This little nugget is 8 months, already! Acelyn has been a busy bee this month, growing both physically and mentally, learning new tricks and even has a whole new world of independence...she's officially mobile and crawling! Little lady was right on cue when I said she would start crawling any day after our last post. Just a few days before her 8 month birthday mark, it all clicked and she just crawled out of nowhere! Once she started, it's like she had the wheels in motion and she wasn't stopping any time soon. From that point on, girlfriend has gotten faster and steadier with every hand and knee movement. She's mobile!
She is still a happy baby with a great sense of humor. She loves to play and really, really loves to laugh. She continues to be a talker and has a ton of screeches, screams and words to say. She's always saying Mama, and has recently started saying Dada but not nearly as often. She can also say Baba. Acelyn can shake her head, "No, no, no!", claps nonstop, and is perfecting her wave. She is starting to understand things around her, and will look around to find what we ask- "Where's Daddy? Where's Nolan? Where's Harley?" Speaking of Harley, Acelyn has really taken a love to him lately, especially since she can crawl after him, now. She always reaches out to pet him and will just sit and stare at him in wonder. When he gives her kisses (when we ask him to), she crinkles her nose and giggles and it is the cutest!
Her crawling has really made her a whole new baby, as she's constantly on the move and into everything! She is extremely active and very curious, and keeps Mommy on her toes, especially since Nolan never crawled, so this is my first time with a quick little crawler! She's beginning to develop her stubbornness and temper- when taken away from somewhere she wants to go, she immediately goes right back, and if taken away again, will sometimes grunt or scream in frustration. When girlfriend is mad, watch out! She has an angry scream/cry like no other, and she will for sure let you know. Although she doesn't get mad or cry very often, when she does... you'll know!
Here's what else Acelyn has been up to:
Height, Weight and Sizes:
Again, no official weigh in this month, and we actually haven't even weighed her ourselves at home, so I'm roughly estimating that little lady has only put on a little bit a weight since last month, maybe weighing a little over 16.5 to 17 lbs. and right around the same length at 27" inches, maybe a bit over. Her thighs still remain chunky monkey and are one of my favorite things ever about her. She remains in 6-9 month clothing and still continues to grow into more and more 12 month items. All of her bottoms are 9 or 12 month, and even 9 month is getting a bit too tight for her. She is finishing up her last giant box of size 3 diapers before we move on to size 4s. We've been living in our June and January tights this winter, and her bow and moccasin collection continue to grow and grow. Having a girl is so.much.fun. (and dangerous)!
Feeding:
As Acelyn continues her journey into solids, she continues eating all of her purees for both breakfast and dinner, and has graduated into eating a ton of finger foods during lunch time. She likes most food, and has gotten better with puffs and cheerios and eats these regularly. Her absolute favorite foods to eat are cheese and pasta, and gobbles these up in record time. She definitely prefers the independent route, and loves feeding herself over being fed purees. Foods that she dislikes are rare, but she's not a big fan of peaches or apricots. Most recently, she has been introduced to the sippy cup and drinking water, and she absolutely loves it. She picked it up instantly and loves to drink on her own and bang and toss her cup around. Acelyn still nurses every 3-4 hours, but has a hard time not getting distracted and is often on and off in a session, especially during the day. Still, she's a quick eater like she's always been, and gets what she needs and is on her way. She's on the move, so too many things to see and do now that she can crawl!
Sleeping:
Acelyn's schedule is pretty similar to last month, with no big changes. She continues to nap in the morning around 9:30am, and another afternoon nap that coordinates with Nolan around 1:30pm. She has completely dropped her catnap in the early evening, which makes it important that she sleeps until at least 3:15-3:30pm, otherwise we have a cranky, overtired baby on our hands come dinnertime! She still adores her bath time during her bedtime routine, and splashes up a storm. She creates more of a mess than Nolan does, and sometimes makes it tricky getting both of them bathed together, but is hilarious and too cute to watch as she enjoys it so much! At nighttime, Acelyn gets nursed and rocked to sleep, where she is put in her crib until we go to bed, where I dreamfeed her again and place her in her Dock a Tot in the Pack N' Play next to our bed, still. Most nights she wakes up around 3-4am for a quick snack and then immediately falls back asleep until we are all up at 7am. I'm still waiting for my sleep-through-the-night consistency... but I think we still have a few more months of early morning wake up calls!
Likes:
Doing the hokey pokey
Crawling... all day, everyday, everywhere.
Fridge magnets, her new favorite thing to play
Shopping, sitting in the cart seat like a big girl
Counting out loud, she always smiles when we get to "Threeee!"
Playing Hide and Seek with Nolan
Harley and chasing after him, getting kisses from him
Dislikes:
Getting taken out of the bath and dried off
Diaper changes, now that she crawls, it's quite impossible changing her!
Still dislikes the car seat, especially getting in
Wiping her face
Toys taken away by Nolan
Being removed from somewhere she shouldn't be crawling
Changing her clothes
Exersaucer and jumper... She's mobile... ain't nobody got time for stationary toys!
Here's to another month down and just a few more to go until her first birthday! Ahhhhh! Stay little, my love!
