Month 8: New Shoes & Those Magic Words

It is an electrifying and terrifying moment to see your baby stand up by himself for the first time. Your pulse quickens, your breath stops, and your mind races ahead to the mounds of baby-proofing you have yet to accomplish.

Daniel has always been exceptionally strong for his age, starting with his crazy head control the night he was born. So I shouldn't be surprised to see him achieve developmental milestones at the speed of light, but I can't help it. I laid him down in his crib for a nap (which he apparently wasn't ready for), he sat up and smiled and me, letting out this funny little chuckle, and began the climb. He grabs the bars, and kind of hoisted his bootie up to a kneeling position. Then one leg... then the other... and suddenly my baby was standing on his own two feet, obviously pleased with himself. Within minutes he was jumping, bouncing, doing the one-arm swing, and working his way around the crib interior, from bar to bar.

In honor of his new accomplishment, we picked up a few new pair of shoes at Wal-Mart (gotta love those $9 specials!). He now sports little white sneakers wherever we go, and is doing great about keeping them on. (The other pair of shoes was a pair of yellow work boots for his Halloween get-up. He was a lumberjack, complete with a red flannel shirt, red hat, homemade foil axe and a beard made with Mommy's mascara.)

In other news, Daniel finally transitioned from his all-encompassing word for everything: "da-da", to the sweet little syllables I have been waiting eight months for: "ma-ma". It happened this week - Wednesday - at 5:11 p.m. (not that it changed my life or anything). His voice has never sounded sweeter. Since then he's been using it more and more, and only when I'm around or when he's looking for me. If he's not there already, I think he's close to using words with intentionality. (All that said, there's no question that he still prefers saying "da-da" - lately, he's been using it to test the limits of his little vocal chords.)

That perfect little man just gets more perfect everyday.