Madison: 8 months

Now that she's 9 months old, let me tell you about the past month...

She loves to play "tag", she loves opening and closing doors, she loves standing in her car seat (still), she LOVES climbing anything, and she loves shoes, especially with shoelaces.  She is fascinated spending time with other babies her age.  She knows how to wave hi (but doesn't always do it when you want her to, of course), we're working on teaching her how to kiss.  She has been making faces back at me furrowing her brow and scrunching her eyes closed.

I love all of her faces.  She's so expressive.

She has her 2 bottom teeth! May 5th and May 15th they popped up.

Such a happy girl.

On the move.  She is a fast crawler.

She is so fun.  I love this age.  She is so interactive.  She's still such a content baby.  We're told this all the time.  She never cries in nursery.  I've only seen her cry once and reach for me...when I was on the plane back from NC and an older woman behind me offered to hold her so I could eat a snack and have a break.  Madison was fine when I handed her off, but when I turned around to check on her (she was doing fine), she started crying and reached for me.  Which, by the way, is so cute when they start reaching for you to pick them up.  She is so good at playing by herself.  She is a busy girl.  Always playing with something, going somewhere, or looking for something new to check out.  Believe it or not, I work 4-5 hours a day, during her naps, and then anywhere from 1-2 hours when she is awake.  She does really well while I'm trying to get work done.

Look at that hair!

I love getting her right when she wakes up because it's the one time she really cuddles.  She hugs me and nestles her head on my shoulder close to my neck for about a minute until she is ready to go.  It is so cute.

Look at those teeth!  And those beautiful dark eyes.

Eating
Biggest change is in eating.  I went down to nursing only 1-2 times a day this month.  Mostly just once first thing in the morning.  She is eating more and more finger foods and we're letting her try more of what we're eating.  She loves bread and anything sweet.  I usually give her 2 meals a day.  So, she wakes up in the morning and I nurse her right away.  Then exactly 2 hours after, she is ready for a nap.  She goes down with a bottle of 4-5 oz of formula.  When she wakes up, I give her oatmeal and a pureed fruit mixed in, bananas, peaches, apples, prunes, whatever I have.  I've been using Gerber baby food purees.  Then about 3 hours after, she is ready for her afternoon nap.  So everything really hinges on what time she actually wakes up.  Everything else is pretty consistent.  After she wakes up from that nap, usually mid/late afternoon, I give her a pureed vegetable, usually sweet potatoes, carrots, squash, or mixed vegetables.  She still does not like green veggies.  She also likes any squeezable baby food.  Those are awesome for traveling.  If they were cheaper, I would have them on hand all the time.  Things like that allow mommies to spend extra time running errands!

She loves to eat.  

Sleeping
She goes to bed around 8pm and wakes up around 6am.  She takes 2 naps a day usually between 1-2 hours long.  Of course, whenever there is something different in the schedule, it changes, like if it's a weekend, for some reason, she gets thrown off.  Maybe because of church, Bryce and I doing things like errands or outings.  She really got thrown off after traveling and being sick.