8 Months

So cliche, but so true. Time really does fly! 8 months ago seems both so near and so far away from today. Though I seem to barely remember the first few days/weeks of having our first baby girl home from the hospital, it's still so hard for me to believe that it has already been that long!

AK is trying and mastering new skills daily it seems. She doesn't appear satisfied once she's learned something new; she immediately wants to move on to try something else! Just two days ago (on her actual 8 month birthday), she decided that standing on her own is her new goal. I looked over and she was standing without holding on to anything. I then realized she was leaning her back a bit against the couch, so I think we still have a few more days (heck maybe even a week!) before she decides she doesn't want any support at all. I say "want" instead of "need" because she is just such a determined little baby. We have happily been head bonk-free for the past few weeks as she has become more comfortable pulling up and standing, but I have a feeling we're about to head back into head bonk-ville full steam :).

So much is new and yet so much is the same. She's loving solid food and just within the past week we've moved towards her having some of what we are eating as opposed to all purees. So far she's loving chicken, bananas, blueberries, waffles (whole wheat!), watermelon, and a few other things. I was eating a pear yesterday and she looked interested, so I held it out for her. She leaned in and started chomping away! I really do hope that we are able to model good food choices/variety for her; I was such a picky eater as a child and would pretty much only eat McDonald's dry hamburgers! Ick ick. I know we'll go through our phases, but here's to hoping :D.

AK is such a talker. It does take her a few minutes to warm up in new situations though. She'll observe and study for about 3-5 minutes and then go full steam ahead and "talk"/yell up a storm. She absolutely loves other kids and loves watching them play. She doesn't sit still very often, but she will definitely sit and study what the older kids are doing!

Our monthly pictures are definitely getting more challenging :). In the early months, we would place AK on the fabric and snap away to our heart's content. We're pretty lucky to get a few shots in before she is off and roaming these days :).

Hanging out by the window