8 Months

 

 

She started out the month semi-mobile. She had the the quick circle turn mastered and could roll herself a few times to get around. She got very angry a few times when she was stuck by a wall and couldn't roll anymore, but couldn't figure out how to get herself out.

She ended the month a quick moving army crawling babe. All over the place and loving it.

I came out of the kitchen one day fully expecting her to still be in the living room, had a quick second panic when I couldn't find her, and then quickly saw her down the hallway on her way to daddy's pandemic office. It really feels like such a quick overnight change from laying in the middle of the floor immobile, to moving down the hall. 

While very mobile, if left on her back or tummy, she hasn't really mastered the getting-out-of-sitting-position movements yet (mostly she just falls to the sides or straight back on her head which I always feel really bad about...often we try to leave a soft blanket around her when she's sitting). I'm really trying to soak in these days of her sitting in place, happily playing with a toy or two. I know these days are numbered.

She managed to never actually unwrap any gifts this month, but did pull just about every bow off of every gift that had one. The pile of "play" bows we ended up throwing in her play box at the end of the night became increasingly larger as the month progressed.

First snow! 

First Christmas! 

She survived being jumped over by the big kids the night we dragged the mattresses out and slept by the Christmas tree.  

She was not lucky enough to sleep out in the living room with us...

...but she didn't go to bed easily that night either. We put her down and then a half an hour later she was wide awake, wanting to be part of the party. So she did get to watch a bit of the Polar Express with us.

She woke up during the night SO MUCH this month. About 2 weeks ago it got to the point where she was waking up every hour or two and I was dying, so last week our plan was to have Darin go in and help her back to sleep in order to help her not expect to nurse all through the night. We also turned up our fan (white noise) and just let her cry a bit more. It seems to have worked for now and she is back to just waking once around 4 a.m. 

Just in the past week she's also been doing this thing where she will go down at 7:30ish for bed, but then within 5 minutes start crying and crying until we come and then she looks up at us wide awake. Instead of going through the fight of getting her back to sleep, we've just brought her out into the living room to hang out with us and around 9 put her back down. It's so weird, but has also meant she's slept in until 8 most days this week, which for a vacation week, I'll take it. 

Loves hangin' with her sibs. 

She eats just about anything we put in front of her, which at this point, is generally whatever we are eating. She is a big fan of crackers dipped in hummus. We keep half the peel on her bananas for her to easily grasp them and she--without fail--always ends up with it upside down, sucking on the peel.

Just this week she started shaking her head like she is saying "no no no no."

She has also started a fussy whine if I've been away from her too long (while shopping, working out, or at work). She will be happily playing on the floor, but the second she sees or hears me, she makes it known that she wants me. The other kids think it's hilarious. Jokes on them because I don't think they realize that they are often the same. They will be happily coloring, reading, or playing, but the second I walk in the "I'm hungry!" "I'm thirsty!" "I want you to play with me!" begins. They don't do it AS much as they've gotten older and have gotten used to their awesome dad taking care of them a lot more with me working, but it's always funny to think about what they really "see" when they see me. For Emmy, I'm sure she sees her personal cow come home to her at last.

She likes playing on the piano. 

Even in her grumpiest moments (which are few), she just can't help but flash you a smile if you make eye contact with her. We are all so so in love with this squish of a baby. She has definitely been the best part of 2020 for our family. 

November Little Things

We started our Thanksgiving with a little family fun run around our neighborhood loop.

 

We watched bits and pieces of the Thanksgiving Day parade while getting the food ready. It was all delicious.

We had a yummy Apple Cranberry Pie and Black Bottom Banana Coconut Pie for dessert. 

She's pretty proud of this dam she built at the Science Center

We took an evening to get food together to put in one of the Ithaca food pantries that are around town.

Set up the Christmas tree.

Went on a Science Center mini golf date with B.

After playing mini-golf we went inside the Science Center for a few minutes. We had a lot of fun playing with ice cubes in front of the infrared camera. Cold spots=dark

Darin is usually the one to take Shae to soccer since it's right around baby's bedtime, but I was able to go a couple weeks ago and just loved watched Shae do his soccer drills and play his min-game. I'm so proud of how hard he has worked on his soccer skills and it makes my heart swell to see him enjoying it so much.

Shae's natural habitat these days:

We made ourselves a little charcuterie platter for election night date night. Little did we know at the time that we would have to wait days to finally hear the results. Those were some long days, with long nights (mostly for Darin, who kept saying things like, "I think they are about to call Michigan" :). 

Finally getting the election news and watching the first female Vice President speak was pretty special.

Belén is always doing "Belén art hub" and wants me to take pictures of her just like we did when we were abroad doing all of the Art for Kid Hub challenges. 

                        

                    One evening, Belén was taking an especially long time in the bathroom. She finally yelled, mom come look at me. She was completely naked with her hair covered in bows. It was a pretty silly sight. 

7 Months

 7 month old Emmy girl. 

When baby photo shoots become nearly impossible.

She's seeing all the details in the world around her. She fixates on things like never before, and although she isn't scooting yet, she can circle herself around in a 360 in a hot second to get something off the floor. It's pretty impressive. 

She celebrated her first Thanksgiving with us, and took her first bites (more like sucks) of turkey. 

We're slowly implementing more of whatever we are eating into her diet, which makes feeding her so much easier, but also adds in some extra meal planning work so we aren't serving noodles with 2 cups of whipping cream as the main dish to our 7 month old. Oh but those noodles are so gosh dang delicious.

Black bean burger patties for the win. 

She's a big fan of the banana. 

Peel and all. 

This month we officially stopped swatting the thumb and pushing the pacy on her and are trying to embrace the thumb suck. I'm not gonna lie, it's kind of adorable to lie her in her bed and watch her immediately put her thumb in her mouth. So far she only does it when we lay her down, it will be interesting to see if that changes over time.

We also bought her a snow suit to sleep in just like we did with the other kids so that she can be cozy and warm. 

We had a week of TERRIBLE sleep when her first tooth was popping through. I mean, bad. Like, up every two hours and mom lost her marbles and flooded the house with tears one day from sleep deprivation bad. We somehow got through that and she is now waking just once, around 4 or 5 a.m. and then usually up for the day around 7 a.m. I usually go in and do a little dream feed for her before I go to bed around 10 p.m.

She goes between 2 and 3 naps, depending on the day.

Baby tooth popping through. 

(Also caused her to have some of the most cranky days of her short existence. Tears in her eyes, but somehow she will still flash a smile every once in awhile). 

No matter how bundled, she doesn't like being out in the cold for long. I can't blame her.

Her right eye still goops like crazy. Some days it is definitely worst than others, to the point of walking in her room in the morning to one eye shut. Poor girl. The doctor said it should go away in the next few months, so we're going to keep an eye on it. Quite literally. 

Can't believe she is big enough to be swinging away at the playground.

Her squeals are insanely loud, especially when bouncing around. If we get a chance to take turns sleeping in, Darin or I will always blast the fan in our room to try to cover up her early morning squeals from the living room.

Still loves her singing star friend.

I love that she can sit up in the cart now. Everyone always ooooo's and aaaaahhh's over her and she flashes her award winning smile every time. 

She's one of the gang. We love her to death and can't imagine life without her.

She has a pretty special connection with this brother of hers. 

(Her hair is starting to get longer and more whispy in certain areas too).