Monday, January 10, 2011

8 Months

Grace crawling over her teddy bear to get some toys.

This is a very classic Grace face. She sucks in her lips. She recently learned how to make them "pop" when she opens her mouth. She thinks it's hilarious (and so do I).

She seriously is the cutest thing ever (and I'm pretty sure she knows it too).

Just hugging Sam the Bear. :)

I can't believe how big my little girl is now compared to her bear. The bear used to seem so much bigger. Time to get a bigger bear. ;)

Grace is officially 8 months, as of the 4th. I have been meaning to write this post for almost a week, but with an unexpected illness and Robby hogging the computer to actually do work (I know right?) I wasn't able to get around to it. But I finally stole the computer from him and wanted to write about our sweet little 8 month old.

Grace has so much personality for a baby. She is constantly making me laugh. She doesn't do and like things that most babies do. For instance, Grace hates to eat. She could be starving and not have eaten for 12 or more hours (that's how long she sleeps at night, thank you Babywise) and she still would rather play than eat. She'll take a couple sips of her bottle and then push it away and try to sit up so she can talk. Or she will just chew on the bottle and tell me a story while little drops of milk drip down the side of her mouth onto my arm. While she is eating her solid food, she will turn her body completely around in her high chair so that she can stare at the ground. And then to make it all the more comical, while she fights eating so hard, she will start screaming because she realizes she is in fact hungry and won't stop screaming until food is back in her mouth. I'm learning that this (and many other things) is something I have to let her do on her own time. Sometimes it will take 15 minutes to feed her a bottle, other times 30-45 minutes (which if it does take that long, I generally need to rewarm her bottle because she doesn't like her formula cold). She is definitely very stubborn and can't be rushed to do anything.

Grace has been scooting around like crazy. She is on her tummy still and using her elbows and her right foot. She still refuses to push off with her left foot and just lets it kick up and down while she scoots. She has started pulling herself up on things. Today, for the first time, she pulled herself to standing by using the couch. It was so adorable. She stayed there for a couple minutes just giggling because she was so excited. Then she turned around and took a step. I'm not counting it as her first step because I literally had to lunge to catch her before she face planted. Lol. I think it was just her getting excited and trying to kick her feet. Such a silly girl. She has also learned that if she whines and crawls to me, I will automatically pick her up. If I don't, she starts screaming and showing me her pouty lip (which is so not fair because no one can resist that).

Grace is still showing a definite aversion to strangers. If I am holding her, she is fine. She will smile and "chat" with anyone but if someone else comes near her and I'm not holding her, she will scream. I blame myself for not having more babysitters come over or having more people hold her at church and things. But after waiting 4 years to hold a baby in my lap at church, I just love having her in my lap. And when I have let other people hold her, my arms feel too empty. So for now I enjoy my sweet and spoiled little girl only wanting mommy and daddy.

At her last doctor's appointment, Grace weighed 15 lbs 14 oz and was 28 1/2 inches tall. I am constantly worrying about her weight gain since that is only 11 oz in 2 months. The doctor said not to worry but I am pretty sure it's a requirement in being a mom. She did however grow 2 inches tall. So the slow weight gain is probably just from being a finicky eater and constantly on the move. But hopefully at her 10 month appointment she will have gained a little bit more than that.

Grace has also created a new "fun" game. She crawls for the Playstation, I tell her no, she looks at me and smiles, then starts crawling faster, I run to get her, she gets mad and screams at me, I move her 4 feet away and give her a toy, she begins to crawl for Playstation again. I try really hard not to laugh when she does this because I don't want her to think it's even more funny but her little mischievous smile just cracks me up.

I can't believe it was 2/3 of a year ago that she came in to our lives. It's just so surreal and amazing to me. She is an incredible little girl and I love her so much.

4 comments:

Jen said...

She is beautiful. I'm so glad you're enjoying her and you'll be glad you're documenting her growth so well. She's got a spunky little personality!

Heather said...

She IS growing so fast! What a sweet little dolly. You are a great Mommy Angee!!

Heather said...

What awesome pictures! It's hard to believe our babies are growing so fast! And yes, thank you Babywise for sleeping babies, my Grace is the same! It's the best thing ever!

Rachael said...

Grace is so big and so cute! I've been meaning to tell you how wonderful you all looked in front of the temple, such a beautiful family.