Toothless days are behind us.

Reed started cutting his first tooth. Its like he has a piece of shrapnel imbedded in his gums, it's razor sharp! He slept pretty well last night, only woke up twice and was easy(er) to put back to bed. Today he's whiny and needy but I'm here for him. He's the cutest little monster ever. Recently I've amazed myself with how hypnotized I am by him. I thought it was supposed to wear off, but here we are more than 7 months after his birth and my heart still skips a beat when he looks into my eyes and smiles. I get a pang of jealousy when someone else is holding him and I miss him when I'm away. Reed is the sweetest boy, he's snuggly and smiles easily. He's so curious about the tiny world around him. With the newfound skill of pulling himself to a stand, he's got a new perspective on life and is motivated to keep busy more than ever. His smiles are pure joy, no holding back. He's got nothing to hide and isn't ashamed of what makes him happy.

Each milestone that he passes, I can't help but think about the fact that there is no going back. Once this tooth breaks, it means the end of the toothless grins. Once he started crawling, it meant the end of the rolling from place to place days.

Last Friday, I was picking him up at school and his teachers told me that he'd pulled himself up using a little bookshelf that day. I didn't believe it! I didn't think he was ready for that, but as soon as I got him home I had to see it. I set him on the floor in front of his music station and after a little while, sure enough, he pulled himself first to his knees- then pushed his butt up in the air and he was on his feet! It was amazing. Then of course, he had to do it again and again and now we can't leave the room because he'll try to pull himself up on virtually anything. He's still pretty unstable so I don't want him crashing on his head. I'm tempted to wrap his head in bubble wrap so I know he's safe. We thought we had more time, but we were wrong - so we had to move his crib that night. His mattress is now safely at the bottom of the crib so he can stand up without doing a swan-dive to the carpet. The pack-n-play was the next thing to modify. Now he has a little play "pen". He's okay in there as long as he can't see us. He'll play by himself peacefully unless he knows you're available to play with.

His favorite song is still "On top of spaghetti." It's my secret weapon because Reed will forget that he is sad just long enough for me to finish out the song. I love his little personality. Last week at book club, he was trying to suck on Piper's face- who is about 3 months older than him. I hadn't really thought about him sucking on other people's faces. I thought he just loved mine! When I asked his teachers at school if he tried to suck on his classmates' faces, they said, "No. It's usually the feet." Silly boy!