Eko can no longer be contained! He spent his 8th month learning how to skooch across the floor by tucking in his knees, digging in his toes, and pulling himself forward on his belly. We are still a little stunned by the realization that our little baby boy is mobile. He was first tempted to skooch by the dangling lens cap on the camera. Each day he fine-tuned his new skill in order to reach other prohibited items, like Jay's hair, a cell phone, or the wires sticking out of our walls. But he rapidly became more adventurous and curious of the distances he could cover. He surprised our Sophia's Hearth group when he skooched himself over to a wooden tunnel, 
crawled in, and pulled himself all the way through to
the other side. It wasn't long before he discovered he could follow his daddy out of the living room and into the hallway. He's now traversed the entire first floor of the house, and he's getting faster! He's so eager that a toe blister didn't even seem to slow him down. (Jade attached an old towel to his chest, so he helps us clean like a little baby Rumba.) Our days of leaving him on the floor and expecting him
to be there when we return are over. The urgency to baby-proof is upon us!
Eko is making more connections every day. He responds rapidly to simple questions and requests, such as, "Where's Daddy?" (Looks right at him) "Come to mommy!" (Skooches over with a big smile) "Can I chew your gummy teether?" (Pops it in your mouth) We've been encouraging him to play Jade's conga drum, and he enjoyed it so much that Jay gave him the Sesame Street drum he's had since he was a little boy. Eko officially became a percussionist. Now if he sees a drum close by, he'll start beating the floor, his leg, or our chests with gusto! Our water baby loves baths so much that the merest mention of "kicky-kicky" sends him into wiggling squeals of glee. He can also recognize the word "camera." 
(Big surprise!) One night Jade was looking for it and said, "Eko, where did Daddy put that camera?" Eko turned around and looked right at a pile on the table. She ignored him—we're so used to narrating our actions that we don't expect him to actually listen. She looked all over the house. And where was the camera? On that pile. Such a helpful little guy! His hide-n-seek skills are also advancing; he understands that toys can be hidden under bigger toys, and mommies can hide under blankets. Another skill in the works is waving; when someone waves to him, he'll eventually lift his hand and wiggle his fingers, but just as often he waves to himself instead. 
Food is still kind of hit and miss with Eko. We've slowly been letting him taste different purees and mashes. Sometimes he's interested, usually he's not. He's seemed to like green beans, avocado and apples, but doesn't eat much in one sitting. He prefers to drum on his high chair tray. If food is on our plates or a drink in our cups, it's instantly a thousand times more delicious. Bananas off a baby spoon? Tolerable. Bananas off of a slice of red pepper from Daddy's salad? Marvelous. But Mommy's milk continues to be the food of choice for our little boy.
Although it's been a cooler spring, and the huge increase in ticks make us nervous, we try to get Eko outside as much as possible. He loves it and often whines when we come back inside. We'll sit out on the lawn and let him play with (and inevitably taste) grass, leaves, and safe flowers. (We do a lot of tick checks!) He often takes carrier naps while we walk our road or mow the lawn. (It's an electric mower, so the hum is mellow and soothing, though it's a pretty tough workout!) Jay even hiked Eko to the top of Mount Wantastiquet, which overlooks Brattleboro from the New Hampshire side of the river. After sleeping during the ascent, Eko woke up at the top ready for a photo session, then fell asleep again on the hike down.
Eko is getting a little shy as he becomes more mobile, but he's still very happy to see familiar faces. He's always a work-stopper at Jade's office as everyone gathers round to play peekaboo and try to win a smile, and at the library Jay's coworkers don't even seem to mind when he's loud!This month we were able to connect with friends we haven't seen in a long time. We took Eko down to Jenny and David's homestead where we mingled with their goats, listened to their 1 1/2 year old, Josiah, perform barnyard sounds,
and let 8 year old Melina show us how to sled down a sand mound. Having returned from their winter in New Orleans, Saturn and Dalia stopped by and couldn't believe how big he'd gotten since they'd last seen him at three weeks old.
Ben and Bridget came over with their daughter, Mirabelle (Bella for short). Eko thought Bella was hysterical as she crawled over and around him in circles. Eko, a great devotee of his Sasha kitty, also met his first kittens at Haley and Marley's. They were too fast for him as they darted around Haley's garden, but he wanted to touch (i.e. squeeze) one so badly!Speaking of new life, our friends keep creating new future friends for Eko, so a quick "Welcome to the world" to Jess and Scott's little girl, Sierra, Junio and Katie's girl, Jubilee, and Laura and Caleb's boy, Shaw. As Jay told Eko when he was first born, "Every day the world will make a little bit more and a little bit less sense."
We wrapped up Eko's 8th month with his first trip to New York City. Aside from visiting Jay's family in Staten Island, the purpose of this adventure was to help our good friends Onie and Kuan celebrate both their
recent marriage and birth of their little boy, Marcus, at a hall in
Chinatown called (awesomely) The Golden Unicorn. After Eko's last swim class of the season (kicky-kicky!!), we drove down with a blissfully sleeping and contented little boy. He didn't even mind our stop at Ikea for his first high chair (note to parents, this Ikea has a nice breastfeeding "family" room. We love the Swedes.) "This will be so easy," we said to ourselves. He got fussy as we looked for parking in Manhattan, but who doesn't? Eko really needed to sleep before the party, so he eventually napped in his carrier while we wandered around the busy boardwalks and little green spaces at the South Street Seaport, which neighbors Chinatown. 
When we finally rode the elevator into the hall of The Golden Unicorn, Eko was met with loud music, dozens of voices, bright colors and happy stranger's faces. There is only so much new stuff a baby can absorb in a day before he goes haywire—Eko lost it. (Sorry Kuan!) He finally warmed up and the three of us were able to catch up with Jay's good friends from high school, Helen and Christine (and her adorable son and daughter, Nicholas and Madison), hug the busy new parents, and ogle little 2 month old Marcus.Oddly, it's not the prepared moments you cherish, but the unexpected. Jade will always fondly look back on this scene as a classic new-mama moment: She and Eko squeezed into the tiny women's bathroom having a breastfeeding session with Onie and baby Marcus while Christine changed her little Nicholas (standing room only!)
Jade was rapidly coming down with something, but we'd come all this way,
and Onie had worked so hard on her party, so she tried to be a trooper. By the time the main courses were being served, she and Eko were both toast. No amount of walking up and down the streets of Chinatown would soothe him (though he found all the lights and smells intensely interesting!) 
They gratefully went right to sleep at Jay's sister's house in Staten Island, with two very eager little cousins wanting to play with Eko that very moment. All was well the next day, Jade's first Mother's Day. The boys were so sweet with their baby cousin, crawling all over the house with him and keeping him safe. We were also finally able to introduce Eko to Jay's cousin, Cathy. 
The visit was great. The ride back north was uncomfortable for us all. We hadn't anticipated two hours of traffic on the George Washington Bridge! For the next five hours we used every toy, song, and distracting trick we could think of, and Jade is now quite adept at car-seat breastfeeding. Eko finally, finally fell asleep toward the end of the long journey and stayed asleep through the transfer to bed. Poor little guy. Next time it's night travel all the way.
Need some giggles and wiggles to brighten your day? Check out the latest Eko Song:
