C's eighth month

I found this Carter's outfit at Kid to Kid, and our friend Vanessa made the hair clip.

During C's eighth month she had an obsession for a little while with saying "Mama." She said it for the first time on July 24th in the swimming pool. Then after maybe a week of lots of mamama chatting -- mostly before I grabbed the video camera, of course -- she wouldn't do it at all. When she was probably almost eight months old she started to say it again, less frequently. Anyway, everything she does is adorable. I'm glad she loves me even if she doesn't know yet what "Mama" and "Dada" represent.

7 and a half months

Her most common "word" is a funny grunt. She blows raspberries, squeals, and sometimes mimics what she hears her sisters do as they play (these are sort of screams, if I remember right, but not unpleasant when they come from the baby). She's still extremely happy but cries a little more than she used to. Now as I'm writing this I wonder if I wasn't responding quickly enough when she just fussed.

(7 1/2 months old) In front of a leasing office where preschool friends Natalie and Rachel used to live. We played at the playground.

During this month she ate these foods for the first time: pears (from Nana's tree), peas, butternut squash, corn, plums (from Nana's tree), sweet potatoes, peaches (locally grown), and yellow squash (locally grown). I would guess that she usually nurses 5 or 6 times a day -- never at night because she sleeps about 10-11 hours.

She is not trying to crawl or pull herself up, so she will do those things later than our other two kids did. She's good at rolling over and/or rotating herself, whether we put her down on her tummy or her back. I don't think she rotates all the way around, but halfway sometimes. Often when I go to her crib I find her with her legs sticking out between the bars. I looked back at the blog, and I mentioned some of this in her sixth month post. However, back then she was still in the center area where I had laid her down on her back. Now she may end up near a corner, on her tummy, and with her head on the left when it was on the right.

Here's a random list of other things C does: 

• She loves to hold onto her foot with both hands and put it in her mouth (but I'm not going to take the time to add a photo). 
• When she's lying down and really happy to see me, she throws her legs down a few times.
• She loves looking in mirrors -- probably because I smile and say, "Look at us! You and Mommy!"
• She is a thumb sucker, and I think it's always the right thumb. When I give her a pacifier she holds it and chews the nipple.
• When she sits with Daddy she likes to touch his arm, and she touches my face and hair a lot.
• She's good at clapping -- we just have to hold her wrists and do it for her. It makes her laugh. She also laughs when someone plays peek-a-boo with her.
• When I change her diaper she twists and tries to find something to get and play with.
• For her baths, I sit her up now, and lay her back to rinse her hair. She loves water and usually does not like it when I take her out (I'm sure she feels cold before she's dried off). As soon as she's in the tub she splashes. At least half of the time I put her in at the beginning of the other girls' bath, and it's fun watching all three have fun in there.
• I always turn on our musical soother at night, and she turns toward it and touches it.

I love this photo as much as the four at the top of this post.

You can click {here} to see her sister L at this age.