8 months old

Another month has passed. And so many new abilities this little girl has learned. I am amazed at how fast she has picked up on things. There is something new every day. It is so exciting.

Crawling is her new favorite thing to do. In fact that is pretty much all she wants to do these days. She isn't on her knees yet but is getting close. She puts them under her all the time but quickly falls back down to her tummy. She is so FAST! I walk away and she is half way across the room in less than 20 seconds. I am constantly finding new things she can get into. There is only so much I can baby proof though. I have no idea how to keep her away from the tv and all its cords. I just have to promptly pick her up and move her to the other end of the room. I moved the kitchen stuff around so she can't get to the dog food as fast. Out of sight out of mind. Well, for the most part. 

She is very good at pulling herself up on anything she can get her hands on. This has caused lots of bumps and bruises. At first it was driving me up a wall trying to make sure she didn't fall over. Now I have learned that it is like sweeping leaves on a windy day. Pointless!! She is going to fall, bump her head and get bruises. It is inevitable. This is how she is going to learn. I still save her if I am right next to her though. :) She will put her hands out and try to grab your fingers so she can pull up to a standing position. It is very cute! If she sees your hands that is what she wants to do. Today she stood by herself for 3 seconds! She was very proud of herself. Her squeal said it all. 

We are up to 3 meals a day of solid food. I started this yesterday. Her current favorites are any fruits, carrots, mac n cheese, turkey and rice and she loves the little puffs that gerber makes. They have helped her with her pincer grip tremendously. It has gotten very good this past week. She also a few days ago figured out the sippy cup!!!! I was starting to wonder if she would ever understand it. This is a huge deal for me because she hasn't ever taken a bottle before. I am hoping that in the next few weeks she gets really good at it and can eventually take breast milk from it. She is nursing 5-6 times a day now. The sessions are getting shorter and shorter though. Sometimes she even turns me down. I guess this is a good sign. Her appetite for solids has really soared this past month.

She is currently in 9 month clothes. There are a few 6 month things she can still squeeze into. She is in a size 4 diaper. I weighed her the other day on my scale and she came in at 19lbs. I don't know how accurate that is though. At her 6 month check up she was 18lbs. So I don't think she has gained that much weight. partially because she is all over the place! 

She still isn't talking that much. Every once in a while she will put a waa waa or daaaaaa in there. For the most part it is ahhhhhhh. She has recently found a very high pitch eeeeeeeeeeaaaaaaaahhhhh that she loves to scream! 

Sleeping is still the same. Wakes up frequently. The past few nights I have been trying the cry it out method. It is very hard but necessary. She is old enough now to where she can handle this. She is crying/screaming basically because she wants to be held. The second I go down there and pick her up she stops. So I know she isn't in pain. Just wants mommy. I am hoping I can keep up with doin the cry it out. I have heard that they catch on pretty fast. We shall see. This little girl is very stubborn and persistant. lol

She has her two bottom teeth and her two top ones are about 1mm under the gums. I am thinking that they will break through in the next 2 days. She has been extremely cranky and has had a little temp the past few days. She is also sucking on everything. I guess it helps with the pain. She has even taken to a binkie. She has NEVER taken a pacifier before so this is really different for me. But if it helps her with the pain then I am all for it.

My parents came in town last week. We had lots of fun. Emma is old enough now to be able to go down to the city and be out for a majority of the day. We went to a small town a few minutes away that is nice for window shopping. We also went down to the city to the American museum of Natural History. Lots of cool stuff in there. They had a butterfly exibit that was cool. One landed on her shoulder and she tried to eat it hahaha. I got some good pictures of that. We also went and saw the Easter bunny at the mall. She loved him! She tried to pull off his glasses.

That is about all thats going on around here. Marks Mom is coming in town next week for easter. So I will have more pictures to post in a week or so of that. I'm sure we will go do some cool stuff with her.

I leave you with pictures galore!!!