Ohmigod my baby is eight months old today. She is so close to being a toddler it's scary! How can I make her stay little just a bit longer? Oy.
Again no doctors appointment this month, so I am just estimating Ryann's stats at home. But I think she weighs 18lbs 14oz and is just about 28 inches long. She can wear a lot of her 6-12 month leggings and some of the tops, but the dresses and sweaters are still pretty big. Her Carter's clothes are still a 9 month size. I tried putting a pair of the 12 month pants on her because I wanted her to wear red pants, and they kept falling off while she was crawling around :o). She is also still rockin' a size 3 diaper.
As far as food and bottles go this past month... Ry generally gets four bottles a day, six ounces in the morning and after each nap. I give her a seven ounce bottle before bed. Sometimes she will get a four ounce bottle in the middle of the night. Eating solids still pretty much isn't happening. Well when I try and feed her anyway. I am trying to introduce breakfast and lunch, but Ryann has no interest in eating anything from me, she likes it when her daddy feeds her. Makes the daytime meals a bit difficult. I am also not very consistent about them because sometimes it seems like such a hassle since she never eats, but I'm trying to get over it. Dinner is the best (thanks to Chris), she will often eat a little more than an ounce of puree, and some puffs. Chris frequently uses the puffs to get her to open her mouth, and then sneaks in a spoonful of veggies.
we were frequently up close and personal, because I couldn't get her to stay off my lap
Like I mentioned, Ryann has no interest in self feeding yet. She hasn't really been an everything goes to the mouth kind of baby. So even if we put food in front of her, she just picks it up and plays with it. But little miss independent just wants to grab the spoon when we are feeding her purees, so I think she would be better off feeding herself. I'm going to keep encouraging it, and maybe in other month or so, I'll feel a little more confident giving her things besides puffs to try and pick up. Any suggestions for finger food for kiddos with little chomping power?
Speaking of chomping power (teeth) we have a tooth! Just one, and you can barely see it, but it poked through. And I *think* there are some more following close behind it. She still gets fussy and is constantly yelling while chewing on her hand and thumb, and frequently pulling at her ears. I suppose that could be an ear infection, but she hasn't had a fever (other than the day her tooth was popping through) and ear pain from teething makes sense.
This month was a gross motor skills explosion. Ry can easily get to a seated position by herself and rarely tips over anymore. She is crawling with her belly off the floor and pulling up on everything. Just this weekend she started trying to cruise on furniture. She also mastered climbing stairs on Thanksgiving. Chris's aunt and uncle live in a split level and I was surprised to see Ry quickly figure out how to climb to the top. She had so much fun doing it I kind of feel bad that we don't have stairs for her to climb. Although it is nice to not worry about them. She also figured out how to climb into her pink chair, so now instead of standing in front of it, she would prefer to stand on top of it.
I am pretty certain that teething along with the developmental craziness is what was causing most of our sleep difficulties. Ry has actually slept through the night (7:15pm -5:45am or 6am) three times this past week. The other nights she only woke up once and was relatively easy to get back to sleep with a little bottle. I'll keep my fingers crossed that this trend continues. I would love for her to sleep a little later than 5:45am, but after all of the horrible sleeping I am going to count my blessings and take what I can get. I figure if nothing else, maybe when the time changes again we will be doing pretty good :o). She takes two naps a day, going down between 9-10am, and 2-3pm. They usually last at least an hour, sometimes more like an hour and a half.
This little girl LOVES books. She loves when I read them to her, and she loves to flip through them by herself. She loves them so much that she usually screams for a minute or two after I say 'The End, all done!'. However I often read before naps, and she still HATES taking naps, so I think that has a little bit to do with it. It seems like her favorite book right now is '
Where is Baby's Belly Button?'. She gets so excited when we lift the flaps.
look at all that cute little fuzz :o)
Ryann has a pretty crazy little personality. She is highly independent and wants to do everything by herself. But you have to be sitting right next to her. If you leave the room, or get up like you might leave the room, she cries. She gets extremely irritated if you try and direct her hands to do something. Like putting a shape in a shape sorter, or waving or clapping, or really trying to make her hands do anything. She pulls them into her body so tight. She is a little goober and gives everyone the little scrunchy nose smile face. Unless they try to touch her or hold her, she kind of freaks. Hello stranger danger. She has become pretty clingy to me, which is semi flattering, but really annoying when I just want to use the bathroom, or something like that.
spaz. enough said.
She is babbling all the time, and is starting to say 'mamama' more frequently, which is exciting. Mostly though, she is saying some version of 'di' or 'da', or has her motor boat noise running. The other day I asked her if she climbed the stairs with daddy, and I swear it sounded like she responded with 'I did'. I'm not making it up, ask Chris or my mom! It was too funny. More and more she will crawl to us if we say 'come here', and she will extend her arms to be picked up if we say 'up' or ask her if she wants 'up', so I think she is starting to understand a little bit of what we are talking about. She will copy cat some noises, and loves to go back and forth with her making a noise and me repeating it.
Ryann finds it pretty funny when I make animal noises. Lately the only way to keep her still on the changing table is to let her hold her owl night light. I tell her the owl says 'whooo whooo' and she smiles every time. We also talk about how the kitties say meow, and her duck toy says quack quack. I need to find a book about animals so we can start working on animals and their sounds more and more.
mom, my mouth hurts. seriously. seriously I'm done!
One of my favorite things happens just before bath time. Why we do this I don't know, but Chris holds her up so I can take her diaper off before we stick her in the tub. I always try and get a couple smooches from Ry. A lot of times she will open her mouth really wide when I pucker up, and frequently she opens her mouth and then licks me when I come in for the kiss. She always kicks her legs like crazy.
Oh baby girl. I love you more than you will ever know. Stop growing up so fast, ok?
For those of you who are curious, her headband is from Banner Boutique on Etsy. :o) 
