Dear Little Mac,
You turned 8 months old about a week two weeks ago. I know Im falling behind, but at least you’re getting something this way. Don’t be surprised when you turn 18 and look in your baby book and find partially it blank. Ha.

This morning you started giving us sweet open mouth kisses. Your brother got the very first one.

You still are a great, easy going, happy baby. Your whole face lights up when we come in the room and your legs, arms and feet start going to make sure we notice you. Trust me, we do. And if we didn’t- the loud cry when we walk out of the room does. You love watching and playing with your brother. Even though he isn’t always nice- you don’t know the difference, and you just think its a fun game when you get the old bait-and-switch with whatever toy you are playing with. In all fairness Nathan is a great brother- he loves to feed you. He makes sure you have Cheerios on your tray, a toy when you are empty handed and a ’softie’ when you need soothing. He tells you he ‘loves you the whole world Mackenzie.’

We took you to the dr. yesterday for the horrible cough you have and surprisingly you are only 20 lb 1oz. It must be all that lower calorie fruit you are eating as opposed to the creme-de-la-mama you chubbed up on. You are a great eater, maybe too great because you make it very well known that cheerios are not acceptable when we are so clearly eating something different. Sweetie….you aren’t ready for steak yet, but you did have a few small pieces of hamburger when we had tacos last night. You love carrots, sweet potatoes, applesauce, and slices of bananas as well as sliced green beans. Avocados and peas are alright….as is oatmeal. And prunes, you’ve been getting a lot of those and as long as they are the prunes with apples you seem to enjoy those quite a bit too. Juice may as well be poison. You love feeding yourself and are still adamant about grabbing the spoon when we feed you. This is less surprising the older you get, its just that you’ve been doing it since, like, the first day you were fed from a spoon. Independent aren’t you? I committed the unthinkable yesterday when Nathan and I went out to lunch at McDonalds and I realized I had nothing for you. No baggie of cheerios- nothing. So, lets just say you too love french fries. Oh yes I was that parent.

You roll around all over the place and insist on picking up every piece of food, fuzz and dirt. I never realized how much of a vacuum cleaner Sandy was and right about now Im really missing having her around. I sweep up piles of cheerios every single day and that gets old real quick. Thinking about how she would eagerly clean up after Nathan and couldn’t wait for me to lift him out of his booster seat to schlop up any missed bites I was feeling sad about how you will never know her. She was so gentle with you and I know if she were still here you would LOVE to love on her, pull on her fur, poke her in the eye (and she was so good with kids, she absolutely would have let you), watch her and have her lick your chubby little fingers. We all still really miss her.

Your favorite toy these days is a wooden spoon. With close seconds being Little People. Which Nathan quickly corrects me by saying they are not little people, they are Chubby People (this is mostly due to the fact that we have some of the vintage Little People- who are actually little, thus making the newer people the Chubby People).

You love to be pushed in your stroller, read Millie Moo, be carried around and play hide-and-seek with your brother. You love the tub and “chatting” with us at the dinner table, making yourself the center of attention. You don’t do it as much now but for a good several weeks you would make “sweet eyes” at anyone who would flirt with you.  Which I can only describe as you tipping your head way back, squeezing your eyes shut, raising your eyebrows just a bit, wrinkling your nose a little and pasting the biggest smile across your face. I am impressed that you can ham it up so well so young, I can only imagine what is in our future.

Sweet Eyes

We still have lots of names for you; mostly we call you Kiki and Keek and sometimes your my kit-kat, or my princess, sugar, goo goo or sugar bear. Which sounds so dumb when I write it out, but it makes you smile when I say it.

It doesn’t even seem possible that once we get back from the states- we’ll have about 6 weeks until your birthday. How will a year have gone by so quickly? It still seems so unfair that babies are little for such a brief period of time. I wish I could keep you little and snuggly  and baby for longer. Im sad that its gone so quick, but I’ve enjoyed every single minute of it almost every single minute of it.

Love,

Mama

Filed under: McSassy