The Talley Family: 8 months old

Ace, you are 8 months old! Time is really flying by. You are SO MUCH FUN! You have the happiest, most easygoing personality. You are a trooper and go with the flow no matter what comes up. A little bit about you at 8 months old:

You are wearing size 12 month sleepers and 9 month or 12 month onesies. We are about to have to switch to 18 month sleepers and you will only be able to wear 12 month onesies. You are long!
You have 2 teeth. Those bottom 2 teeth make your smile so cute. I am expecting a new tooth or two to pop through any day now. You are drooling and chewing on EVERYTHING.
You are so, so happy! You smile and laugh constantly. When you smile or laugh, your whole face lights up. The only time you seem to be even the least bit fussy is if you are not feeling well.
Nights are still pretty rough. We give your chemo in the evening before bed. It is so hard to give it to you because we know it makes you feel crummy. We literally notice a change in your demeanor within a few minutes of giving you the medicine. Dr. McClain has told us that the chemotherapy drug you are on is notorious for causing stomach cramping. You are such a trooper, you take the medicine without any trouble and roll with the punches throughout the night.
You normally go to sleep between 9-10. We have to space your last bottle with the medicine appropriately, so the time is different each night. You will normally sleep for a few hours and then wake up around midnight. At this point, you normally take a little bit of a bottle and will go back to sleep pretty quickly most nights. You then wake up pretty much every 2 hours or so throughout the night and are pretty much awake for the day around 6. I like to joke that you are a little guy that never misses a sunrise. We normally spend quite a bit of time with you in the rocking chair at night. You also like to sleep in bed with us. It is hard because you seem so tired, but so uncomfortable. I think that if you could just get comfortable you would sleep so much better. We know this won't last forever and will do whatever it takes to keep you as comfortable as possible and get you through this.
You are a good napper. I think you would be an even better napper if your sister wasn't around to wake you up so much. You normally take a morning nap anywhere between an hour to an hour and a half long. You also take an afternoon nap most days. You really need your rest during the day since nights are so rough. I think Tinsley really misses your company when you are asleep because she will quite often walk over to where you are and get right in your face and say "Ace, did you wake up?" Um, yes Tinsley, he sure did(now that you woke him up). ;-)
You "sing" yourself to sleep quite often. It is the sweetest sound ever. I am going to record it and will post it soon. When you get tired and are about to go to sleep you will start humming to yourself. You don't do it all the time if we are rocking you, but you always do it if we are in the car and you are in your carseat or if you are in your swing. It is so sweet to hear you in the backseat when we are going somewhere.
You LOVE being outside. If you can't be outside, you like to have your walker or exersaucer close to the door or window so you can see what is going on outside.
You are an AWESOME eater! You literally want to try everything we are eating. You are pretty good with baby food- your favorite baby foods are oatmeal with mixed fruits, apples and bananas with rice cereal, and carrots. You also like puffs and yogurt melts. But, you would really prefer it if we would toss the baby foods and feed you table foods mashed up. Your favorites are ham and macaroni and cheese. You also have been known to share my muffin with me in the mornings.
You are crawling everywhere! You have also started pulling up onto stuff already. You push up on your feet and hands as well. You are SO STRONG! You will be walking in no time.
Your favorite person in the world is still your big sister. You absolutely adore her. She can just walk by and you start laughing and attempting to jump out of our arms to get to her. She loves you too and is so good with you. Seeing the two of you together makes me so happy.
You love Eagan. You have started paying a lot more attention to him lately. You seem especially interested in his fluffy tail and ears. I think you are going to be an animal lover like your big sister