8 Months

Happy 8 months to my big girl! Once again, I'm about a week late on this, but look how far she's come in 35 weeks!

We also finally got her 6 months pictures back and here are a couple of my favorites!

Considering she was in a terrible mood for most of these, I'm pretty happy with how they turned out!

Weight: 18.5lbs according to super inaccurate home scale

Height: Unknown

Head Circumference: Unknown

Biggest Accomplishment This Month: Crawling! She finally did it! It's kind of an odd tripod crawl (one leg for moving and one leg for balance) but it gets the job done!

She doesn't like crawling very much, you can tell she'd much rather be walking as she's constantly trying to push up in a downward dog position and walk/crawl with her feet flat on the ground. The day after she turned 8 months she started standing up unsupported for a few seconds at a time, so I think she's well on her way!

Biggest Struggle This Month: She still is not really getting the hang of finger foods. Her pincher grasp isn't the best (she can grab stuff with her finger and thumb, but can't really hold onto it for long) which I think is the main issue, so she gets frustrated really quickly with the small pieces of steamed carrots and apples that we lay out for her. She still tries to scrape it up with her entire fist and then, once she finally gets one, she has a really weird thing with her hands (she HATES people grabbing her hands) and she doesn't seem to like the food sticking to her so she immediately sticks her hand out over the edge of the high chair and shakes it off her hand. She never even tries to bring it to her mouth. Then she screams for you to put a piece in her mouth for her while the dog laps up all the food she's just thrown on the floor. Thursday, however, I tried giving her a saltine cracker just to see how she'd do with it. At first she just opened her mouth and pushed her face forward, trying to get me to feed it to her, but I put it in near her hand so that she could try and grab it, and within seconds she had figured out what to do with it and the entire cracker was gone. Saltines probably don't have a lot of nutritional value so we won't be giving her a ton in the future, but it is comforting to know she's at least able and willing to feed herself. It's just that dang pincher grasp we have to get down! 

Mommy's Favorite Moment: I can't think of a specific favorite moment, but man do the development check offs seem to be happening quicker and quicker these days! She can say the word "Bella" (la-la) and often calls for the dog in the same inflection she hears me do it. She's been doing the sign language sign for "milk" for close to a month now and knows to do it without prompting both when she's hungry and when she seems me putting away milk into the freezer bags. She knows the word "no" and will often stop grabbing for things when she hears mommy or daddy say it, but sometimes she's feisty and will just give you a big grin and then keep right on going. One day she's crawling, the next day she's walking along the perimeter of her crib (holding on to the railing), and the next day she's standing on her own! She's also become quite the little pro with her sipping cup and loves drinking all by herself now that she's got the straw mastered.

As much as I miss cuddling with her all day long when she was just a little baby, this is by far my favorite age so far!

Mommy's Least Favorite Moment: Penny decided it was time for mommy and daddy to upgrade their phones this month. She got a hold of my cheapo, outdated flip phone that I still use and chewed on it for a few minutes until the screen went black. Turns out, she got so much slobber in it that the inside of the phone was full of spit when I pulled the battery out to try and reset it. The phone kept "working" for a couple of days, just with the screen completely out, and then died totally. Now Penny gets to keep that phone for play and is not allowed to touch mommy and daddy's new phones. Lesson learned!

Daddy's Favorite Moment: Coming into her room in the morning to get her out of her crib and finding her trying to pull her ball drop toy out of the toy bin and into her crib through the slats.

Daddy's Least Favorite Moment: This last week or so she's been teething really badly and it's been pretty miserable. If you look closely at her top gums, it looks like all four top front teeth are on the verge of popping through. Poor thing, I'd be crabby too if I had so many teeth trying to push through my gums at once! One night earlier this week, she screamed for close to two hours when we were trying to get her down for bed. Nothing comforted her, not rocking, not singing, not teething rings, not a movie, not teething tablets, not water, not tylenol, nothing. Finally mommy gave in and nursed her until she fell asleep and we were able to get her into the crib, but that was a rough night!

Eight Month Developmental Milestones According to What to Expect in the First Year (highlighted in green Penny has accomplished, highlighted in red she hasn't yet):

"By eight months, your baby...should be able to:

*bear some weight on legs when held upright

*feed self a cracker

*rake with fingers an object and pick it up in fist

*turn in the direction of a voice

*look for a dropped object

...will probably be able to:

*pass a cube or other object from one hand to the other

*stand holding on to someone or something

*object if you try to take a toy away

*work to get a toy that's out of reach

*play peekaboo

*get into a sitting position from stomach

...may possibly be able to:

*creep or crawl 

*pull up to standing position from sitting

*pick up tiny object with any part of thumb and finger - she can pick stuff up with her thumb and finger, but can't hold onto it very long that way

*say "mama" or "dada" indiscriminately

...may even be able to:

*play patty-cake (clap hands) or wave bye-bye

*walk holding on to furniture (cruise)

*stand alone momentarily

*understand "no" (but not always obey it)