Dearest Abby,
Well, pretty girl, you are another month older! 8 months! This has been a really fun month for you. It had a not so fun start though, with you getting sick. Thankfully, you got a very mild case of the cold that hit all of us but it was still heartbreaking to see how hard it was for you to nurse because you had to keep gasping for breath due to your stuffed up nose. That was the first time we have had to deal with that and I am so glad it only lasted a couple days. I had to keep after you with a tissue for a few days though, which you absolutely hated.
You have gotten so much more mobile this month. You still aren't quite full-out crawling but you have been oh so close for a couple weeks now. You can go a step or too but then just resort to lunging yourself forward and then going back up on your hands and knees to move around. Sometimes you go from hands and knees to straight legs with your cute little bum high in the air which looks awfully funny. You really just want to be walking though. Most of the time you move around by holding your hand up to me and when I offer you my finger, you pull yourself up to standing and then proceed to take some steps, balancing on my finger to wherever it is you want to go. And you want to do this constantly it seems. Or just be standing, you absolutely love this too.
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| You can stand for a few seconds on your own now! (Sometimes) |
I think you have officially developed separation anxiety. I can't even leave the room for a second without you breaking down in tears. This even happens a lot when Daddy is home too. It seems almost impossible for me to get anything done when you are awake now. Because you do this even when I just leave your side (still in same room! - though I think part of this is due to the fact that you are constantly wanting my finger to stand up). I am trying to still give you independent play time but it is sure hard to do!
Even with this anxiety, we still left you with a non-family member baby-sitter for this first time this month. It was extremely stressful for me because I was
so worried as to how you would react. Surprisingly, and thankfully, you did really well!! I think it helped that it was almost bed time so really you were sleeping most of the time.
One change this month was in how we are feeding you. After doing lots of reading on it, we completely switched over to
baby-led-weaning. I had heard it mentioned a couple times before but never got around to looking into it before we started solids - wish I had! It definitely makes so much sense to me and fits right into my huge belief of intuitive eating. I was a little worried that you would have gotten too used to eating purees and from a spoon after 4 weeks of it, and that it would be frustrating since you would not be actually eating as much right away. But you transitioned really well! I had been really trying to follow your lead with the spoon feeding and you always took the spoon and put in your own mouth which I think helped with the transition. So now you are completely self-feeding and eating regular foods! Love it.
You are still quite the happy, vocal little girl. Da-da-da is still your sound of choice, but you also make a ba-ba sound, and a tza (something like that) sound. When you are crying a ma-ma sound also comes out. And lots of other random, babbling noises.
You have finally become interested in mirrors and have fun looking at your twin. You love to play peek-a-boo, almost always guaranteed to get a laugh that way. When you are excited or happy you wave you hands back and forth or bounce up and down if you are standing. We have discovered a love of (or at least interest in) animals. Whenever we come across our neighbors cat you get so excited. I took you to a dog park yesterday in Balboa Park and you absolutely love watching those dogs. A couple even came by to visit you and you got to pet a dog for the first time! Maybe you will start being more interested in the animals at the zoo now.
Abby, I love you so much! You are a beautiful little girl and I thank our Heavenly Father every day that I get to be your mamma.
I love you.
Love, Your Mamma
And some more cute Abby pictures...
You have gotten so much more mobile this month. You still aren't quite full-out crawling but you have been oh so close for a couple weeks now. You can go a step or too but then just resort to lunging yourself forward and then going back up on your hands and knees to move around. Sometimes you go from hands and knees to straight legs with your cute little bum high in the air which looks awfully funny. You really just want to be walking though. Most of the time you move around by holding your hand up to me and when I offer you my finger, you pull yourself up to standing and then proceed to take some steps, balancing on my finger to wherever it is you want to go. And you want to do this constantly it seems. Or just be standing, you absolutely love this too.
One change this month was in how we are feeding you. After doing lots of reading on it, we completely switched over to baby-led-weaning. I had heard it mentioned a couple times before but never got around to looking into it before we started solids - wish I had! It definitely makes so much sense to me and fits right into my huge belief of intuitive eating. I was a little worried that you would have gotten too used to eating purees and from a spoon after 4 weeks of it, and that it would be frustrating since you would not be actually eating as much right away. But you transitioned really well! I had been really trying to follow your lead with the spoon feeding and you always took the spoon and put in your own mouth which I think helped with the transition. So now you are completely self-feeding and eating regular foods! Love it.
You have finally become interested in mirrors and have fun looking at your twin. You love to play peek-a-boo, almost always guaranteed to get a laugh that way. When you are excited or happy you wave you hands back and forth or bounce up and down if you are standing. We have discovered a love of (or at least interest in) animals. Whenever we come across our neighbors cat you get so excited. I took you to a dog park yesterday in Balboa Park and you absolutely love watching those dogs. A couple even came by to visit you and you got to pet a dog for the first time! Maybe you will start being more interested in the animals at the zoo now.
