Eight Months Old

Unbelievably, Natalie is eight months old!  Natalie is now a very confident sitter, and she rolls and scoots to get where she wants to go.  If there is something particularly alluring--one of her brother's toys, an untended  basket of laundry, or another baby's bottle at daycare--she can cross the room at lightening speed!  She gets on all fours a lot and rocks, but hasn't quite figured out how to work all of her arms and legs at once.  Her vocal range is expanding, and she's discovered volume, which means lots of experimenting with how LOUD she can make her voice. :)

Eating is continuing to go well.  I nurse Natalie in the morning, she has solids for breakfast at daycare, a bottle, solids for lunch, another bottle, a late afternoon bottle, solids for dinner and nurses again before bed. On the weekends we both love the fact that she nurses instead of getting bottles. We've tried puffs a few times and she still can't quite figure out what to do with them.  The concept of chewing hasn't occurred to her, so I think it's confusing to have something in her mouth that she can't just swallow.  She does have a good pincer grip to get it to her mouth though!

Natalie has started to feel a little skeptical about people she doesn't know well.  She is definitely a mama's girl, and she loves her brother and daddy.  The daycare ladies are also favorites, especially Ms. Barb and Ms. Darlinda.  We've seen Todd's parents a lot lately, so she goes to them easily.  Everyone else though, requires some focused observation from the safety of mama or daddy's arms before she'll go to them.

This month has marked Natalie's enthusiastic participation in the world.  She is interested in everything, wanting to grab it and pat it, stick it in her mouth and then drop it on the floor.  She loves her toys, her brother's toys, and most especially things that she is pretty sure are not toys!  The concept of object permanence is starting to enter her realm and she will look for toys after she's dropped them.  

Bathtime is still her favorite time of the day.  As soon as she hears the water start to run in the tub, she starts bouncing and squealing, and we can sometimes hardly get her undressed because she's reaching for the tub so emphatically. :)

Since I'm a week late in posting this, I'll cheat and add the latest developmental milestones, all of which appeared over Memorial Day weekend:

• Babbling: Ba, ba, ba, ba.....va, va, va, va  (no mama or dada yet, despite our best efforts)
• Clapping! Soooo cute!  First she starts with a wave and then turns it into a clap.  I'll try to get it on video soon.
• After much work and a little crabbiness, Natalie's bottom two center teeth are finally starting to surface.  She is very resistant to anyone touching her gums, but when I was feeding her lunch yesterday I was able to peek in while she was opening wide for her spoonfuls of bananas, and there are two tiny white little teeth starting to poke through