1) They probably have teeth. And these teeth don’t appear as white shiny pearly things. Instead they push through the gums as slivers of see through glass. Look like glass. Cut like glass. All that whinging and red jaws – sharp shiny glass teeth.
2) Baby will use teeth. On anything. Today I removed herself from my dinner plate. She was chomping on the delph. This week I have also removed her from the headboard of the bed and my finger. Do not put finger in baby’s mouth, or if you must (how else to you get Bonjela in there) AVOID teeth.
3) Baby could be crawling. I had no idea about the crawling timeline. Spud had been making advanced rolling movements, but it didn’t look like crawling was on the agenda at all. Last weekend she hopped up on her knees and took off. Just like that. And not a cupboard nor a toilet seat in the house babyproofed.
4) There may be new hair. We’ve noticed a sudden advancement in the hair follicle department. She’s got loads of the stuff – all short and new. When she sleeps funny it stands on end and she looks like how I feel. We’ve even started putting hair slides in it. But that’s kinda to stop her looking like a boy. Which she does look like, a lot.
5) Dinner time is ‘sharing’ time. With teeth comes appetite and while before the baby was happy to have her own menu often separate to us, now she must join in and have a taste of everything. This is fine, and cute but sometimes annoying when you’ve just sat down to eat and must get up to serve her royal baby-ness.
6) Baby knows who you are now. Up till now you were just another boob or bottle. Now, baby notices if it’s a strange boob or bottle (hopefully not the former) and may cry when separated from you. This decreases the freedom you were just starting to get back. Dammit!
7) Smile! Smiley, smiley, smiley 8 month olds are social little creatures and will smile all by themselves when playing or just looking over at you. It’s very cute and may make you want to have more babies. Careful now.
8) Forget fashion. Dressing babies and keeping them clean might have seemed difficult in the early stages. But it’s 100 times more difficult with an 8 month old. Firstly, they HATE getting dressed and wriggle away using their strong little crawling bodies. Secondly, they are the dirtiest creatures you’ve ever encountered. Food in ears. Poo on foot. Or maybe that’s just mine?
View this article as it appeared on www.herfamily.ie May 2015
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