Dear Payton –
   Another month has flown on by and I am more than grateful to see the sight of the eighth month. Each month has their ups and downs but for some reason month seven was our roughest in terms of sleep and fussiness. I chalked it all up to a major growth spurt, teeth breaking through with more on the way and the beginning stages of separation anxiety. You do not have anxiety during the day however, you are happy playing with your toys, cruising the house discovering what you should not have like: cable/electrical cords, doggy’s food, cake plates which you now know hurt when you knock them down on your head and that the coffee table is your new friend. While at night you were waking up some nights every hour just to have one us come in to see you and would instantly fall over to your tummy into dreamland. It is extremely cute but it was wearing on us physically and mentally as we were only getting three hours of sleep. I am happy to report that over this past week you only wake-up once around 5 am and we just give you a bottle and change your diaper and your out until 8 am. I do miss the months when you slept for 12+ hour blocks, but I am more than hopeful we will see this again soon. You have gotten really mobile and super fast this month! You have started testing your limits and your limits with us. It is quite funny watching you do something you shouldn’t be and we tell  you “no” and you look at us giving the Payton grin and keep doing it. Daddy and I foresee our future in your teenage years when you look at us that way. You have also mastered standing, pulling yourself up on anything including scaling the side of the couch and moving from the coffee table to the couch. You have extreme control of your body movements which is great to see, considering you are still an infant. You can also back down off of the couch with ease! My proudest moment was when you listened to me after a few tries and started waving “hi”. I screamed with giddiness when you waved to Daddy, you now wave “hi” to everyone including yourself in the mirror, too cute! Daddy taught you how to give a high-five and we have started the beginning stages of sign language. This month has been amazing in terms of how well and fast you are learning your surroundings. I also have to report that you love Elmo, pray for me. . . please. I often find myself singing “la-la-la, la-la-la Elmo’s world” or any playtime Disney jingle for that matter. Daddy and I always laugh at ourselves when we do this, pondering what has become of us. But honestly, you have become of us, you are our happiness and our reason for living. The past two months have been rough for us with me not having a job and you have gotten us through this rough pasture into what we know now as a greener one. You brighten our days as you learn something new or just give us the biggest grin when you wake-up. You are our ray of sunshine Sweet P!

– As of Monday night you now wave “bye-bye”.
– You fashion yourself after Sunny Baudelaire from “Lemony Snicket’s A Series of Unfortunate Events”.
– You have moved on from the army crawl to full-on speed crawling.
– You are wearing 9-18 month clothing depending on what the item is.
– Size 4 diapers (but just moved back to size 3 since we switched back to Pampers)
– You are on Stage 3 foods, you have yet to reject anything.
– You love snacking. No surprise there since Daddy and I graze. 🙂
– Your first word this month was “da-da”, then “ma-ma” a week later and now you mumble “hi”.
– You love free-falling and spinning. You remain fearless.
– You think Doggy’s tail is the coolest thing since sliced bread.
– Your crib was lowered to the lowest setting after you woke-up one morning practically hanging out the crib.

We love you baby girl!

xoxo-
Mommy