Eight months

Oscar is eight months old today. He now has two little teeth (lower, front). He's begun feeling textures and laughs reliably when hoisted in the air, swung around or tickled.

We were beginning to doubt that his teeth would ever come in. For months, there was this little white dot where one of his incisors should be, but no apparent progress. And then, the other day, he was crying, so I gave him a knuckle to gnaw on and found that his formerly smooth lower gum line had sprouted a thicket of little spikes that felt something like a very dull serrated knife (Jen, whom he has chomped on more often than I, disputes the "dull" part of that formulation).

We've begun spicing up his pablum with fruits, and he's demonstrated a taste for sweet potatoes. He's still taking most of his meals at the boob, but he gets cereals and/or purees at least once a day. Feedings are messy, as you might imagine, but getting less so. At home, we feed him in the jumpy seat, wrapping our legs around his hips to keep him from bouncing.


He’s also drinking water. He started grabbing for the glass when Jen was breastfeeding him, and so the other day she decided to try giving him a swig. He clasped it in both hands and started sipping like he’d been doing it his whole life. Now, Jen will sit him up on her knee and give him a sip. It looks like a ventriloquist act. It’s clearly learned behavior -- the first unambiguous instance of mirroring we've seen. Just another reminder that the tape is always running.