8 months / 35 Weeks Young!!!!!!!!

{Eeeek, I'm over a week late with this post!}


With a mega-watt smile, and a personality to match it, she is one bright little girl in every sense of the word.  And we are soooooo lucky to get to spend our days watching her make new discoveries and constantly learn new things.

Dearest Emily, you are the perfect combination of smart, sweet, silly & strong!  Daddy and I love you so much and enjoy watching you grow, day by day!  Happy 8 Month Birthday!

Funny enough, Emily's 8 month and 35 week birthdays fell on the same day!

But seriously, how is my little baby so big already???

All About Emily:

• Measures 18 lbs 12.5 oz {73rd percentile}, 28.5” {92nd percentile}, 43.5 cm {52nd percentile} -- I am so proud at how well she's growing!
• Has THREE teeth!
• Wears size 9 months footies, size 3 diapers, and clothing in 6/9 months sizes.  Her cute little biscuit feet seem like they're outgrowing her body though, and some of her socks are 12 month sizing!
• LOVES her jumper!  She jumps so energetically in that thing that it sometimes makes me dizzy to watch her!
• Is pretty bored with staying on her play mat {despite all the toys she has to keep occupied!} and is now crawling all around the apartment -- her favorite places to head to are the pantry, the recycling bin in the kitchen, and the hallway.

• Continues to have some separation anxiety, which is developmentally appropriate at this age and means she has established a strong and loving bond with us, but hard nonetheless when it causes otherwise-unnecessary tears.  :(
• Enjoys shaking, banging, dropping, and throwing any item she can get her hands on!  Emily finds it extra fun to drop items off the side of her high chair, and bang her toys on the ottoman we have in the living room.
• Can now very easily pull herself up to a standing position, and even took a cruise along the length of the couch last week while holding on!  In early January, she began trying to go "hands free" while standing -- quite a little daredevil!
• I think she might be starting to understand what "no" means, but there is still lots of room for improvement here.  ;)  Babbles a little bit, but spends much more time observing and taking information in versus "talking".
• Has a great sense of humor and loves being silly with Mommy & Daddy.
• Enjoys looking at and reading books, and singing songs {especially ones with hand motions}
• Loves chewing on tags and her high chair safety strap.  Over the past month she's started occasionally nibbling on her thumb.  It isn't really sucking, since her mouth is open, but more of a little chewing motion.
• Turning into a little cuddlebug!  Over the past month, she's started coming over to us and laying her head down on our legs {if we're sitting on the couch near her play area} or our shoulders {if we're holding her}.  My heart melts every time...
• Graduated to a rubber ducky tub that sits in our actual bathtub.  No more bathing inside the kitchen sink!
• She's tried a bunch of news foods over the past month, including mangos {not a fan}, apples {which she likes mixed with other foods but not on their own}, and some Stage 2 purees!  She loved the squash, peas & pears combo and all of the proteins {turkey, chicken, lentils} she's tried so far too!  There doesn't appear to be any correlation between fondness of the food and messiness of the face.  ;)

Since Miss Em is a lot more mobile these days, we found ourselves having to do some childproofing, stat!  We switched all of our outlets to "safe plates", installed locks on the lower kitchen cabinets and the cabinets in our entertainment unit, got locking mechanisms for the pantry doors and fastened the TV and some of our heavier/taller furniture pieces to the wall.  Phew, just in time!

When Emily was born, everyone was all "Oh, she's Shep in a dress!".  They looked like twins from different decades in some of their newborn pictures.  As she grew older, some people began commenting that she's starting to look more like me, which I chalked up to them being nice.  But, as time goes on, I do see a little more of myself in her every day.  Here's one photo I took of Em that reminds me of some of my own baby photos.

This past month was big for both Emily & Mommy.  I went back to work, just 2 days before Emily's 8 month birthday.  Until that time, I could count on both hands the number of times I'd been away from her, and could probably count on fingers and toes the total number of hours.  Well, after just one partial week back at work we were separated longer than we'd been her entire life until then!  It was definitely hard, but we both survived!  Emily did slightly better than Mommy in terms of coping, I'm sure.  ;)  Here's a photo of the two of us from my last night of maternity leave!  Sniff, sniff...

The past 8 months have been the most fun-filled, emotional, sentimental, amazing, exhausting and wonderful 8 months of my life!

Standing!

For the proper effect, this post should be read to the sound of Gloria Estefan singing "Get On Your Feet".  ;)

Guess what everybody??

Over the past week or so, Emily has had some brief moments of adventure where she's actually LET GO of whatever she was holding onto for balance to stand up.  I'm pretty sure that at first she did it unknowingly, due to being distracted by whatever toy she was holding {or trying to eat} at the time.  But whether Emily knew she was doing it or not, this mama took notice.  Over time, she also slowly went from clinging onto the ottoman, to standing arms-length away while using both hands to steady herself, to using only one hand for balance.  And so began the exciting/dreaded countdown to her officially being able to stand on her own!  The first few times it happened, she only stood for about a second before she'd realize she wasn't holding on, then wobble and plop down on her tiny hiney.  Once or twice last week she even transitioned from a squatting position to a standing position without holing on!  But on Sunday afternoon she let go of the ottoman she has been leaning on for the past several weeks, and stood independently for what seemed like FOREVER.  As I started counting, I realized it was more like 3 seconds , but do you know how long 3 seconds actually lasts when you're peering with amazement at your little baby doing something incredible?????  3 seconds is pretty impressive for an 8 month old learning to stand, if I do say so myself!!!

In typical Nicole/photo-addict fashion, I immediately wondered when I could officially break out the milestone card.  ;)  I didn't want to get ahead of myself if her little second standing sessions don't "count" as standing -- I'm a first time mom, what do I know about the official rules of standing?!  ;)  A friend made a good point though, which is that if I wait for her to stand for too long, the moment will be gone because by then she'll be taking steps and then it will be time to break out the walking milestone card.  ;)  So, I settled on the 5 second rule.  If it works for food on the ground then I figured it could work for feet on the ground.  ;)  Well, lo and behold, today was the day!

This baby never ceases to impress me!  She is one determined, adventurous, brave, and strong little girl, and I am one incredibly proud mommy!!