Chichi Cupcakery: Happy 8-Month Birthday Nicholas!

Dear Nicholas,

Happy 8-month birthday!!! You have become quite the little boy this month (although you will always be our baby). You’ve been sleeping on your tummy all this month and now sleep about 11-12 hours straight every night! And we no longer need to rock you to sleep at night – you fall asleep all on your own once we put you in your crib. Some nights you stay awake for a little bit, but you just jabber to yourself and eventually fall asleep on your own. Another proud moment for us!

You have also started to play with your hair at night to soothe yourself to sleep. It’s adorable! While we feed you your bottle at night, you start running your fingers through your hair, and on your really tired nights, you fall asleep in Daddy’s lap with your hands gripping your hair. We also discovered that this leads to some adorable bed head in the morning!

You also started holding your bottle all by yourself this month…well, when you aren’t distracted by your feet. They discovered at daycare that if they just take off your socks, you’ll keep feeding yourself; if your socks are on, you get so fixated on removing them, that you drop your bottle. You’re a funny little dude!

You started scooting backwards on your tummy this month, and you discovered standing up. It started in the bath one night: you put your hands in mine and all of a sudden you were standing. You were so incredibly excited to stand, that every time I sat you back down, you’d lean forward toward me and stand back up. And you love it when I stand you at the edge of the tub so you can bang your hands on it. And ever since then when you see me, you reach for me, and when your hands are in mine, you stand up. It’s adorable, and I love seeing you discover what a big boy you are!

You’ve been talking even more this month, and have gone back to saying “Dada”, “Daddy,” and – our favorite – “Dad.” Yes, you say “Dad” with a hard emphasis on the second “d,” and it’s hilarious to listen to. You love talking and babbling all the time. You’ve also started dancing when we sing to you or you listen to music. You and I started music classes on Friday mornings, and you absolutely love it. You love listening to everyone sing, you love playing the instruments, and you love when I pick you up and we dance and march around the room. A few months ago, Daddy started doing the thing where he puts his finger across your mouth and moves it up and down while you go “ahhh,” changing the sound to an “abababa” sound…hard to explain, but you know what I mean. Well, this month you figured out how to make the “abababa” sound all by yourself, by popping your wrist in and out of your mouth. You do it a lot and it’s so cute!

You also love ‘clicking’ with your mouth, and do that a lot too.

And the last part of the transitioning from baby to big boy…? You got your first haircut at the end of this month. You were so good too! We showed up and found out that there was a long wait, and you were already due for a nap. By the time they were ready to cut your hair, we figured we were doomed to a fussy, unhappy, tired baby. We were wrong! You were super excited for this new adventure, and were as happy as can be the whole time. And you look incredibly handsome with your new ‘do!