Merry Christmas!

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Augh!

Unfortunately, we have been a bit down and out. Ryan came down with a nasty cold last week and despite his best efforts, even sleeping a few nights out on the couch, passed it on to me. So this week has been a struggle for both of us. Luckily, Chase hasn't shown any symptoms yet. I did some reading on colds and found out that it isn't uncommon for everyone in the household to get sick and a nursing baby to stay well. Apparently, as I fight the cold I am passing antibodies on to Chase so it is possible for him to stay healthy even with a sneezing, feverish mother around him all day. We certainly hope so, since Christmas is only a few short days away and then our trip to Florida follows.
Chase turned 8 Months this week! Can you believe how fast it has gone?
Chase is so close to crawling. Now, he moves has hands and knees and then lurchs forward, so the end result is forward movement. He still likes to do the downward dog yoga pose, with his butt in the air, but he is realizing that he can't really move without his knees down on the ground.
He also has two beautiful white teeth. This week I started giving him these Gerber puffs to try eating as finger food. The good thing is they dissolve in his mouth so there is no risk of real choking only gagging but so far so good. He has trouble getting them in his mouth so for every 5 tries he manages to get one in. Once he gets one in there he moves it to the front where he uses those little teeth to crunch it up. It is pretty funny.

APPLAUSE-- APPLAUSE

Chase is growing and changing by leaps and bounds these days. You can see in his eyes how much more he understands and absorbs. Recently, one of our playmates began clapping his hands so I started working more intensely with Chase on watching me and copying the movement. He loved watching but he only wanted to clap if he could hold my hands. Then finally this week during our play time I started singing this clapping song I made up and he clapped his own hands together! It was really cute. The first few days he was clapping he would look down at his hands in amazement that he was actually do it by himself, smiling and giggling. Even this morning we woke up and immediately he started clapping his hands, as if to check that he could still do it.
It is so amazing to watch as your child learns new things and does things for the first time. Ryan said that someday when Chase is grown he is going to be clapping at something and you can turn and say I taught you that. What a privledge to be able to help my son grow and develop and to bear witness to so many amazing moments in his life. I am so lucky!

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