EIGHT!!!

My little tootsie babe is 8 months old today! It is officially time for me to start planning her birthday party, because I have learned that time goes super quick and these next 4 months are gonna pass so quickly, and before I know it, May 6th will be sneaking up on us! And I'm not even ready for my baby to be a big girl yet! :(

Here's what our chicky has been up to the past month!

• i'm sure i have mentioned it before (because she's been doing it for quite a while) but lately she has been doing it 100X more.... screaming!!! she has always been SUCH a loud baby, even her little squeaks when she was first born. but since she was a few months old, she has been screaming. not screaming when she cries, just randomly to be vocal :)  we all thought it was sooo cute at first, but now it literally brings on headaches! haha. she used to just do it once or twice, then she was done. but now it's over & over & over again, and it is LOUD. and so HIGH pitched, it is insane how that sound can come out of something so small. she thinks it is soo funny, and laughs at herself half the time she does it, haha. i think she just likes the sound of her voice, which is super cute, but really, my ears are about to start bleeding! hahah  

• she is becoming more & more of a daddy's girl lately (but she will ALWAYS be a bigger mama's girl, she's pretty much obsessed with mommy! haha) the other night he came home late from work, and he was going to get some dinner in the kitchen, but first he stopped to say hi to her while I was holding her. she reached right out to him, and got sooo excited! and she just loved on him forever - wrapped her arms around him, laid her head on his shoulder, and just cuddled him. i tried to see if she would come to me so that he could go eat, and she did one time, but then turned right around & reached back to daddy, then would NOT come to me again (which is VERY rare for this child to do!) she kept hugging him, then letting go, then kicking her legs & laughing, bouncing up & down! haha, it was super cute, she just loves her daddy! :)

• i put her big girl car seat in the car a couple of days ago, and she loves it! it sits her up more, so she can see brother a bit better. i'm not sure if i'll keep her in there for good or not (i only switched it because we were going on a long drive to kanab & i thought she might do better if she could sit up more to see, and be able to play with her toys better. she still fits perfectly in her infant seat, & has tons of room to grow into it, since I still haven't taken the padding out yet. 

• daddy taught her her new favorite thing to do... scrunch up her nose and sniff in & out really fast over & over! it is the absolute cutest thing i have ever seen! she makes the cutest face, and bounces up and down while she does it! ahh, i just love it.

• she is a nightmare to get to sleep lately. she fights sleep extremely bad now. not all the time during the day for naps & when i put her down at night (although she WILL cry a little bit before falling asleep) it's more when she wakes up in the middle of the night. she'll wake up, i'll feed her, and then i'll try to put her back to bed, and she will either think it is play time, or she cries/yells/screams until she gets picked up. i can't really just let her 'cry it out' in the middle of the night either, because of where we live, we don't want to have her wake ryan's parents up from her throwing a fit, so it makes it really hard sometimes.

• she has these random 'lovey' moods, where alll she wants to do is love on you. and it's not like she is tired/sad when she does it, she is sooo happy when she does it! i loooove when she is in those moods, because i get attacked with lottts of tight hugs, and 'kisses' on my face. 

• ryan has also taught her how to kiss. well, kind of. she will just open her mouth and put it on your cheek, or lips. she won't always do it when you tell her to, just randomly, really, or when she is in her lovey moods ^

• she is little PIGGY. she looooves to eat! she has never really liked purees, so we don't do those anymore, we just give her regular food, and she is seriously a little CHAMPION eater! she has never choked on anything (she has gagged on some things - as i have mentioned before - because the food touches the back of her tongue and gags her) and she chews stuff up really well with only two teeth! she is also getting really good at getting more food in her mouth than she drops. i always check her chair after she is done eating to see how much she has dropped, and it seems like every time it's less & less! some new things that she has tried lately are: cauliflower, ham, chicken, pretzels, broccoli (which she wasn't a huge fan of, i think it was the feel/texture of it) veggie straws, cheerios, crackers, avocado, grapes, apples, blueberries, pineapple, pasta & I can't remember what else, but i try not to do too many things at once, just in case she has any kind of reaction to something. she has loved everything so far! I hope she is always a good eater, cause it is pretty stressful with bransyn being such a picky eater! 

• she loooves baby dolls! when i hold them up to her, she will grab them & hug them. she got three for Christmas! 

• she has officially said her first word, which is (of course) MAMA! :)  at first i didn't know if she was just saying it as baby talk, but a few days after she started blabbering it, she looked right at me & said 'mamama!' then kept repeating after me, so it officially counted as her first word! :)  she said it CONSTANTLY for the first couple days/week, but now she doesn't say it much, haha. 

• she climbs on EVERYTHING. she is just like her brother with no fear! she loves to climb up on bransyn's little chair, and STAND on it. i swear these children are gonna do me in one day!

• it is a HUGE challenge to change her diapers. not sure if i've posted about this in her other updates, but it literally takes me a few minutes to change a pee diaper, because she rolls over RIGHT as i lay her down, and i have to keep laying her on her back, then she gets mad! haha

• she just discovered splashing in the tub today, and i'm sure it will be one of her new favorite things!

• she is obsessed with paper. like, COMPLETELY obsessed. if she sees any kind of paper anywhere, she goes straight to it & it goes straight in her mouth. one day we were sitting in my car because brans fell asleep, and i brought tais up to the front with me so that she wouldn't get bored in her seat, and she looked alll around until she found a piece of paper, and cried when i took it away. on Christmas, that was the only thing she was interested in, was the wrapping paper! she will even push over the garbage in the computer room if she sees paper sticking out of it, so that she can get it!

• she's starting to play with toys a lot more now! still with bransyn's all the time, along with all of her new ones that she got for Christmas. that's fine by me, as long as she's happy & having fun she can play with  whatever she wants!

• i have been styling the top of her hair lately, along with putting a headband on her (of course!) and it is just the cutest! i will just spray & 'scrunch' the longer hairs, so it looks like it is curly. i love her new do! :)

• i've said it before, but i'll say it again because it makes me so happy... she loves her big brother SO DANG MUCH! she loves to attack him with hugs/loves, they love laughing at each other (especially in the car - that's better than listening to the radio!) and she loves to just climb all over him. there really is nothing better than having your children love each other so much, every time i see them interact together, i can't seem to get rid of the smile on my face.

• she is quite the explorer. she just crawls around everywhere finding new things to stick in  her mouth, and crawl on top of. 

• she has gotten SO fast at crawling. one minute she is right next to me and ten seconds later she is clear down the hall! i'm pretty sure she could crawl as fast as i walk.

• she will pull herself up to stand, as long as she has something to hold onto, (and she does it alll the time) but she is definitely not ready to stand alone, yet. she CAN, because i have stood  her up and let go (without her realizing it) and she stood for a good 10-15 seconds before realizing she had nothing holding her up, so she sat down. but i think she is scared to stand by herself. maybe since she isn't ready to stand on her own quite yet, she won't walk as soon as brother did & I am JUST FINE with that! having an 8.5 month walker made me quite proud, but it definitely wore me out a bit more, haha!

• she sits in shopping carts when we go to the store & high chairs when we go to restaurants. she no longer wants to be cooped up in her infant seat when we're out. she just loves being able to see everyone & take everything in. we got her a shopping cart/high chair cover for Christmas, which is soo nice & convenient, because before I was using 2-3 blankets to cover the cart seat with, and wiping it down with the cart wipes like a crazy person! haha (although i still have to wipe it down if brans wants to get in the basket part)

• she loves crawling on our bed & going over to the window. she likes to look outside and also mess with the blinds, haha.

• whenever she is on the floor in our room, she goes straight over to the shelf that has all of her stuff on it (blankets, bibs, wash cloths, towels, diapers, wipes) and she will pull everything off of the bottom shelf, then stand up & attempt to pull stuff off the other two shelves. makes for a lot of clean up, but it's so funny watching her do it.

• her little personality shines through more & more every day. and i must say, she has one of the cutest personalities in the world. (one of the other being brother's, duh ;) she is such a silly, loving little girl, i just can't help but smile when i look at her. as much as i hate that she's growing sooo dang quickly, i can't wait to see what she's gonna be like when she gets to be one, or 18 months, or two. it's one of the only things that gets me through the fact that she's getting older every day, i just love all the fun little stages they go through, and how their little personalities change & become cuter & funner! 

• she has been LOVING other babies & little kids! one of my friends has a little boy that was born the exact same day as tais, and she was in town for Christmas, so they came over on Christmas Eve & t babe was in heaven with someone her size! we went to lunch with one of my other friends the other day, and she has a 15 month old, and we put them together as we were getting ready to leave the restaurant & tais gave brielle a big hug and was just soo fascinated by her! i've been noticing her being more into other little kids lately, too. 

• she has learned how to throw things off of her high chair tray. if she's done eating something, she will put her hands on the tray, and just move them back & forth really fast, dumping everything on the floor, clearing the tray. haha. and if she doesn't want her sippy, she will throw it on the floor. if i try to give her a drink out of it & she doesn't want it, she will push it away. same with anything I try to give her that she doesn't want (ex. a toy) she will just fling her arms around & push it away. 

• she is still a booby baby. she hasn't had a single drop of formula, and i am sooo proud that we were able to make it this far without having to supplement one bit! we are determined to make it to at least a year. even if i wanted to stop, this girl would for sure not have it. she loooves nursing, and pretty much has a fit when she can't (she likes to nurse for comfort, and i'm trying to break her from that habit. so if she tries to nurse within an hour or two after she last did, i won't let her because i know it's just out of habit - i would never not let her eat if she was hungry, and i have learned the difference now, haha!)

• she loooves to take showers with mommy! i don't know why i didn't try it sooner, i used to take baths/showers with brans from the time he was a couple weeks old. anyways, she absolutely loved it the first time! she just laid on my shoulder the WHOLE time, and was extremely relaxed and lovey. it was amazing, and SUCH good bonding! the second time, she even fell asleep! i love me some mama/tais showers! :)