Confessions of an 8 Month Old's Mom

Steven is 8 months old today. He has changed so much in the last few weeks. It's not just that he is getting physically bigger but he really is getting more mature (I feel funny saying that about an 8 month old). He's very expressive and uses his hands while he talks- I wonder where he's seen that. He used to enjoy nursing as "mommy time" and gaze adoringly into my face, but now he wants to get down on the floor as soon as he's done. Hmmm...maybe he'll wean himself- that would be nice because when that time comes I'm expecting a real battle. He is constantly on the move. It's exhausting because he's getting fast and he always finds stuff to get into. Like yesterday when he crawled to the back door, got grease on his hands from the hinges and then tried to pull up on the wall beside him. I was watching the whole time and trying to get there but it took about 5 sec. to happen. One more thing to add to the house to-do list: paint over greasy mini hand prints. He loves crawling but now that he has that under his belt, he is working on walking. He likes to try to walk around the ottoman or his exersaucer and is not very interested in his toys anymore. He's becoming pretty good at pulling himself up and was standing in his crib (that has already been lower once) when I went to get him from a nap yesterday.

Also, I have a few confessions:

1) Steven has not had a haircut. His hair just looks differently because he's getting some wave on the top and it's getting long. It falls to the front now and gives him kind of that bowl haircut. I swear that yesterday his hair looked just like Jim's on The Office. We are going to try to go a few more weeks before getting him another haircut.
2) Everyone keeps commenting on Steven's great tan. While it's true that he does have more color than me and his Mimi does have a little Native American blood in her family, we do not think that his coloring is permanent. I had heard that some babies can turn a little orange if they eat a lot of orangy vegetables, but for some reason I didn't think that this could ever happen to my child. I mean, I rotate his foods to make sure that he's getting a balanced diet, but my delusion was shattered last week when a nurse at the ped.'s office asked me if he ate a lot of carrots and sweet potatoes. So there you go! The doctor said that some babies can't absorb all the keratin from the veggies and so the extra shows up in their skin. He said that it just means he's very healthy. Ah ha...one point for neurotic mommies.

3) Steven's cool onesies (Chick Magnet and This Is How I Roll) are from Aunt Jenn. She made them especially for Steven because, well, our family has a lot of attitude and Steven is showing signs that he is no exception.