8 months

Saturday, baby girl, you turned 8 months old. I missed getting the chance to write this on your actual 8-month birthday because your Bubbie and Zeydie were in town visiting, and we were busy having fun! Rest assured though that you were wished a happy 8-month birthday all.day.long. by everybody, including your Uncle Eugene!

Have I already said that a certain age is my favorite age ever? Yes? Well I'm saying it again. Eight months old is my FAVORITE! You have become such a fun, funny, sweet, funny, energetic, funny, entertaining, delightful, and oh-did-I-mention funny baby girl! You are the life of the party, the belle of the ball, wherever we go. You are loud, and you love vocalizing all your different sounds (you have so many now!) and experimenting with different volumes. You go from whispered "puh" sounds to shrieks of "BABABA!!!!" Not only are you listening to and entertaining yourself, but you are looking for reactions in those around you as well. Anytime you get a reaction out of someone, be it a smile or a look of surprise or the same sounds imitated back to you, you crinkle up your little nose in the most adorable smile ever and then continue on your merry noise-making way. You are also experimenting with sounds in other ways--sometimes you beat your chest while yelling because you like the way the thuds make your voice change. You have also learned how to make a "bub-bub-bub" sound by making the "b" sound while strumming your bottom lip like a guitar string. You will do it while your dad or I strum your bottom lip for you, and if we aren't around when the mood strikes, you'll do it yourself. It is the funniest thing ever to ear a gentle "bub-bub-bub" over the monitor to let us know that you have woken up from your nap. You will also try to strum our bottom lips to make the same "bub-bub-bub" noise. You are such a smart little cookie.


In addition to your rapidly developing vocal skills, you are making leaps and strides in your physical skills as well! You are learning how to wave bye-bye and have started to pair it with the "b" sound. Your bye-bye sounds something like "ba-ba" and you are usually waving at yourself, creating pretty much the cutest goodbye in the history of the world. A couple of weeks ago you managed to push yourself from laying on your stomach to sitting upright! You are pulling up to stand when you hold onto our hands and are starting to be able to use my shoulders to stand up when you are sitting on my lap. Though you have never been much of a roller, you are now rolling across the floor in a single direction--this has made for some funny discoveries of you up against the TV stand, or over under your jumperoo. And in the most exciting news, you are just on the brink of crawling. You can get up on all fours and rock back and forth (like revving your engine--I need to get it on video because it is awesome!), but then you get tired and drop back onto your tummy, or quite often your arms overpower your legs and you end up pushing yourself backwards. But last night you finally make some forward momentum in your efforts to get to my cell phone (you LOOOVE phones, baby girl! I'm wondering if this is a portent of things to come in your teenage years). You would get up on all fours and lunge forward, making an inch or two of progress each time. I know you'll be crawling soon, and as excited as I am to watch you learn and grow and gain new skills, I am also relishing these last few days or weeks when you still pretty much stay where we put you. I have no doubt that you are going to keep us on our toes when you become fully mobile!

A couple of days ago we were playing with a ball, rolling it back and forth from me to you, and you were having fits of laughter! We have heard you laugh before, but it's always a bit restrained, a giggle here and there. But this! This was waves, unmitigated waves of laughter, erupting out of you uncontrollably. It was the single most fantastic thing I've ever heard ever. You would laugh to see the ball rolling, you would laugh when it came to you, you would laugh as you rolled it around in front of you, and you would laugh to see it rolling away. Your delight in the world around you is our delight, and I hope you never, ever cease to be so amused and delighted with life!

This month has been filled with family--we had a family reunion with G-Mommy's side of the family. It was your first time meeting all of my aunts and uncles and cousins, and of course they were all completely smitten with you. You are an absolute charmer. There were 20-25 people around G-Mommy and Graddaddy's house at any given moment, and even though it was a lot of chaos, you handled it all like a total champ. You loved watching all of your cousins and second cousins running around, you were thrilled to be passed from lap to lap for hugs and entertaining, and you even took your regular great naps. One day we took a train into downtown Dallas, and you napped while I wore you and woke up happy and ready to see the city. You are such an adaptable, easy going baby! We had another family reunion on Grandpa's side, and they had a dog! You loved the big fuzzy animal and shrieked delightedly and waved your hands in the air any time he came into the room. And he loved you, too, especially when you were eating dinner. He came right over and licked your face from chin to forehead to get off the errant bits of squash, and you thought that was the best thing ever.

And speaking of food--you are a great eater! We haven't really discovered any food that you don't like, and we are gradually moving from purees to finger foods. Even though you have been eating on fresh fruit like apples, pears and bananas from the very beginning, we are starting to give you green beans, steamed broccoli and other solid veggies to let you learn how to eat "real" food and feed yourself. Right now you are more content to smoosh the veggies up between your fingers and feel the textures than you are to actually put them into your mouth, but when we pick them up to feed you, you open your mouth excitedly and you are already a champ at taking bites and chewing. Pretty soon you will be able to eat off of our plates. It's amazing what a big girl you are. We sent some puffs with you to school last week because your teacher told us she wanted to start practicing your pincer grip and feeding yourself--you shocked her with being able to pick up the smallest little piece already (you are a master at that pincer grip, little one . . . and you practice every time you nurse by trying to pinch the freckle off my chest! Ouch!) and get it straight into your mouth. However, you had to make sure that you had a fistful of puffs before bothering to feed yourself any, and you made sure that your fists stayed full the entire time--funny girl!

You are starting to communicate what you want--and don't want. When I change your diaper or put you down or when you are done nursing, you arch your back and let out the loudest, saddest wailing cry. But don't be fooled! There are no tears running down your cheeks, and when I pick you back up, you immediately smile and look around for the next fun thing to do. I think we're going to have our hands full with disciplining you. Up until now, really my entire job has been to love on you and make you feel safe and secure and give you exactly what you want. I am not looking forward to that next step, the discipline step. I wish I could just love on you and give you exactly what you want for always and forever.

This has really been the first month when I've looked at you and marveled about how big you've gotten. You are about to outgrow your 9-month sleepers--anything that has to fit over your long legs requires us to go a size up from what all your other clothes are. Your hair is thick and curling. Your two bottom teeth are perfectly adorable and make your nose-crinkly little grin even that much more heart melting.

I know big things are in store for us, just over the horizon. Talking. Crawling. Walking. I can't wait. I can't wait to see you grow and learn, to see the evolution of your funny little personality. But I'm also loving today. Loving my toothy, long, funny, energetic baby girl whose delight in the world around her is matched only by my delight in her.

Happy 8-month birthday to the most adored baby girl in the whole universe.

Love,
Mom