Eight Months

She's ten months old now, so I guess that means I should probably do an 8 month update! I'm so behind... I should have known this was inevitable!



- She started crawling a ton! She finally got the hang of it and no one can stop her now!

- Says "Dada" quite a bit these days. Definitely a Daddy's girl!

- She "cackles" a lot more than actual laughing - it's so funny. It's these little "haha" "hahas" and it's so stinking cute.

- She got her two bottom teeth! Teething was a b*$%h though. She got a fever and was super fussy and not sleeping well. Ugh it sucks. Before she started teething, I wondered what it would be like and now I know - you will know when you are going through it! Plus, she had a cold during this time too, which meant she was up at 3 and 4 am again. Luckily, once the teeth broke through and the fever broke, it was business as usual.

- She just wants to be walking! Pulls herself up on everything - us, the couch, her toys, the cabinets. I think she'll be walking before she's a year old! Eeek!

- She was very clingy to Mama this month (which I didn't mind at all). Probably because of the teething, but I wasn't complaining! Lots of hugs and snuggles and snot wipes on my shoulder. :)

- We had gotten these Princess Little People a while ago and finally broke them out. She LOVES them. They are the perfect size for her to grip and munch on, but not small enough for her to choke on or swallow. They are the best!

- A favorite toy theses days is the Leap Frog play table. She loves the sounds and music. Her favorite is this little button she found - we got it second hand, so there used to be door that opened and closed and activated this button. The door is gone but she somehow found the button (I hadn't even noticed it at all) and loves pushing it with her pointer finger. She also loves her sit and stand play thingy.

- Her eczema continued... after about a month we took her to the doctor and got a prescription. The doctor also suggested hydrocortisone (non-prescription) which we tried first and worked like a charm! We used as sparingly as possibly and it helped clear things up tremendously (luckily we didn't have to use the prescription). We also paired that with Aveeno Baby Eczema Lotion and her eczema cleared up so well. We've been using the same routine for a while now and it's stayed clear too! Thank goodness.

- Em's eating lots of pureed foods! Peas, carrots, green beans, sweet potatoes (she likes them now), squash (still a fave), bananas, applesauce, peaches, blueberries (although we stopped with the peaches and blueberries to see if it affected the eczema). She loves it all! She also loves cheerios and sweet potato puffs. She's getting better at using her sippy cup and likes to drink her water. Although, most times she ends up trying to drink from the bottom of the cup. :)

- She loves daycare and is making friends! So cute. Her teachers love her too, and say she is always smiley and trying to get a rise out of everyone and make them laugh. Such a little ham.

- She started moving towards a two nap a day schedule. It was a little painful at times - we'd make it to 4:30-5:00 with only two naps and then she'd start to get fussy. We had a couple rough nights with little cat naps (sometimes more than little) that started at 5 and then bedtime at 7... but for the most part, two longer naps is now the norm.

- There's a little hair growing on top of that beautiful round head! She's got some light brown and very straight hair sprouting!

- I love her eyes. She's got the most beautiful eyes and the longest lashes. Her eyes are hazel now (like Mama) and she definitely still "smiles with her eyes."

- She's in 9-12 month clothes (mostly 12 month) mostly because of how tall she is!

- We are working on our clapping and waving! She's a pretty quick study and loves to clap and is kind of getting the hang of waving bye bye. It's pretty much adorable.

- Like most babies, Peekaboo is her new favorite game. Her giggle is contagious and my favorite sound in the whole wide world.

- She took her first grocery store outing riding in the cart like a big girl and loved it. So much to look and we made it through the whole store with minor twisting and turning at the end. We also went to Happy Hour with some of Mama's friends, which was fun, but exhausting for Mama! So much movement!

- We made it through busy season (barely). I still can't believe I did it. Of course, with the help of my awesome husband and my Mom watching Em a couple days a week (and cleaning my house at times too - thanks Mom!). It was NOT fun though... Luckily, it was the same as usual for Emerson except for Saturdays since I had to go into the office. But during the week I still made it priority to hang out with her at our regularly scheduled time after work. I needed that time to survive! Then after she went down for the night at 7-7:30, I would eat a quick dinner and back to work... like I said, NOT fun. :(

- We celebrated Easter by having both our families over to our house for brunch. Emerson got to meet her Great Grandma Mary for the first time and they both had a lot of fun getting to know each other. She especially loved doing "baby workouts" on Great Grandmas walker! She played with bubbles and got loved on by the whole family. Spoiled little girl, but so loved. She is very very lucky to have such an awesome family!

- Her favorite book is Good Morning Good Night and it's a touch and feel book. She loves feeling the animal fur and even pretends to "read" but using her pointer finger to point at the pages. She even knows what "dog" and cat" mean now too!

- Auntie Jenn and Brian babysat for the first time so we could go to Zach's end of the year bowling night with his classmates. It was a nice break to get out just the two of us! Unfortunately, not so nice for Jenn and Brian since Em cried most of the time we were gone!

- She started standing up in her crib! Another fun adventure - luckily we had already lowered the crib and added the mesh crib liner.

- I think I forgot to mention this in her 7 Month post, but we got her first official "school" pictures back from daycare! They were taken when she was around 6 Months old. She's so stinkin adorable! She's not exactly smiling in any, but it's still pretty cute. :)

And now, time for some pictures! :)