8 Months

You hear it all the time..."they grow up so fast," but never is it more true than when it's your very own. Long gone are the days of the tiny, sleeping infant whose head wobbled when she looked up. There are no more night time feedings and snuggles, nor the uncertainty that comes with a brand new little person (unexplainable screaming in the middle of Target anyone??). We have long since established feeding and napping schedules, and worked out how to read her signals for hunger, sleep, and boredom. She smiles, laughs, plays on her own, can sit up and pull up on things. She is growing and learning faster than I ever thought possible. It makes me at once very proud, nostalgic, and a little sad it's moving so quickly.

Zoe is becoming very independent. I can tell she has a lot of my...shall we say...attitude?? (see picture). She is determined, and often does not want help to do things. For example, she is now pulling up on things, and often grabs my hands to walk her. Then, she will just let go because she is convinced she can do it all by herself (at which point she collapses to the floor). She is an absolute chatter box, so she definitely lets us know how she is feeling about things. (She seems to have no volume control, and squeals of delight and frustration are loud and clear) It is so fun to watch as she develops her personality, but I must say that I was hoping for a smidgen more of her father's patience!

As far as Andrew and I, we have been working on some projects here and there with the house. I'm hoping to get started on the kitchen soon. I have been filling in for swim lessons for the Y over the summer, but am hoping I can find something from home soon!

Here is what Z has been up to this month:

Favorite Thing to Do: She loves to take peoples hands to help her walk!
Favorite Food: She still LOVES squash. She also really likes peaches!
New This Month: On July 17th (Andrew's birthday), Zoe officially crawled on her hands-and-knees

for the first time (she had mostly only rocked back and forth before that point). Then, some 11 days later, on July 28th, Zoe pulled up on a piece of furniture for the first time. Here we are at the 8 month mark, and the girl now pulls up on EVERYTHING! Her now favorite thing to do is grab your hands so that she can walk around! It is definitely keeping me on my toes...
Growth: Still wearing 6 month clothes, but she feels heavier!
Sleep: Sleeping through the night!Speaking: We are working on "hi" and "bye" with her (Sometimes she waves her arm). She is very loud, and gibber jabbers a lot!
Movement: She is busy little person. She moves around everywhere, and crawls really fast!
Behavior: She is such a little ham...she wants everyone's attention, and just loves when people talk to her.