8 Months

My little lady is now 8 months old, and now she's on the move.  She started crawling just a few days ago.  Eric had been saying she was crawling for a couple of weeks, but on Saturday she really crawled across a room.   Before, she was finding ways to get around, but not what I would call crawling.  Now... she's got it down.  She's still slow, and I think sometimes forgets about her new skill, but I bet a week from now she'll be exploring the whole house (and getting in to all of big sister's stuff)!  She also (finally) rolled over from her tummy to her back this month.  Silly girl took her time hitting that milestone.  

 We are continually seeing more of Baby J's personality come out.  She's still a sweet, happy girl, but we catch some glimpses of mischief in her eyes, especially now that she's mobile.  She's still going through some separation anxiety, but she can chase me now, which seems to make her a little happier.  She's also starting to make claims to certain toys and other objects.  We used to be able to exchange the toy she had for another, but if we take something away from her now, she'll voice her displeasure. 

This month she's been eating a lot more.  I'm not sure who she got this from, but she loves green veggies the most.  She'll tolerate the orange veggies most days, but she doesn't care for fruit.  She still doesn't have any teeth, so I feel a little restricted on what solid foods we can give her, but I did let her chew on some watermelon and cucumber.  She liked both of those.  We've also been giving her puffs when we eat to keep her busy.  More and more of them make it to her mouth every day.

Baby J is loving the summer.  We've spent a few days at the beach, which she thinks is great.  She likes to splash in the water and eat the sand.  In general, she loves being outside.  She'll play on the deck and be content to just be outside while we work on outside projects.  She's also loving her stacking cup toys, blocks and anything of Little A's that she can get her hands on.   

Baby J is 7 Months

 Look at my big baby girl. Sitting is no problem for Baby J.  In fact, I think she's thinking hard about crawling.  Baby J will reach so far out in front of her to get toys that have rolled away, and then manages to get back in to that sitting position.  Now, if Little A leaves her toys out, Baby J finds a way to get to them... and put them in her mouth.  Everything goes to her mouth.  And she tries to get the entire object in her mouth.  Sometimes she'll start to cry because she can't eat the whole thing.  Silly girl.

Baby J still gives out lots of gummy smiles... still no teeth in there.  She is still a happy baby most of the time.  She has a cute squealing laugh when she gets really excited.  She loves to play with her big sister!  Little A is good with her for the most part, but now that Baby J is more active, she gets a little rough sometimes.  One day while they were playing, Baby J managed to knock Little A down.. twice.  E and I had to laugh.

One of our new games with Baby J is to blow raspberries at her.  She tries so hard to copy.  Sometimes she's successful, but most of the time her tongue gets in the way.  Either way, super cute!

This month we've also seen the start of some separation anxiety.  She has days where she gets really upset if Mommy leaves the room, and sometimes cries if she even gets put down.  One day I tried to play peek-a-boo with Baby J and it led to tears. 

She's also not sleeping through the night yet.  She goes to sleep around 9, then wakes up most nights between 2 and 3 to eat.  She goes right back to sleep, and is up again most mornings between 6 and 6:30.  During the day she normally takes about three naps; one short nap in the morning, about an hour around noon, and another late afternoon or evening nap for half an hour to an hour (and pretty much any time we ride in the car). 

For You

Last night, after a long day at the beach, E, the girls and I spent some time relaxing on our deck.  As we were sitting and talking, Little A ran up to us and told us she needed to go inside.  We asked why, and she said, "I have a very special present for you."*  She went inside, and returned a little later with one of her gold jelly shoes.  A lovely shoe, but E and I looked at each other a little confused about how that was a present for either of us.  She then told us, I have to get it out."  She unbuckled her shoe, and reached in.  She walked over to E, pinched two fingers inside her shoe, and handed him a butterfly, then came over to give me my butterfly, and finally one for Baby J. 

There are times in the day that she starts to drive me crazy with her 2 year old energy, but this was about the sweetest thing!

*These are really the words she uses.  She has a big vocabulary, and she strings together some long sentences!