8 month update

Dear, sweet, wild Addison,

On July 7, you turned 8 months!  Do you know what that means??  If you could do math, you'd know that means we're now 2/3 of the way to you being ONE.  (It also would help if I could do math.  When I first typed that sentence I wrote 3/4, but that didn't look right and I had to very deliberately think through my fractions.  yikes.)

This month I feel like I actually can take a big, deep breath.  Between 6 and 7 months, I literally could not keep up with all the changes.  Teeth, crawling, constant babbling (oh wait, that wasn't new...), plus so many new experiences like the beach, flying to Colorado, etc.  This month, even though it flew by, seemed a little less time-warp-speed as you perfected your new skills.  I also feel like I've been able to adjust a little bit to this new phase, whereas last month, I was feeling a little overwhelmed with all the changes.

You are definitely an all-hands-on-deck girl these days.  I don't mean that you need me to play with you all the time (you are actually a great independent player), but I do need to be at least watching every moment.  You can crawl (still army crawl) much faster now, and are no longer content just to move around in a small area.  You follow me room to room, and usually head straight for whatever requires climbing or the biggest mess to clean up.  The TV shelf is a favorite hangout these days, and pulling out all the DVDs is your #1 priority every morning.

You've got so much personality.  Lots of things make you laugh, and you definitely have a lot to say.  You are so happy, excited, and bubbly, and so much fun to be around.  You definitely do things to make other people laugh (like your warpath noise, or a funny nose-snorty sound) and love to listen to music and dance with us.

Since perfecting your crawl, you're not quite as enthusiastic to do it every.single.second, and have calmed down enough to be a good sitter.  It's nice to be able to sit together and play with toys.

You're eating 3 solid food meals a day, and have moved into chunkier (soft) things like berries and cut-up peaches.  I'm definitely looking forward to more of that - steaming and pureeing food is fun and all, but when you can just eat tiny pieces of table food, food prep will get a little simpler for mom. :)

Naps got a little wacky again for a bit a couple weeks ago, but I think we're back on track.  Actually I read in several different places that it's very common for an 8 month old to experience trouble sleeping since there are so many changes happening in your mind.  Kind of like trying to sleep before a really big event - but EVERY day is really big for you as you learn new skills.  Night sleep is still ahhh-mazing.  Bedtime is 7:00 (and not a minute later!) ,I'm continuing to do a dream-feed at around 10, and you're usually up by 7. yay! yay! yaaay for 12 hours-o-sleep!

Other new skills include definitely knowing/responding to your name, drinking from a sippy cup by yourself, and a pretty good pincer grasp.

Current dislikes: diaper changes (you have NEVER seen anything roll or squirm so quick as when it's time to switch the dipe. It's a 2 person wrangle.), strange men, being still.

You are an absolute joy.  As usual, I'm wanting to hit PAUSE and just enjoy this phase forever, but I'm also excited to see what the next month holds.

And as always, let's watch you grow, shall we?