Eight months old

Taylor is eight months old today, and even though I see my baby girl all day every day, I can clearly recognize how much bigger she got during her seventh month. And because we don’t have another check-up until January, I can’t give actual stats. Just HUGE. I packed away the Bjorn and am loaning out the sling, because carrying her in any sort of baby-carrier will cause my shoulders and back to ache for days. I don’t know what prompted this month’s growth spurt. Maybe the new, exciting foods we introduced, such as peas, carrots and peaches. What happens this month when we begin broccoli and apples? Will she start borrowing my clothes?

She now has two teeth. Or more like a spike and a half. Taylor’s bottom middle teeth are in and now she gnaws on whatever she can get a hold of. Which, now that she’s crawling, is pretty much EVERTHING. For someone who’s only been crawling for two weeks, she’s got wheels. She sees something she wants and - Poof! - she’s trucking across the room to get it.

She is also pulling herself up to standing every chance she gets. She loves it. She’ll pull herself up on the coffee table and just stand there and cheese. Slapping the table and showboating - Look, one hand! Look, one hand, one foot! And then, of course, she’ll wipe out. And after a few nasty spills, complete with bumps, bruises and shiners, we are working diligently to get her accustomed to falling on her bottom. Because Momma can’t handle many more of these painful head-first wipeouts - The ones the cause her to cry so hard she doesn’t breath between howls. Heartbreaking.

And because Taylor’s playing so hard now, she’s just exhausted at the end of the day. I mean, WE’RE exhausted. Completely bushed. And after Chris gives her her bedtime bottle, she’s made the habit of falling asleep in his arms and snuggling. And he doesn’t seem to mind one bit.

So, yes, lots of changes and growing this past month. Almost too many to keep up with, and I’ve had to dust off the baby book to record some of these milestones. And as attentive as I am with this blog, I’m a total slacker with her baby book. So I’m hoping that in the years to come, when she wants to take a stroll down memory lane, instead of grabbing for her baby book she’ll just log on. And then probably holler at me for putting this picture of her in the tub on the Internet. But it’s just too cute not to.