadara (bulgar wheat and lentils), and dark chocolate ice cream (ok, that was me, but it was a miniscule bite). You're getting much better at putting smaller things into your mouth, which is a blessing and a curse, but very efficient for eating.

You bring so much joy to our lives, Bear. Everyone's life that you touch is better with you in it. I'm so thankful you are here to be Griffin's little brother for life, something I'll never fully understand as an only child. Thank you for loving us and letting us love you.

Love,

Mama (which you better say soon...)