Sprout is Eight Months Old!

Today Sprout is eight months old!

Our baby girl continues to grow and change daily.  It's hard keeping up with all the new developments.  Often I'll notice she's doing something (e.g. sitting unassisted for minutes at a time!) and wonder when she started.  Maybe it's because she's got such a go-with-the-flow temperament that these milestones just seem to happen without much to do.

-So yes, sitting.  I feel like she's been doing this forever now, so it's likely not a new development this month, but I've really been noticing it.  She sits incredibly well and likes to watch everything going on around her.  Additionally, she's becoming increasingly competent at going from sitting to crawling position.

-The army crawl is perfected and quite effective; she's even able to climb over things.  She is thisclose to crawling.  She's up on her hands and knees and launching herself forward all the time.  Any day now.

-She's really started "talking" this month!  Historically she's been a quiet baby, but this month she's really started to babble.  A lot of sounds like "ma"... now she just has to say it twice in a row. ;)

-She's also now making a higher pitched laugh when entertained by something (versus the gruff chuckle when she's tickled) and squealing!

-Her back is ticklish!

-She's started eating!  Real food!  (Well, baby food, but you know what I mean.)  So far she's tried peas, beans, bananas, chicken, lentils, sweet potato, carrots, watermelon, peach, and probably some other things I'm forgetting.  Green veggies seem to be a favourite.  She is, by far, the messiest eater I have ever seen.  We've really only been giving her food at dinner time, and after wiping of the worst of it, it's straight into the bathtub.

-Our days are getting a bit more routine.  She's usually up around 6:00am, naps from 8:45am-10:15am, ideally back down again from about 12:30pm-2:00pm and when I can (i.e. when I don't have to pick The Bean up from daycare) will nap again around 4:00pm to just after 5:00pm.  We eat dinner between 6:00 and 6:30pm, she gets her bath, puts on her pjs and then nurses and is rocked to sleep.

-Actually, she almost always is both swaddled and nursed to sleep (and gets rocked if she doesn't fall asleep nursing.)  I know it's not a good routine/habit and I've been trying to move towards an eat-play-sleep schedule, but I'm having a hard time breaking away from this one.

-Awake times are spent playing with toys, singing, reading books, going for walks, swinging at the park, visiting friends and relatives, and running errands.  We're just finishing up a mommy and baby class that a friend of mine was running.  I'm thinking about signing us up for swim classes soon.

-Sprout's favourite things are her big brother, dancing in the bedroom, puppets, swinging at the park, reading/eating books, chomping on anything really, drumming her hands on things, splashing in the bathtub, when I run down the stairs with her in my arms, and making silly faces.  She dislikes loud noises and having to burp.

-She is definitely growing.  She's outgrown a lot of her summer clothes, so I'll be glad when the fall weather hits in the sense that we'll have some more better-fitting options for her to wear.  Also, I think it's time to start crocheting up some warm woolies for her!  :)

We're looking forward to the coming season with our sweet baby girl!