Mr. Zan Man

Since Zander turned eight months, it seems like he's been growing at hyper speeds. He started crawling right at eight months, and two weeks later he's already trying to pull himself up on the furniture. He's starting to imitate sounds, and getting more teeth. His most recent noise is clicking his tongue. He'll do it all day long now. He is learning something new every day, and I love it! He follows me around the house like a little puppy. Once he's caught me he'll try to stand himself up on my leg, and then bites me. He chews on anything and everything. I found bite marks all over the crib, on his toys, and mine and Stephen's skin. I know its because he's teething, but I've been trying to teach him not to bite people. The other day I picked him up from the crib, and he grabbed my neck and sunk his teeth in it. That one hurt! He loves chasing after the cat, but Toby hates it. He's a good sport about it, most of the time.

I found him like this yesterday after his nap, so we lowered his crib that night.

I thought I'd better get a short video of Zander crawling.

And this is his new trick he learned last week.

Last week Stephen and I went on our first date without Zander in over eight months. I was really looking forward to it because I was desperate for a break. I didn't want to ask anyone to watch Zander because I was afraid he'd just cry the whole time, and that's no fun for anyone. Stephen asked his mom and dad if they'd watch him for us while we went to dinner. They happily accepted, and off we went. of course I couldn't help but worry about him during dinner, but it was SO nice having dinner with just Stephen. We went to Cold Stone for dessert afterwards, and then headed home. I asked Pat how he did, and she said he didn't cry at all. I was so relieved! she also said that he is by far the easiest grandchild they have, haha. That really made me feel a lot better about Zander just because the last few weeks he's been so whiny and crying a lot; I needed a few hours away from him, so thank you grandma and grandpa Washburn for giving me a much needed break! That was all I needed to regroup and be able to calm down and refill my patience, so to speak.