8 months: little love letters

Hadley Ruth,

I can't believe we are only months away from saying you're a year old! 8 months just seems so much older than any other month. Crazy how fast these days/weeks/months are flying by, but we are loving you every minute of every day more and more! You have changed and developed so much this past month. It is so amazing to watch how you change and grow.

-Growth: You didn't have a well-child check up this month and won't until you're 9 months.
*At your doctors appointment for your ear infections, you weighed 17.2 lbs. Chunky Monkey :)
*You usually wear 3-6 months clothing.
*You wear 6 month onesies more comfortably now.
*6 mo - 6 / 9 mo pants fit, but usually the 6 / 9 mo pants are too long.

-Eating:
*You are taking about 3 bottles a day now.
*I've begun to notice that, when it comes to your baby food, you prefer veggies to fruit. Most of the time you act as though fruit is sour. It's not exactly your favorite thing ever.
*You are much more interested in food and adult / solid foods. Even if you've just eaten your baby food and cereal, if Mommy and Daddy sit down to eat dinner you insist that you try and eat whatever we are eating.

*You recently tried spaghetti and really liked it!

Spaghetti for the first time

-Sleeping:
*You're ready to wined down around 8 pm.
*You take your bath and last bottle and you're ready to head to sleepy town.
*This last month we transitioned you into not wearing your swaddle. For a few days, we dressed you in a sleep slack, but it didn't seem to make any difference. You only wore the sleep sack for a couple of days. Now we put you down with nothing- just your jammies! It's a hard little battle because you're very interested in everything. You want to touch my face, feel my shirt, pull my hair...etc. We kind of have to hold your arm down until you start to doze off.
*You sleep until about 8 am the next morning.
*You're ready for a morning nap about 10:30 am. And ready for your afternoon nap about 1:30 / 2 pm.

This is how I find you every morning. You wake up, stand up, and holler at the door until someone comes in to get you out of bed.

-Developments:

*You have 4 teeth now. 2 on the bottom and 2 on the top!

*You say 3 words now: "bye bye," "da-da" (daddy), "pat, pat" (patty cake).

*When you put on your coat or see people put on their coat or shoes you say "bye bye." I think you recognize these things to be signs of someone leaving.

*You now sit in the high chair when we go out to eat. You feel so big and pat on the table the whole time.

*You pull up to everything now! Which means you're into everything now! You'll be walking before we know it!

This is the picture I got really quick with my cell phone of the first time you pulled up to stand. You pulled up to the green bucket to play with that butter bowl. In the picture, you're leaning over to pick up the butter bowl because you dropped it. Now, you pull up on everything you can get your hands on. You discovered a couple days ago that if you push the bucket and shuffle your feet, you can "walk" around. It's about to get crazy in our household...

-Play time:
*You've become really interested in playing with water bottles and plastic bowls. Just like a normal kiddo.
*We have a basket in the living room full of your toys. I lay a few out for you to play with, but all the sudden you've discovered the basket itself. The other day you pulled up to the basket and when you were standing there you discovered there were other toys in the basket. Now, it just works out best if I get out a few small toys and let you pull out the rest of the ones that you want.
*You still really enjoy playing "Where's Hadley?" (Peek-a-boo) every chance you get.

-Events:
*You've gone to your SECOND doctors appointment that wasn't for a "well-child check up." I had a gut feeling that something was wrong with you. I rushed you to the doctor and there you have it: a double ear infection!! I felt terrible for you. Mommy's never had an ear infection so I can't even imagine how a double ear infection must feel, sweet girl. What's weird is that you never ran a fever, never acted unusually fussy, never had any problems eating...No signs or symptoms. I just had a feeling. Good thing I took you when I did because your right ear wasn't a full blown infection yet, but would have gotten there without medication.
*You had your first over night stay (2/2/2012 - 2/3/2012) with Nammy and Papa Brian while Mommy and Daddy went to OKC, for the night.

Bath time (in the sink) with your first over-night stay with Nammy & Papa Brian

-Funny / Cute Moments:
*You've started really showing lots of expressions lately. The most recent face is a little squinty face. Every time Daddy talks you make this squinty face at him. He says it's your trying to flirt. I think it's more of a face like "why are you saying those things about me?!" It's a very ornery look.
*You took a dive (head first) into your toy basket in the living room. You were pretty upset about this.

I'll love you forever and ever. I promise.

Love,

Mommy