8 Months Old

Allie, sweet baby girl, you are 8 months old. I can not believe you are 4 months away from being 1! You are changing in appearance and development everyday and I am so thankful I am able to watch you grow each day as you are at work with me. You are a very sweet little girl. You are almost always happy and have a smile on your face. You have a contagious deep little laugh which you share with us everyday.

Here is what you are up to at 8 Months:

I estimate you are 21 - 21.5 lbs 

Diapers: You are in a size 3 diaper 

Clothes: You are in 6-12, 9 months, or 12 month 

Teeth: 2 bottom teeth

Things you love: Bath time, Swimming Pools, Mickey Mouse, Rattles, Music Makers, Being Outside, Gracie, Swinging in Baby swings, Ice Cream, Water in Your Sippie Cup

You have been trying to crawl for weeks and I know it is anytime when you put all the pieces together. You can now get to a sitted position from your stomach or back and can get into a crawl position and back to your bottom on your own. You are so very close

We have lowered your crib and you now try and pull up on things although you still aren't pulling up quite yet.

Food:

7 am: Bottle with rice

9 am- 5 ounces formula with rice

12 pm:  1 Package Baby Food and/or Bottle

3 pm: 1 Package of baby food 

6-7 pm: Bottle

In between your meals you have puffs, mum-mums, and yogurt drops with water

You don't seem like a tutu girl but I thought I would give it a whirl today. You didn't seem to mind it... maybe you will be a little girly after all. I think you look adorable.

You kept putting it in your mouth and frowning at me like.."This isn't edible."

You don't have quite enough hair for this type of hair bow but we are getting closer. 

Night time at 8 Months Old:

Now that you are mobile (in an unorganized way) you seem to get 'stuck'. I find you like this most nights and have to 'unstick' you about 3 times before you finally go to sleep. Sometimes your legs are even over the bumpers. Crazy girl.

Part of your crawl is the elephant walk/ reverse crab whatever you want to call it but your legs are straight and your arms are straight and you just sit there. You are finally starting to put your knees on the ground instead of keeping your legs straight.  Your strength is amazing to watch.

Just because ...Bath time

Memorial Weekend

Just Because she is too cute to pass up...

 I love how you can still see the Sweet Potatoes on her mouth

 Shiny new tooth

Allie ISR Video

I have had more comments about ISR lessons than I have had on any item I posted. I am sure it is not for everyone since the baby does cry and/or whimper some but since that is her only way to communicate it didn't seem to bother me too bad. I am glad she is equipped with this skill and hope she never needs to use it for purposes other than practice.

This was the video taken at Allie's last ISR lesson. She still gets refresher classes and had her 1st refresher today. Her next is in about 3 weeks. ISR lessons for Allie's age is 10 minutes or less; 5 days a week for 4 weeks.

The goal is for the child to roll over to the surface and be able to float...You will notice she is still dropping her right shoulder on her float and we still need to work on that. Not sure why. She started that when she only had 2 lessons left. It doesn't interfere with her floating, but we will work on correcting this.

*Not sure why the videos arent working. They were working last night. I will try and fix them when I get home tonight

Strawberries

I recently took Allie to Brown Farms for a mini photo session. Allison Jansen took Allie's newborn pictures and when I heard she was doing mini sessions at Brown's I knew Allie had to do it. Allie normally loves to chew (gum) on strawberries and I thought we would get some great 'un-posed' shots of her with strawberries all over her face. We got some great shots and I will continue to use Allison in the future for many reason but Allie wanted nothing to do with holding her own strawberry. 

 It was spitting rain and unseasonably cold that day. I was worried how Allie would do but I ended up glad it was cold enough for a jacket. I love the little blue jean jacket in the green strawberry field.

One of my favorites. You can see her little tooth poking through.

*All pictures from Allison Jansen Photography Facebook.

7 Months Old

Allie you are 7 Months Old! Wow you are over halfway to being 1. Time has gone so fast and here is a glimpse of what you are up to at 7 Months:

Naps: The only time you want to nap is either in the car or when we are at home on the weekends. You want to watch everything going on at all times and refuse to take a nap during the day. Normally as soon as we put you in your carseat you are asleep within about 1 minute.

 Bunny: You still love Bunny. Bunny goes to sleep with you at all naps and at night. Normally bunny is over or around your face at night. Bunny didn't fare so well during this car trip.

Here are your 7 month photos. You are looking more and more like a toddler and losing your "baby face." I think you look much 'slimmer' in your 7 month pictures.

You have BIG beautiful brown eyes with long eye lashes.

You got your first tooth on April 4th and your 2nd tooth on May 5th. They gave you a little fit and you were fussy but all is well now and they are shining bright and white.

You are wearing size 9 month or 12 month clothes and a size 3 diaper.

You go to sleep between 6-8 pm and wake up between 6:30 -7:30

You eat 5 ounces Or a package of baby food every 3-4 hours

Your eating schedule goes something like this:

7 am: Bottle

9 am: Bottle 

(I think you like this bottle early because you go so long at night)

 10 am: you are ready for a nap. Most the time you won't take it

12ish: You have food or a bottle.  You like a nap around 1

3:30: Food or a Bottle

6:30: Food or a Bottle followed by bath time

8:30: Bottle & Bedtime

This picture cracks me up...nice shiny teeth

 We lowered your crib down after these pictures. You can now pull up on your crib

 You are sitting up with no problem and rarely fall over. You are starting to roll F to B more but I just dont think you will ever use your rolling over as a means of getting somewhere. You have been sleeping on your stomach a lot.

 You love: Eating :), Playing, "field trips at the farm" Swinging in Baby swings, Gracie, Outside, Mickey Mouse, Peek A Boo, When people clap for you or dance, You are a happy baby and rarely are upset.

You love to throw anything and like it more when someone will throw it back to you and make a game of it. You are now in a blow up bath tub and love being able to move around and play in it at night.

ISR Swim Lessons:

We enrolled you in ISR lessons when you were 6 1/2 months old and you just finished this past Friday. You can now roll over and float on the surface should you ever fall in the water. Next Sping you will learn to swim under water. You did so good at these and although you did cry or wimper during the lessons you have excelled at being able to do it.

Here is your last day in class where I got to join you and learn how to practice with you on my own. I am very glad we put you in these. You like to know about everything and want to be everywhere and I feel that should you ever fall in the pool/ lake etc you have the skill to survive. You can hold your breath and know that if your face goes under that you need to get to your float position with your mouth and nose out of the water. It is truly amazing to watch.

This is a little late and we are only 2 weeks until you are 8 Months Old! I think you will be crawling by then...we will see

Practice and Dimples

I got a camera for my birthday/Christmas right before Allie was born, but had not taken it off of Automatic mode until recently. I have been practicing with Allie of course and I am starting to get more comfortable with it. I know everyone says get a tripod and get a external flash or a different lens but I can't justify that if I don't even know what all the buttons do on the camera. So I have been working on learning my camera. Here are a few shots. I am sure to a trained eye they are flawed but to me and my eyes (and they are the only ones that matter since I am taking them for myself) I think my dimpled model is precious. I could eat her up....such love

 She loves to swing and I try to take her outside everyday for a little break. Notice her tooth! We now have 2 teeth!

Of course Allie LOVES Gracie. I don't think Gracie knows what is in store for her when Allie gets mobile. Gracie normally joins us for our outside time and Allie couldn't be happier

 Notice her TAN...I am jealous but am glad she doesn't have my light skin tone.

Loves her Daddy and being thrown into the air. I love the expression on her face