Friday, May 21, 2010

Eight Months

So, I notice my blog becoming boring, monthly updates on my daughter. I really do have other thoughts on motherhood I want to share, or questions that come up I could use answers to, but somehow I never get around to posting. I hope to do better this summer when work doesn't get in the way of blogging.

For now. . .Maddy is 8 1/2 months old! They really do get more and more fun.

Here's what I want to remember:

She loves tags. Tags on her toys, burp clothes, bibs, changing pad covers. She is fascinated with them and chews them soggy.

She loves remote controls and cordless phones. She likes to chew on them and push their buttons. Makes me wonder why we have all these toys if all she wants are tags and remote controls.

She is still not crawling. She is starting to pad forward on her hands when she is sitting. Lately she has been raising her butt while she's lunging forward. I think someday she'll get on all fours from there and maybe one day crawl. If she's on her stomach she stretches out her arms as far as she can to get something. She'll also try to push off on her toes.

She'd much rather walk. She wants to stand all the time. She pulls to standing while holding our hands. She moves one foot in front of the other for forward motion.

She eats pureed baby food (fruits, veggies, turkey, chicken) and some finger foods now like cheerios, puffs and yogurt melts. We tried some cut up elbow macaroni the other day and she eventually ate that. She feels food with her fingers first. If it feels mushy like pears or bananas, she won't eat it. She almost didn't eat the pasta for this reason until she saw me eating it off her tray and then she took an interest. I can get her to eat most foods this way. She is very dramatic and gaggy if she doesn't like something.

I think she's gaining some weight. Her face seems to be filling out and she feels a little more solid when you lift her. I'm sure she's still underweight, but maybe we're making a little progress. She eats a lot now: 1/4 c yogurt, 3/4c fruit, 3/4c veggies and 1/4c meat a day plus finger foods. She hardly nurses for long now, maybe 7 or 8 minutes tops but she does snack often throughout the day. She takes 2-3 6 oz bottles for my MIL on the during the days when she's here.

Shreiking is her new thing. She babbles often too. Mama, dada, baba, to no one or thing in particular.

Sleeping. We've had some really good nights. She goes to bed around 7:30 and won't wake up to eat until sometime between 5 and 7 and then usually back to bed until sometime between 7 or 8. She seems to be getting better at putting herself back to sleep in between. Some nights we've had to let her cry herself to sleep as nothing will work to soothe her. This can take around 30 minutes. Her naps the last two days have been awesome (and surely a fluke), two 1 1/2 hour naps, one in the morning and one in the afternoon. It still makes for a long evening as her stretch from 3-7 is hard, especially because she has been bothered by her top teeth for almost a month now. Hello teeth! Come out, come out wherever you are!

Let's see what else. . .Oh, she purses her lips and scrunches up her nose and breathes in and out in a huffy way. Sometimes she'll almost close one eye while she does it and looks like Popeye.

We just love her so much. Every once in a while when I look at her I see glimpses of little girl in her face instead of baby. I can't believe how much personality she has. She is such a joy.