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.