Caroline 8 months

Eight months has been a big month for Caroline and for us.  She started the month doing an army crawl scooting on her belly... to being up entirely on her hands and knees doing a traditional cross crawl... to pulling herself up to her knees... to now being able to pull all the way up to standing.  She is now completely mobile, into EVERYTHING, and so proud!  This has made life around here interesting as the whole family (kids included) is scrambling to keep up with her milestones.  We have had to change a lot of rules like no more snacks in the living room, put away, ie. trash, a lot of small toys, ie. choking hazards, and start being on high alert for things like making sure the bathroom door is closed and there aren't crumbs under the table. And still with all that Caroline is constantly munching on something unknown.  Ahhh... life with three!

Sidenote, in her photo session this month I could not get a picture with the 8 month sticker showing.  She kept grabbing it and putting it in her mouth before I could snap a pic.  So is life in the phase, I guess.

Other highlights from this month:

• Sleeping through the night!!!  This might be my favorite milestone this month!  She goes down at 7pm, wakes up at 6:30/7am and dreamfeeds between 10-11pm.  At times, she still cries out at night briefly but except for rare occasions (or being out of town), she puts herself back to sleep after a few minutes.  In fact, she gets more disturbed if we go in and try to calm her.  I remember this happening with Ainsley at night too where she gets more thrown off if she sees us.  Which works out great for me!  ;)
• First tooth poked through July 28 and the second poked one about 2 weeks later.  Now she has two crooked little teeth on the bottom.

• This month she started eating finger foods like puffs with marginal success.  Half the time she can maneuver them around her mouth successfully and the other half of the time she gags if they are sitting on her tongue the wrong way.  We have noticed that in general she has a really sensitive gag reflex and even if her baby food is a little chunkier than normal, she will gag on it and make herself throw up.  I know this isn't horribly uncommon but it is awful to watch and disgusting to clean up!  I hope she outgrows this soon!
• In the middle of the month we lowered her crib to the middle setting to keep her safe when she learned to transition from laying down to sitting up.  By the end of the month we had to lower her crib to the lowest setting because she could now pull up to standing.
• Caroline continues to make bababa noises but now mostly makes mamama sounds.  And she has definitely found her voice!  I'm sure this trend will continue but before when the other kids were being loud, she would just sit and watch them, sometimes their loud noises would even scare her and make her cry.  Now she just joins right in with very loud baba and mama yells.  When all three of them get going, I feel like I'm going to lose my mind!

• She makes humming and mmmm noises when she nurses.
• When we are out in pubic, strangers often stop me to comment on her blue eyes, her long hair, and how beautiful she is.  It surprises me every time it happens because of course I think she is beautiful but that's because she's my daughter.  Either way, its sweet.
• Loves her paci much more this month!  She wants to have it more during the day now so we are going to have to start reinforcing the rule that they only stay in her crib... maybe.  :)

• The bumper in her crib is completely smashed down flat on almost all sides.  When she sleeps, she buries her face in it and uses it like a pillow.  For a while I would fluff it back up before putting her down but she would just smash it flat again, so now I just leave it.  Baby girl just likes a pillow.
• Anytime I am standing still for more than a minute relatively close to her, she power crawls over to me and pulls up on me, using my legs as a brace.  It's so cute to have those chubby little hands patting my thighs as she smiles up at me.
• Loves the bath and the water!!  Splashes, squeals and plays.  Even loves to float on her back in the tub.

We love you baby girl!  But I wish you would stop growing up so fast!!!