8 Months Old

Elaina is now mobile.  Three weeks ago, she would do her yoga routines, and maneuver into a half sitting, half side reclined position.  Particularly adorable when paired with this hilarious face.

Then she figured out how to army crawl.  Then she figured out how to push herself into a sitting position, and is getting better at her balance. (There have been a few tearful head bonks.)

Then last week she actually did a little bit of traditional crawling.

And she started pulling herself up on furniture.


A few weeks ago, we finally pulled out the rice cereal and introduced solids. I pureed some peas shortly thereafter, so she's been eating mashed peas and rice cereal every evening while we have dinner.  She thinks it's pretty important to sit in the highchair and join us for a meal.  When she's done with her mash, we put a few puffed cereal pieces on her tray.  She will slam her hand down over a piece, clench her fist around it, and sloppily attempt to get it into her mouth.  Then she'll happily slurp and gnaw on the thing until she swallows it and repeats the process.

Here she is the day we introduced rice cereal.

Since she is so great at putting things in her mouth, I'm trying to be extra good about keeping the floor swept.  If I leave one little cracker (or leaf or bark) crumb in a corner, she will find it.  Thank the Lord for audible gag reflexes to alert Mom.

Speaking of audible, this kid likes to talk.  And babble.  And shriek.  



She really likes all of her aunts and uncles and grandparents.

She just likes to eat.  She likes to nurse every 2 hours around the clock.  And she usually does, except for a 4 hour stretch when she goes to sleep around 9.  Which I really don't mind too much.  Selfishly, it would be nice to sleep for more than a couple of consecutive hours, but hey, I'll get to do that in 20 years right?

By the way, I'm eating dairy again!!  Glory, hallelujah.  No really.  I am so grateful for the little silly enjoyable things in life, like real cream in my coffee, and real cheese on my pizza. I re-introduced dairy a week and a half ago, and Elaina did fantastic. I would "cheat" here and there and have a tiny bit of dairy in something, and I wasn't seeing any of the usually dairy induced problems in Elaina.  So I just decided to go for it one Saturday morning, and started eating dairy.  She had a couple of little spit-ups, but nothing crazy or concerning.  And no trace of her dairy-sensitive rash, and zero signs of discomfort after nursing!  I am elated to be eating a full dairy diet again.  I missed milk, but man, I really missed cheese.  So it looks like she's over the dairy protein sensitivity, although I have to try giving her dairy directly, so we'll see how that goes.

Her eyes are still blue, although a good deal darker, and a little more gray.  We'll see what happens.
I sure do love this little girl.