Eight Months Old: What's Happening

Every month, I feel like I comment on how unbelievable it is that another month has passed, and on how much Emily is doing, but I just can't get over how quickly the days are flying by. Eight months ago today, our lives changed in a way we couldn't even imagine yet. Emily continues to be the sweetest gift we've ever given each other, and we feel like we can never get enough of her.

This month has been full of exciting activity! Emily has learned to sit up on her own, and gets faster and more skillful at it each day. She is so determined that she'll sometimes sit up in her crib to play--the other day, I put her down for a nap, and when I came downstairs and turned on the monitor, she was sitting up playing and singing. I knew she was so tired that she'd run out of energy soon--and sure enough, we watched her on the monitor until she fell asleep sitting up, and fell over in the crib! It was hilarious and adorable.

She's getting stronger and faster with her crawl--she still isn't completely on her hands and knees--she seems to prefer the military-like crawl on her forearms for now, but it certainly gets her where she wants to go, and quickly! Last week when I picked her up from day care, she crawled over to me and held her arms up for me to take her. I almost cried right there in front of her teachers!

Emily's pulling herself up to stand every chance she gets. She hasn't started cruising around furniture, but is strong and has a terrific grip once she stands up, so it probably won't be long.

Her two bottom teeth are very evident now, and she's showing so many signs of teething that we know the top ones are coming any day now. This month, she fed herself for the first time--sort of unintentionally though. She was trying to play with the pieces of banana I had on her high chair tray and accidentally got one in her mouth :). She hasn't gotten the pincer grasp (thumb and forefinger) down yet, so she still grabs with her whole hand most of the time.

She's becoming more vocal now. She's added la, ba and ma to her vocabulary, and I really think she associates Mick with da. She says da, da, da every time she sees him. She also says it sometimes when she seees Gracie and Bella, but I think it's because I keep telling her "dog" when they're nearby. The "ma" has only been a couple of times, and there is for sure no association with it, but we'll get there. For now, I'll certainly take her bright little smile and reaching hands every time she sees me!

Emily is a constant joy to us, and it's an adventure just waiting to see what she'll do next!