eight months

Eight months. It's hard for me to grasp the concept that it's already been eight months since I gave birth to Luke. He has become such a joy in our lives and I honestly can't remember what life was like without him, nor would I even dream about going back to that time. As he gets older and more of his little quirks come out, I fall more in love with him and can't wait to see what else he'll come up with or do next.

Yesterday was a momentous day. Luke said his first word, "dog-uh." He catches sight of Rosco, screeches like a madman, and starts chanting dog-uh, dog-uh. He only says it when he sees Rosco, so I'm pretty sure hes made the connection. Although he can make many more sounds, I'm fairly certain and Keith is too, that this is the first time he's accurately identified something.

Luke is moving around so much. He scoots (or army crawls, as Keith requires it to be called) all over the place so we've had to really start watching where we leave things and what is left out. He tries to sneak up on Rosco, but ends up getting way too excited and squeals as he's about to get there and ruins the surprise. You better believe that Rosco high tails it out of there when he hears Luke coming.

He eats his solid foods like champ and gets so excited when we put him in the high chair. It's almost like we can't get the food to him fast enough. When we initially started solid foods, Dr. Chang told us to feed him the food first and then the bottle or he would refuse to eat the food. Not our kid. We have to give him the bottle first otherwise he won't have anything to do with it after he's done with the other food.

Luke is growing by leaps and bounds. He's heavy as all get out and actually starts to hurt your arm when you've held him too long. He's a solid kid and he's starting to get a belly. His hair keeps getting longer and curlier and I keep refusing to cut it. And as much as I *love* feetie jammies, he's already growing way too long for him. We had to break down and buy him 12 month two-piece jammies this week.

He's growing way too fast and I can't seem to keep up. Every time he does something new, I celebrate for minute and then it hits me. Each and every time something new or exciting thing happens, that's one last first he'll do. It's one more thing in him growing up. It's more minutes ticking away until he's the kid who doesn't want to hug his mom at school or until he'll be the kid going on his first date.

I love this kid more than words can say and I'm incredibly thankful for every moment I have with him.