Month 8

I think every month I will say, "This is my new favorite age," because, seriously, she gets more and more fun every day! We can definitely see bits and pieces of her personality come out, and I can't wait to watch it develop. She's got some of her mom's stubbornness, and a lot of her dad's silliness.

She LOVES baby food. She eats 2-3 meals of baby food and baby oatmeal and she gets so excited when she watches me make it. She eats everything really well, but sweet potatoes are her favorite. We also have sweet potatoes puffs, and she loves those. She would eat the whole can at once if I let her. We offer her things off our plate all the time, and she'll take it all. We tried some greek yogurt and she was not a fan. She still nurses about 3-4 times a day and usually wakes up to nurse around 6am. She goes back down after that until around 8:30 or 9. There were a couple mornings she slept in until 10! She is sleeping in her own room and sleeps really well! It's usually just that one time she wakes up, unless she's having an off night. I want to ween her off that one feeding, but she seems pretty starving when she eats, so I'll let her have it. Once a night isn't bad at all. She goes down at 8, so she is usually sleeping 12-13 hours.

The funniest things make her laugh. Sometimes we don't have to do anything but just look at her and she laughs. She loves peek-a-boo. She STILL loves high-pitched noises and being startled. She is a tiny bit ticklish on her belly, her feet, and under her armpits. She loves raspberries on her belly. She loves dancing and singing and clapping. She loves when we fake cough and fake laugh. She loves her tongue. She loves to stick it out and just have it hang out, and she loves spitting and blowing raspberries. She also just loves to open her mouth really wide. She will just sit there with it hanging open. When she's excited, every limb moves lightning fast. It's hard to get smiling pictures these days because if she's happy, she's moving.

She has picked up a few new tricks this month. She knows the word "clap" and will clap a few times in a row when you say it. Her hands don't usually clap together, but she's got the motions down. She usually wants to clap my hands though, and will pick them up and make me clap. She knows the word "kiss" and loves to suck on your face. She seriously wants to kiss me all day. She knows the word "kitty" and gets so excited anytime Lady is in the room. She also tries to imitate her meow. She loves to fake cough, especially if we do it first. She loves to do her "stank face" as we call it. She scrunches up her nose and breathes really fast through her nose a few times. She does it when she's excited. She knows the word "night-night" and sometimes it makes her happy, and sometimes she starts to cry. She knows the expression "daddy's home!" and she immediately smiles and turns towards the door. I have been drilling "mama" into her head, but she only says it when she's crying and wants to be picked up, haha. She knows when you hide things now and she will peak around and try to find things. It's so fun to watch her learn.

She's FINALLY able to move forward now. We say she's crawling, mostly because we don't know what to call it. She is sometimes moving on her hands and knees, but most of the time it's her picking herself up and thrusting forward, or her dragging herself with one arm, or her pushing forward on her toes. But it doesn't matter, because she's moving!! It has made her so happy. She is content now to just move around the room and play with her toys. It's awesome.

She's getting the cutest little fuzzy head! Her hair is coming in slowly, and I love when she wakes up with a little bit of bedhead. It looks mostly blonde, but in a certain light, it looks strawberry blonde. She's a little chunk and I love all her rolls and double chin! We went to the doctor at the end of April and she weighed 18 pounds. It's definitely harder to carry her around these days.

She loves to be the center of attention with Nathan and me. She doesn't like to miss out on anything. If we are on the couch and she is on the floor, she'll fuss until we bring her up on the couch with us. Then she is just content to sit there and stare at us. Her favorite is when we both lay on the floor with her. She is so funny around strangers. SHE WILL NOT SMILE. She doesn't cry when they hold her. She doesn't act scared. She just stares them down. Hardcore. She hardly blinks, she doesn't look away, and she doesn't make a sound. She just stares at them! With those giant eyes. We have noticed it takes around 30-40 minutes around them for her to warm up and relax. Then she will smile and talk. I always feel bad when people will try so hard to make her smile. People stop me in stores all the time to try and talk with her, and she doesn't crack. I always tell them she is like that with all strangers, but I don't think they believe me. They think my baby hates them, haha. The only time she isn't like this is sacrament meeting. I have no idea why it's different there. She loves to stand on my lap and make faces and laugh at the people behind us, or reach over and grab the person sitting next to us.

Her favorite toys these days are kitchen utensils. I got a box and filled it with measuring cups, big plastic spoons, lids, and other random things. She will spend forever sitting there pulling each item out and turning it over and over in her hands. Then it makes it's way to her mouth. Then she throws it and finds the next thing. She is also liking her exercauser, which is nice for when I need to shower and don't want her dragging herself all over the house. She gets so excited when we read books, but she doesn't quite understand. The whole time all she is trying to do is shut the book.

She has mastered the "pincer grasp" and uses two fingers to pick up tiny things. It's amazing the things she will find. She loves picking fuzz off our carpet. Freaks me out for choking hazards. We definitely need to do some hardcore baby-proofing. She loves buttons and zippers and tags. She finds the tiniest details and obsesses over them. Her fingers are in her mouth most of the day, and her feet are in her mouth whenever she is laying down. Sometimes she tries to shove her feet into her mouth while she's nursing.

Still no teeth, and besides the normal drool and finger chewing, no real signs of teething. I'm okay if the teeth wanna wait a little bit. She got in her first cat fight, literally. Lady was cruising by when Sadie reached out with both hands and grabbed that cat and took her down. Nathan and I were far away but tried running over there as fast as we could. Lady deserves some credit, because at first she just tried to get away, but that made Sadie grab harder. So Sadie got herself a quick little bite. She cried for a few seconds and was over it once I picked her up. I felt really bad, but it was out of self-defense, not an attack. Lady has been drastically better. She sniffs and licks Sadie a lot, and meows when she cries. She always joins me in Sadie's room for the 6am feeding. Sadie is still so obsessed she has mini seizures when Lady walks by. One day they will learn how to be best friends.

I hate to be one of those overly gushy moms, but I am just os in love with this girl, sometimes I want to cry when I look at her. I know, I am that special! I just waited so long for her and she's just so awesome. There's of course hard times. Like the fact that she still fights a bottle more often than not, or she'll decide 2am is party time, or she'll take a 20 minute nap, or she'll want to be held all day for no reason. But holy crap she's worth it. I just want to eat her face.