My Eight Month Old

A sweet little girl turned eight months old last Sunday.  If you're thinking, "You can't be talking about Lucia! She's not eight months old yet!" you're thinking the same thing I am.  How did my eight pound newborn turn into an eight month old crawler? Lucia just doesn't even look like a baby anymore, she is starting to look like a toddler.  Before we know it, she will not only look like one, she'll be toddling around too!

This month has brought so many changes for our family.  Lucia now gets to spend every evening with her Nana and Papa when they get home from work and has gotten a lot of love from her Grandpa and Grandma, great grandparents, aunt, and uncles as well.  At first she was a little reticent about all the new faces, but I think that had more to do with the move and large adjustments in her life than a real sense of "stranger danger".  After warming up to everyone, she seemed to go back to being her happy, friendly self and since then hasn't seemed to upset with new people.  

Another large change has been Lucia's sleeping pattern.  At first, I chalked it up to the change in time zone and in location.  She has been sleeping in a playpen as we are waiting to put up her crib until the new carpet gets put in.  More recently it seems that she has new teeth coming in and gum pain is keeping her up.  Regardless of the reason, she no longer sleeps through the night.  She wakes up around two in the morning, daddy brings her to bed, and I nurse her back to sleep.  For the rest of the night, she is restless, waking up every half hour to an hour, rustling around, and then nursing back to sleep.  End when she is bed with us, she immediately turns perpendicular and pushes both of us off the bed, funny girl!

Lulu is so cute, so full of personality.  She's always been quite the talker, but now she's saying actual words!!!  In the past month, she's learned to wave and say "Hi!"  She says "dada", which of course melts David's heart.  Only a few days after saying "dada", she started saying "dog".  Not surprising since she LOVES dogs.  We have two dogs in our house and as soon as we walk out of the bedroom with her in the morning, she looks down and her head swings back and forth searching for the dogs.  Once she sees them, her arms and legs go wild and she jumps up and down in our arms.  She waves to everyone (including Olympic athletes waving on television), but she waves to the dogs more than anyone. And her waving is always accompanied by "Hi, dog!"  We went to a cute little children's story last week and in the front of the store was a little pet rabbit.  David leaned Lucia over the little gate to see it and she became so excited, exclaiming, "Dog!"

Although Lucia has started talking, she is still signing and has added a few extra signs to her initial "milk".  She makes a sign for dog (of course she does!) and in the last few days has started signing "more" (although it doesn't look much different than clapping at this point).  She has yet to say "mama", which I will admit makes me a bit sad, but I think that she views "milk" as the sign for me because I always come to her when she signs it and I've noticed her using it even when it is clear she isn't hungry.

in front of the fan full blast

Lucia's diet is still 90% breastmilk.  She usually eats about two other times a day when we eat foods that can easily be given to baby.  So far, she hasn't outright rejected any foods but does make some silly, silly faces when a new one is presented.  I think it's the new texture that throws her for a loop.  After a few bites of something, she seems to genuinely enjoy it (hence "more" being the third word she learned to sign).  Sometimes, I'll put some Cheerios or other small snack on her high chair tray for her to self-feed and in the couple weeks I've been doing this I've already noticed a marked improvement in her motor skills and ability to feed herself (early on very few Cheerios made it into her mouth).

Lulu never sits still anymore.  It's so fun (and exhausting) to watch her move around and play, but sometimes I miss cuddling with my baby.  Being cuddled and snuggling with mama is boring so the only time I get to just hold her is when she's sleeping.  But I've also come to love our play times.  She truly is such a fun girl.  She giggles when she's tickled, she loves to explore, and she can't keep her hands off anything.  She loves to touch our faces and mouths when we hold her.  She picks up block and toys (and throws them down).  She loves on her dolly.  But her one true love is paper.  Apparently she thinks paper is oh so yummy, because it's all we can do to keep her from turning all paper in sight into a soggy, crumpled mess.  For the most part, she's so easy going, but she's starting to get an attitude - you know the one - she lets you know when she wants something and wants it now.  I can see the terrible twos around the corner.

I've been working hard to find activities to keep my eight month old entertained.  She's played with a sensory bin made out of a glass casserole dish filled with lentils and colored wooden shapes.  We've played ball, played with blocks, danced and sang.  I've tried to be creative by filling several colorful bowls with Cheerios and letting her play (an eat them).  She lost interested in the bowls quickly, crawled over to the Cheerio box, and preceded to play with that.  When am I going to learn that non-toys are just so much more interesting?  Lucia has also become quite enamored with clapping, so we've been doing all kind of clapping songs and nursery rhymes.  "Pat-a-cake" is her current favorite!  We try to read books too, but books are about as exciting as cuddling with mama (unless they are in her mouth, then they are quite interesting).  My mom and I went on a book shopping spree last week, buying Lucia all the classic baby book.  My mom was so thrilled and couldn't wait to read a few to Lulu, but she just wouldn't stop wiggling long enough to listen to Nana.  Our local library has story time for babies and I can't wait to take Lucia and see what it's like trying to entertain a roomful of babies that could care less about a book!

caught in the act

Lucia is crawling!  She's been able to get around for a while, creeping around through a combination of rolling, and scooting, but now she's full-scale, fast-as-lightning, hands-and-knees crawling.  Her first day of "real" crawling was on Sunday, her 8 month "birthday".  I'm having a hard time believing that that I have a baby that crawls and talks; it's going to be incredibly surreal when she starts walking!  My dad loves holding her hands and helping her "walk" around the house.  I never realized that babies have the strength to hold themselves up on their feet long before they walk, that it's a lack of balance that keeps them down.  And it never seems like she'll get her balance, how can those tiny little feet balance rolls and rolls of adorable baby fat?

Still a daddy's girl, I can tell my little one has a soft spot for mama too.  A few days ago, my father took Lucia upstairs telling David and I that he had "something to show us".  We followed him into the bathroom, where he sprayed me in the face with the diaper sprayer he just installed.  Lucia saw it and was terrified, screaming as if she had been hurt!  The rest of the night, she didn't want to be separated from mama.  My sweet girl, she was so scared something happened to me!  Melted my heart!

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