8 Months Old!!

Our sweet girl is 8 months old! These 8 months have flown by and I can't believe how much developing, learning, and growing takes place in the first year of a little one's life. I can't imagine changing that much as an adult! I guess that's why God made it that way. Anyway, here are 8 things Miss Mollie Michelle is up to these days...

1. Eating lots of veggies! We're gradually introducing more things into her diet and so far she likes them all. Occasionally she'll decide that she doesn't prefer green beans, but other than that she's not a picky eater at all. She LOVES her cereal, though!

First taste of squash...it took some getting used to.

2. Growing! Her growth has definitely "spurted" recently. She's suddenly filling out all her 3-6 month clothes and has even moved right along to the next size. I think her size is finally catching up with her age. So much, in fact, that I've had a hard time keeping up with her nursings! She's been eating more than my body will make so we've started supplementing with formula. Seems to be keeping her satisfied, so I think we'll keep it up. Also, even though we didn't have an official weight check this month, I believe she weighs 15-16 lbs!

Look at those cheeks and tell me she's not growing :o)

3. Still spitting up :o) Yes I put this on every month, but it's kind of a big deal to us. Every thing I've read and most of the people I talked to said that she'd outgrow it at about 6 months, or when she started solid food. But not our Mollie! Nope, now we spit up cereal, fruit and veggies (carrots are the worst!!). I've even decided to cut out dairy from my diet to see if it would help. It did help some, but not tremendously. So I think I'll continue with that, but I'm not sure what else to do. I guess we'll just have a spitter for a while longer! I know there's an end to it, though...I've never seen a 5 year old spit up :o)

Sporting the cute, yet very necessary, bib

4. Starting to wave! I've only seen her do it maybe 3 times, but she is learning to wave "bye bye". It's very cute! When we practice it at home, any time we wave to her she thinks it's funny and just laughs. We're also trying to teach her a few signs such as "more", "all done", "Daddy", and "Mommy". We haven't accomplished those yet, but she's at least familiar with them at this point.

5. THINKING about crawling/moving! For the longest time Mollie's been quite content just sitting and playing with her little things. However, just in the last week or so she's shown some interest in getting other places. So far, this has just resulted in her landing flat on her face and getting upset. But the desire is there! She also likes to stand up against things and play (yesterday we had her standing against an upside down laundry basket) with some support, of course. Then today at the gym they had put her in a walker and she was pushing herself around backwards all over the place! She loved it! Could we have a walker instead of a crawler? Maybe so. I think my parents said I did it that way when I was a baby.

Sitting tall and playing happily

6. On a great schedule! Long gone are the days where she just sleeps, eats, and poops all day and night. She sleeps about 12 hours at night (from about 8pm-8am), naps from about 9:30-11:00, lunch at 11:00, nap from 12:30-3:00, snack, dinner at 6:00, bedtime and bottle at about 8:00. We really like being on a consistent routine, our life is predictable and Mollie knows what to expect, and we know what to expect from her.

7. In the process of dropping the swaddle! I'm sure many of you know that Mollie has loved to be swaddled from day 1. It has soothed her when she's fussy, kept her warm and snug when she's sleepy, and kept those crazy arms from wacking her in the face before she figured out how to use them! Most people suggest dropping this around 6 months (to make sure it doesn't turn into a safety issue when they try to roll in the crib). However, Mollie doesn't move AT ALL when she sleeps so we just kept doing it because it worked for everyone involved. Just in the past few days she's decided that she doesn't prefer it anymore and would enjoy her arms being free. We've been putting her to bed swaddle-less at night for about a week and she's done great. Yesterday's swaddle-less nap was a disaster, but right now she's sleeping away with her arms free! Success!

8. Laughing, Giggling, and Talking away! Oh how I love the sound of her sweet little voice. Bababa is her favorite word right now, but I'm pretty sure I've heard a few Dada's come out of her mouth. It's kind of hard to tell. Most of the time she sits and plays with her little things saying what sounds like "Uh-Oh", but in kind of a singing voice, changing pitches and everything. Maybe she's got her daddy's skills! It's such a sweet little sound and it just makes me smile every time I hear it. She also giggles and laughs from her toes when you tickle her, play pick-a-boo, and other random little things that strikes her as funny.

Happiness :o)

There's Mollie in a nutshell. I'm so excited to see what happens next with her! Watching every little thing happen with her makes me more and more in awe of God's creation. And what a blessed little creature she is!