Katherine Teal: Eight Months Old

Today, KT turns 8 months old. I'll save you the time flies speech since you are already thinking the same thing in your head. And I'm starting to sound redundant. So much has happened in the past few months:

KT is making huge strides towards crawling. She can get up on our hands and knees and then she'll start rocking back and forth. She'll even get one knee forward and then that's where she gets stuck! It's just a matter of time and I know she'll be scooting all over the place!

After getting past my mental block on chunkier solid foods, we are definitely making headway in that arena. As mentioned before we are eating puffs, yogurt bites, and sometimes we'll give her some pasta if it's on the menu. Other foods we are eating are: sweet potatoes, butternut squash, acorn squash, peas, carrots, green beans, bananas, pears, apples, yogurt, oatmeal, rice cereal, and more! This weekend I'm really going to work on expanding her choices. I bought some blueberries, I'm trying to hunt down cranberries. I'm going to make some pumpkin recipes and maybe we'll do some meat (though I'm not really rushing that right now, because I think sh'es getting plenty of nourishment otherwise - we'll see!). I've increased her food at daycare now, she gets an afternoon snack of either fruit, yogurt or puffs.

We have an upper tooth now. It's already busted the gums (see Kelli's baby shower post to see how well that went!) and is making it's descent. I thought for sure the top two middle teeth would be the next to come in but this one seems to be one of the teeth next to those. It's a little of too the side.

Today, to celebrate her birthday (not), I'm taking her for her flu shot. Jeff is just now getting over a wicked something (not the flu) that he caught earlier this week. And I don't want to take any chances with KT getting sick. We've already had an ear infection, the dreaded Cox Sackie virus (can't say that one with a straight face) and a few rounds of the sniffles/cold. If I can avoid a flu, I'm doing everything possible to do so.

As mentioned in another post, she's started saying "Mama" - which has been so completely rewarding. She says it every day now and I'm trying to introduce "Dada" into her vocabulary. I know she can make the sounds, it's just trying to put them together! So cute!

KT loves to cling and hold on to us now. My most favorite thing of all. She's starting to reach her hands and arms for us and cling on to snuggle. I love at night, right before bed, where she'll calmly lay her head down on my chest and just be content hanging on to me. It's absolutely the best time of day for us.

As the cooler weather has started to make itself known this week, I've started dressing KT in more pants and socks. I think this has been bittersweet for me. For one, I am so excited to dress her in all the little pants and tops I've been picking up here and there at resale shops, but at the same time, I feel we are progressing past the point of babydom where a onesie and a swaddle would keep her bundled enough (think Jan/Feb/Mar of this past year). I mean, I realize she'll still wear onesies, etc but the pants, socks, even SHOES....

So...happy eight month birthday to my little girl. It's so amazing watching you grow and discover. "I Love You Too" - Mama