So . . . how can it be that our Miss E is closing in on the 1 year mark?! 8 months seems so old. Like she's already phasing out of the baby stage. In fact I caught myself the other day I was relaying some story to a friend, saying "When Elise was a baby . . . " - as if she's not still a baby? But somehow it feels like she's not so much my baby baby anymore. This is not ok with me. :(
Our happy girl
At 8 months Elise:
• is eating more "real" food, and loving it! When we have meals, she is no longer satisfied with just her baby food - she squeals until she gets a bite of something from our plates. She loves mashed potatoes, cottage cheese, sweet potato, cheesecake, and of course any taste she can get of sweets (ice cream, a lick of icing, etc.). I am told that she even gummed down some mac and cheese at daycare one day last week, but I have not been brave enough to try anything that "chunky" yet . . . she still sometimes gags on the cereal puffs that we've been trying at home.
• loves to explore, and is getting into everything. Our girl is a curious one, that's for sure. We have to keep all of the bedroom and bathroom doors closed to limit her exploring ventures. She has been found pulling nightlights out of wall sockets, emptying the trash in several locations, stealing kleenex, raiding book bins, trying to crawl into the bathtub, and peering into the potty. One of her favorite pastimes is removing the register covers to our floor vents - we are seriously looking into purchasing the kind that screw into the floor. The funny thing is that B never really did anything like that. Sure, he'd get into his book basket, or mess with laundry while I was folding it, but he just didn't go looking for things to "get into" like E does. We have to be aware of where she is at all times, or she just might take off see what she can find!
(I took these pics a few nights ago when I headed downstairs to do some laundry . . .E immediately came over to investigate what I was doing and I thought she was pretty cute peering through the spindles of the bannister)
(We are hoping that the baby gate will be able to stand up to our little explorer!)
• loves her family. Elise has shown recognition of us for a while now, and has always especially been happy to see her big brother, but these days she gets so excited to see us. One of my very favorite parts of the day is walking in the after work and watching Elise. She looks up, and when she realizes that mommy is home, her sweet face breaks into a huge grin and she stops whatever she's doing to crawl just as fast as she can to get to me, stopping at my feet and lifting her arms upward in anticipation of a big hug. Love love love it.
• is sort of figuring out some hand movements/gestures. She can clap (not always on demand yet, though), and has started to wave once in a while (also not on demand yet). She loves to play games like soooooo big and peek a boo and patty cake in which she gets to do movements.
• is tough. I reported in her 7 month post that Elise needs a helmet. While this is still true, I am amazed at how tough she is. She recovers very quickly from falls/bumps/crashes, and I think has already figured out that if she cries when Braden is close by, he will likely get into trouble (due to the fact that many of said falls/bumps/crashes are caused by her big bro). On Monday I took E in to get her flu shot booster, and when she got stuck by the needle she took a deep breath and scrunched up her face like she was ready to let out a huge scream, but then switched to a smile as soon as I gathered her in my arms. Even the nurse commented, "That's one tough little gal!"
• continues to be a big fan of water (looooooves bath time, especially with big brother in the tubby too!), is still such a wiggle worm (we actually did have to take her out of church last week because she was insisting that she get down, and we knew if we let her she'd crawl right up to the front!)
(Watching the tub fill up and waiting to hop in)
• is wearing mostly size 9 mth clothes, and size 2 diapers
• is not a good sleeper. There. I admitted it. My child is just not a good sleeper. It's not the just because of the teeth (that STILL haven't poked through . . . it's just how it is. I guess when she was painfully dealing with what we still think is/was teething, we established the routine of waking up (and eating) in the night, and now we're stuck with it. Several people have recently shared with me that their children never slept through the night until they were one, but that really doesn't make me feel better (please, Elise, do NOT wait 4 more months to go back to sleeping all night. . . . Mommy and Daddy are tiiiiiiired!). And it's not just night. Oh, no. This lil' girl likes to try to stay awake alllllll day long. We're sometimes lucky to get her to sleep for a total of an hour or two during the day (and Braden will still nap for 2 hours sometimes!). I am hoping that her recent return to our "usual" day care provider will help in establishing a better daytime schedule (for the past 8 weeks the kids have been with my mom for 3 days/week and a substitute daycare provider 2 days/week, so things have been a little less consistent) . . . and if anyone can get a child on a schedule, it's our daycare provider (plus she is pretty good about somehow making kiddos nap - so I have some hope).
And here's my attempt at 8mth pics in "the outfit" (we take pics in the same outfit each month) . . .
Now that she's a big girl, I had a hard time getting E to lay down . . .
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