8 Months

Yesterday Tristan turned 8 months old. I know I say this all the time, but seriously - where does the time go?! Just yesterday he was this tiny blob that couldn't do anything and now he is all over the place!

Tristan has turned into a pretty mellow baby... except for when he's unhappy. Then he screams. But he's pretty mellow compared to his first three months of life. I was so worried he had my temperment (that would be crabby...), but he really seems to be a very happy little guy. He is such a joy. His little smile melts my heart and lets me know everything is going to be okay. He loves his big brothers and when he is being fussy they are able to make him laugh.

This month we've had all sorts of new things happen with Tristan. He got his first tooth last week and it is so cute! He is waking up a lot at night, so I know his gums are bothering him. Tristan is also so.very.close to crawling. He knows how to do it, but likes the speed of the army crawl, so he'll choose to do that after trying out the real crawl. When Tristan spots something he wants, he stops at nothing to get it. Tristan will still spend a decent amount of time in his Jumperoo - which is a good thing because he jumps while I'm making dinner. He is also spending longer stretches in the pack and play, just playing away. Just last week we moved Tristan up to size 4 diapers. The 3's still worked, but they were getting harder to close up. I also pulled out 12 month clothing since Tristan's 6-9 month clothes are getting tight. The 12 months clothes are roomy, but he'll be filling them out in no time, I'm sure. Just yesterday I weighed Tristan here at home and he was 20 1/2 pounds. His infant car seat only goes up to 22 pounds, so we may be buying a new car seat sooner than we like! Tristan also loves to swing. About a month ago we had a swingset put up in the backyard and got Tristan a toddler swing. He likes to sit in it and swing and has even napped in it. Late edit: We had to lower Tristan's crib all the way to the lowest setting (it was at the medium setting) because he is pulling himself up on his knees and chewing on the rail.

8 months is sentimental for us because we met the twins as they were turning 8 months. They were so tiny in comparison. Noah was 15 lbs and Samuel was 13 lbs - and they were some of the bigger babies in the orphanage! They really weren't doing very much physically - they didn't play like Tristan does. They weren't scooting around. In fact, I have a picture of Noah laying on his belly and propping himself up on his elbows. It's just night and day as I think about where the twins were at developmentally.

As we waited for the twins, we knew we were missing out on all sorts of milestones. But as Tristan shows us daily his new tricks, well it just kind of amplifies for me all that we missed out on with Noah and Samuel. It angers me. It makes me sad. I so wish we could have had them home earlier. That we could have shared in all the firsts. I pray and trust that Joel 2:25 will become a reality for us, that God will repay all the years the locusts ate.