8 months

Dear Jack:
This week you turned 8 months old!
You are a whirling dervish, in perpetual motion. From the minute you wake up in the morning, you are UP! Standing in your crib, calling to your Papa and I to come and get you. Most days you only take a break to eat and maybe take a nap and then you are back to it, the crawling, the standing, the chasing of the dog, the playing with everything that is within reach.


Things you love to do now:

Chase Chewy around the house (Chewy is tolerant but afraid of you. Ever since the day you pulled his hair he prefers to keep you at arms length but that is getting harder and harder for him to do so he is always on the lookout for you and simply gets up and walks away when you get too close. He is a very good boy and you two will be great friends one day)

Chew on Chewy's toys ( he is also very nice about you doing this, just watching you when you come and grab a toy away from him and put it in your own mouth. I however, am not as relaxed about it and spend a large portion of my day getting dog toys as far away from you as possible)

Pull on electrical cords ( the cords behind the TV are your favorite)

Stand while holding onto almost anything (including your jumparoo which I must say shows an incredible amount of balance to do since the thing sways from side to side and you just stand there, holding on to it like a little surfer, riding the waves)

Knock down anything I stack or line up

Chew on everything (remote controls, cell phones, side of the coffee table, rails of your crib)

Take a bath in the big boy tub. You have so many toys in the tub, yet you usually prefer to play with the measuring cups and takeout containers that I put in there a couple of weeks ago.

Your favorite thing to play with in your toy box is a bowl filled with cookie cutters, socks and my old cellphone

You love love love to meet people. When you see a person for the first time, you flash them your 100-watt smile and smile and smile and smile some more until they respond. You win over every single person you see with that smile and I hope you always keep that sweetness about you.

You have 3 teeth already and you are minutes away from getting a fourth. This has been disrupting your sleep quite a bit this week (which may or may not be partially responsible for this letter being so late this month) and I hope it comes out soon because we all could use a good night's sleep again.

Let's talk a minute about your hair.... Oh buddy, your hair is....unfortunate. I am still hoping as you get older it will get thicker and more like your daddy's but for now, it is official Porter hair. As a matter of fact, almost everything about you is pure Porter. Sometimes I look at you and see your Pop-Pop or myself when I was a baby and I feel like you are a little clone of me. Other times I see your beautiful smile and I think you look just like your Papa. I know one thing for sure and that is that you are the sweetest, happiest baby I have ever met and I hope that you can be this happy your entire life. I will do everything I can to make sure of it.

Love,

Your Mama