Another month gone!  Where are they disappearing to?  I realized the other day that Nugget is two thirds of a year old, and pretty soon he’ll reach that milestone of having spent more time out than in.  It still feels like he just got here, but no – he’s well established at this point.  (Of course, it took him all of a tenth of a moment to embed himself in our hearts.)

We’ve had another busy month of going, going, going!  Nugget celebrated his first Halloween, enjoyed a visit from his Aunt Rebecca, went to the Strong National Museum of Play in Rochester (and got to see the actual felt figures from his Star Wars Epic Yarns book!) and was baptized.  Whew!  I’m exhausted after all of that, and you’d think Nugget would be too, but he continues to boycott naps.  Mostly…

(He fell asleep holding his foot while Daddy and I painted trim in the next room.  It was possibly the sweetest thing I’ve ever seen.  But everything he does is possibly the sweetest thing I’ve ever seen.  Can you tell that he has totally stolen my heart?)

He’s such a happy guy – rarely complains or fusses.  Bedtime is still not his favorite thing in the world, and he doesn’t like to get too hungry – but then again, who does?  No, most of the time he has the biggest smile on his face.  It’s impossible to be sad or upset around him – he’s just so funny and affectionate that he can have the entire household laughing in seconds.

I mean, he’s really, really affectionate.  Although I’m usually the only one who gets the slobbery open-mouthed kisses.  The day isn’t complete until Nugget has planted a couple of huge wet kisses on my cheek, chin, nose and eyeball.  I’m not complaining, though.  I hope he always loves his mom this much.  I know I love him more and more every day.

Nugget at 8 Months:

Weight: 16 pounds even!

Height: 27.5 inches (grain of salt, please; I measured him myself).

Clothing Size: I have to admit that he’s in nine months now.  I still occasionally squeeze him into six month pajamas and he does fine with them, but really he’s more comfortable in the bigger size.  He has some really adorable nine months clothes, though, so I can cling to that when I finally bite the bullet and pack away the six months wardrobe.

Sleep: Not much of a change from last month.  Still protesting a bit at bedtime and then settling in, usually with one wakeup during the night.  We’re ticking along and doing okay.  As for naps, Nugget doesn’t do those.  He’ll occasionally nod off in someone’s arms – mine, or one of his teachers’ at school – but even those snuggly naps are getting more rare.  (I will miss them so much when they’re gone completely.  Hope he stays snuggly for a bit longer.)  It’s strange because Peanut, even to this day, is completely dysfunctional if she doesn’t get a nap, but Nugget seems to chug right along whether he naps or not.

Likes: Big sister!  Also enjoys TV, FOOD (both mommy and pretty much any solid food – unlike Peanut, who would only eat fruit and had to be tricked into that, Nugget will happily gobble up anything I give him), rattles, chewing on books, watching other kids, and listening to Mom sing silly Raffi songs.

Dislikes: Bedtime gets a big THUMBS DOWN – from the moment Nugget sees his jammies he makes his displeasure known.  Sorry, little guy, but that nasty old bedtime comes around pretty regularly.

Favorite Toys: Currently, we’re into anything chewy.  Actually, that’s anything that we can chew on, whether it’s actually chewy or not, but things like teethers and chewy rattles are big crowd-pleasers.  Unfortunately for Nugget, Peanut has stepped up her toy-stealing game, and he’s lost quite a few teethers to her, which is pretty lame since she isn’t even teething.

Milestones: So many to report this month!  As far as developmental milestones are concerned, the two big ones are also the sharpest… that’s right, folks, we’ve got TEETH.  Two of them, bottom front and center, and man are they ever sharp.  Nugget is actually pretty considerate about avoiding the teeth when he is gnawing on my fingers, but I’ve been bitten a lot this month even so.  In other developmental milestone news, he’s doing really well with sitting independently, and he’s started to roll around.  It’s super cute to watch him migrate around the family room.  As far as other milestones are concerned, Nugget celebrated his first Halloween this past month.  He dressed as Tigger (costume courtesy of Aunt Rebecca) and actually made it out trick-or-treating with his big sis.  (He didn’t collect any candy, although people kept offering it to him.)  And a week after he celebrated Mischief Night, we did a 180 and had him baptized.  He was less than thrilled with the whole water on the head business, but he was a good boy.  Getting that done was a major weight off my shoulders, because I’ve been trying to coordinate a baptism for months.  We had a nice little family party, as is customary, and Nugget got a few sweet and thoughtful gifts from his godparents and from Nana.

Quirks: As Nugget gets older, it’s really fun to watch his little personality develop and learn the ways he’s different from his sister.  One of those, which we kind of already knew, really came into focus this month: while Peanut is chatty most of the time, she enters some kind of cone of silence the moment you strap her into the car seat; Nugget, by contrast, is a major car seat talker.  He doesn’t fuss as much as he used to do – now he just orates from the backseat.  Pretty much the moment the ignition starts, Nugget starts too: “AH!  Ehhhhhh, da!  Da da da da!  Behhhhhh.  DAH.  Unhnhnhnhnh!  Ah ahhhh!” and so on, and so forth.  We just listen, and occasionally wipe away tears of laughter.  Actually, Nugget has two speeds in the car: talking, and asleep.  The second the chattering stops, you know he’s taking his (likely one and only) nap of the day.  It’s too funny.

Happy eight months, little man!  Stop growing so darn fast.