Ellie: Eight Months

The last month has flown by. Ellie is still a wonderful little human being. Some days are long, and some days are hard, but her little smile can perk anyone up in an instant. (Cue every elderly person in Wal-Mart.)

Here's a few things that have transpired in the last month.
Ellie:

• is [still] toothless. I swear for the last month or two she has been teething. Tons of drool. Fussiness. Waking up at night. Chewing on everything. But no teeth. I'm sure they'll pop-out when I least expect it.
• can crawl! ...OK... Just army crawl. But man, if she wants something, she will wiggle her chunky little self over to it and attack. The PlayStation remote has been a repeat victim. We are trying to teach her "no no" and distract her with other things, but we've had limited success.
• loves other babies. She will look at them and chatter, laugh and screech. She also loves herself. Pictures. Videos. She thinks she's pretty great.
• is a talker. All sorts of noises, sounds, mouth movements, she loves them all.
• is a tiny dancer. (Couldn't help it.) She will break-it-down with a little encouragement, AKA failing around like an idiot. I'm sure she just gets involved out of sympathy for me. I've been trying to catch it on video, it's pretty cute.
• is getting attached. When I leave the room it goes one of two ways: A: She doesn't care. "Fare thee well, Mother."   B: The world is over because I left her alone. How dare I.   It can be a struggle, that girl has a set of lungs, but we manage.
• is interested in food. My food. She still has 5 feedings a day, three with baby food, but mushy food for babies is pretty limited (and boring), but I don't feel comfortable giving her things that require chewing as she is toothless, so she's kind of stuck in a rut for now. Hopefully we can figure something out and some teeth decide to show up so we can move on to new things!
• is learning about object permanency, so going to bed has been a bit of a challenge. The last month or so I have given her a bottle right before bed and she usually drifts off while finishing it off (as per usual), but then she would wake up at 4am all upset and I'd get up and go help her, but when I left the room she would start up again. No fun. So I did a little bit of research (thanks, Google) and decided to start putting Ellie to sleep while she is still somewhat awake and aware of her surroundings. So she drifts off to sleep in her crib and when she wakes up she knows that place is familiar and safe and is can put herself back to sleep. It's been about a week and it has been going really well. She still wakes up some nights, and I go up to help her, but then when I leave if she cries a bit I just wait it out and she calms down and goes back to sleep. I know there are mixed feelings on the Cry It Out method, but it has helped us thus far.
• naps. And boy is that heavenly! She regularly has two naps, one in the morning, and one in the afternoon, and they can be from 1-2 hours. That's prime showering time!
• usually doesn't cry when she wakes up (from a nap or nighttime sleep), she tends to play and blabbers to herself until someone comes to get her. Going in to her room is a treat, she is just so happy to see you, it makes me laugh every time.

Ellie: We love you oodles and oodles. I know you never want to sit still for photos, and that's OK. You are beautiful inside & out. 

We are so blessed to watch you grow a little more every day. 

xoxo