8 Months Old

The photo shoot was practically impossible this month. As soon as I sat her down, she would lurch forward to crawl off. So that's what she's doing in most pics. :)

Sallie Cate is 8 months old today! Everyone always comments on what a good baby she is, and while she is a generally content and pretty happy baby, she is not calm or quiet. Even when she is sitting playing happily, she is LOUD. She is very active and is constantly moving. When I change her diaper, she immediately flips over to her stomach and tries to crawl away. I now hate diaper changes.

She is trying to crawl up on all fours, but she still does the army crawl most of the time. As of today, she has started beginning to pull up on furniture. I missed it, but my dad witnessed it a few times. I noticed that she was very, very close, but she has never gotten herself all the way to standing by herself until today.

She weighs about 16 lbs 2 oz and is wearing mostly 6 mo clothes, some 9 or 12, and a few 3-6 mo things. She's still in a size 2 diaper, but as soon as we finish up the last few we've got on hand, she'll be moving up to a 3.

She now has two teeth on the bottom. The first one didn't seem to bother her at all, but the second one came in over Thanksgiving, and I don't know whether or not it was coincidence, but she woke up a couple of times during the night which she never does anymore. And unfortunately she uses those teeth to bite me quite often. She has always bitten down some while eating, but of course it wasn't too bothersome until those teeth came in. It is getting to be a problem {as in, she draws blood quite frequently}, and I'm not sure what to do about it. It doesn't phase her when I yell {which happens without my control} or say no loudly.

She is now nursing about every 4 hours. She had been taking bottles every 4 hours at school, and at home she gradually become less interested in nursing more frequently than that. She is eating 3 meals a day; usually oatmeal mixed with a little cinnamon in the morning {sometimes she has a fruit, too}, a fruit or a vegetable {or both} at lunch, and rice cereal and a vegetable at night. I made some baby food for her, but a friend gave us a ton of those organic food pouches, so I have been giving her those too. She didn't like any of the fruit I made it her but eats it well from the jars. She has tried all combinations of those food pouches and likes it all so far. She doesn't seem crazy about the peas out of the jar, but other than that, I think she likes everything. She still likes Mums Mums, and I recently gave her some Puffs to try. She got them to her mouth pretty well but doesn't seem crazy about them yet.

She is still sleeping well at night, usually 11-12 hours, and taking 2-3 naps per day. They aren't at set times- it just depends on what time she wakes up in the morning, and she usually goes down for each nap about two hours after waking up. She typically naps 1-2 hours, sometimes more.

She still LOVES bath time and just splashes and giggles when she sees the pitcher I use to rinse her off come her way. She also LOVES her big sister, and gets so excited whenever she sees her. It has been so precious to see their relationship grow, and it makes me so excited for the future. Don't get me wrong, I'm not naive and know there will be a whole lotta fights between them, but there really are few things more special than a bond between sisters. She also LOVES  her Daddy. She is so cute when she sees him. I feel like it took Curran longer to really get excited when she saw him {although I could be totally wrong about that}, but it seems like SC "took" to John quicker than C did.

So far she really doesn't seem to have stranger anxiety. Occasionally if someone takes her from me, she gets a little upset, but for the most part it doesn't phase her. She is always excited to see her teacher at school in the morning.

I seriously cannot believe my baby is 8 months old already. The only thing that makes me feel better about how crazy I feel over this warp-speed passage of time is that every time my patients ask how "the baby" is and ask how old she is, they are always genuinely shocked and practically in disbelief when I say her age. Like, almost to the point of arguing with me. :)

Sallie Cate, I can't say it enough- we love you to pieces and you have blessed our lives more than you could ever imagine! We love you, Caker Baker BoBo! {as Curran would say}