It won't be long...

...until she'll be all-out crawling. She gets faster and faster at creeping every day. Her favorite things to "chase" are phones, remotes, and mommy. She tried to scoot out of the pack-n-play to me today (with no luck, but she got picked up!). I seriously need to babyproof the house!

A big afternoon

Well, it has been a big afternoon at the Powell house! We got back from church (Elise refuses to nap in the nursery) and I put her down for a nap. After she woke up, she did the following:

-practiced her scooting
-practiced getting up on all fours (when she lunges forward, she still falls into the ground)
-signed "more" several times during lunch
-waved back and forth with me
-took 5 shaky steps holding onto the coffee table (I put a toy at the opposite corner where she was standing)
-turned from holding on to the coffee table to holding on to me and back several times (she was standing, I was sitting behind her)

She is growing up way too fast!

I like to move it move it

Here's a quick glimpse at what Elise has been working on this week. I'm not sure if she'll be army crawling or regular crawling first, but she's definitely got the swimming thing down pat.

She also has much more control over her babbling... her voice is a little softer and slower. I'm not sure if that makes sense. Anyway, she's been combining different consonants. Today she told me "ma be ge dada ba"... whatever that means :)

Happy 8 Months!

We went to the doctor today so that she could get part 1 of her 6 month vaccines. We will skip the 9 month appointment and go back at 10 months for the second part of the vaccines. She weighs 20 lbs 3 oz and measured just over 28 inches. She's still in the 90th percentile for length but dropped to the 85th percentile for weight. Between 0 and 2 months, she gained about 3 1/2 lbs (from her 2-day old weight), between 2 and 4 months she gained about 3 1/2 lbs, between 4 and 6 months she gained about 3 1/2 lbs, but between 6 and 8 months, she gained 1 1/2 lbs. I wasn't surprised at all... the growth is supposed to slow down after 6 months. Thank goodness! She pooped (a really disgusting poop, but my cloth diaper miraculously held it all in) while they were measuring her head so I don't remember the head measurement. The doctor says if she continues on the same height curve that she will be around 5'10'' as an adult. He can better predict that at age 2... we were just having fun. Maybe I have a future volleyball player on my hands! She also waved bye-bye to the doctor today.

The doctor thinks she is having some stomach issues stemming from the vomiting incidents last month. She's not been crazy about solids ever since then and the last 3 nights, she's woken up around midnight screaming hysterically. Nothing will calm her down... she isn't hungry, doesn't want a teether, doesn't want to be rocked or walked around the house... nothing. I just have to wait for the tylenol to kick in and she's good for the rest of the night. She doesn't have a fever or an ear infection. He thinks there may still be some bacteria in her stomach that is causing all of this, so he advised me to give her just yogurt and cereal for a few weeks and see how that goes.

Elise has also decided that she is too big for a bottle. I try to give her one every now and then to make the pumping worthwhile. Tonight was the night. She did some crazy crunches trying to sit herself up while drinking from the bottle, so I decided to pour the milk into her straw cup and see what happened. It took her about 30 seconds to shift gears from bottle to straw, but then she happily sat in my lap and gulped down the rest of her milk from the cup. What a big girl!

My Beco baby carrier should be arriving tomorrow... I am so excited! I broke out the Baby Bjorn yesterday and it turns out that I can't snap the top part over her shoulders anymore. She's getting so big!

Finally, here are the fun facts for the month. I'll be impressed if you make it through the whole thing, unless you are Mike :) I made lots of extra notes for him. I love you, honey!

At 8 months, Elise…

-Will turn around while sitting or on tummy to get to me or a toy, will reach for me when she wants to be picked up

-Will do the splits and chew on her toes (my best picture is blurry, argh!)

-Will get on all fours by herself from her belly

-Will drink out of a straw cup (she figured this out on her own in about a minute... I was so impressed!)

-Will get frustrated if she can’t figure out how to scoot herself forward to get a toy, previously, she didn’t really care, she’d just roll over and find something else to do

-Loves to make the “ieeeeeeeee” sound

-Says mama, dada, baba, lala, oioi, guyguy, bubba, gigi and experiments with the p and k sounds

-Will get into a crawling position from sitting, but then sit right back down... chicken!

-Gets almost all finger foods in her mouth on the first try

-Prefers nursing to solid food

-Wears 12-18 month clothes from babyGap/Old Navy (except she can still wear her 6-12 month dresses)

-Will play independently either sitting with toys or rolling around the floor... here is her new way to play with the activity gym...

-Objects when you leave her sight or when you take something away that she really wants (camera, cell phone, keys, sunglasses, etc)

-Loves boss... he always gets a smile or giggle

-Has an excellent pincer grip... yesterday she knocked a puff off of her tray and was able to pick it up from her lap and eat it

-Examines toys very carefully and doesn't immediately stuff them in her mouth

-Doesn’t spit up anymore

-Knows that objects are still there if you turn her around so she isn't facing them... she'll turn herself back around and look for them (the remote, camera, and cell phone are her favorite prohibited items)

-Goes into 'sleep mode' whenever she gets in her crib at naptime or bedtime... it is wonderful!

-Decided that there is too much going on to take naps in the church nursery... this will make our Sundays very interesting.

-Will sometimes wave bye-bye or hi... we practice a lot :)

-Sticks her tongue out and plays with her teeth

-Still loves to stand up... now she thinks she is a big girl and only holds on with one hand at a time...

My bet is that her first word will be some variation of 'puppy'. She LOVES her Bossman, and I'm pretty sure the feeling is mutual. The orange toy she is playing with is actually his... he brought it to her to play fetch.

And finally, here are some pictures of her with Mike's sister Jennifer, his brother Ben, and Ben's girlfriend Kara.

I'm not quite sure how to explain these pictures. Elise is wearing an outfit that Mike wore at almost 2 years old. Mike and Ben have always given their mom a hard time about these green velvet jumpers, so Ben decided to make Mike a proud father of his green-suited little girl. Elise is obviously happy to be wearing this outfit.

Happy 8 months, sweetheart! Mommy and Daddy love you!

Update

Just in case you were wondering, I decided to go with the Beco in espresso. It comes with black straps, so therefore I think it will look okay with either a brown or black outfit on me, Mike, and Elise. I haven't worn it around yet (except a quick test-drive in the store), but so far the deciding factor on Ergo vs. Beco is the waist strap. It can buckle in the middle for the Beco, which makes it much easier to fasten while holding the baby. It is also more comfortable when wearing the Beco on your back, because the buckle is in the middle and not digging into your hip. I ordered it tonight so it should be here soon!

Look for Elise's 8 month post tomorrow!

What'll it be??

Well, I will post more about this later, but yesterday I decided to return my Ergo carrier in favor of a Beco carrier. Jenni asked me if I had looked at both of them, and therefore I wasted naptime looking at the differences online and then took a quick trip down to Round Rock to compare them in person. I'll write a review of it after I have used it, but I believe it will be much easier to put on by myself. The only problem is that I can't decide which to keep. Out of the two that Baby Earth had in stock, I picked the less girly one. Is it too girly for Mike to carry a boy in? The colors are the same as Elise's room. The other options that they have online are even more girly than this... but I could also choose solid black or brown. The main dilemma is that most of Elise's clothes have brown in them, my regular clothes are probably split between brown and black, and all of my workout clothes are black. I can't win! Help me decide! The picture of the Beco is at the top of the next post.

#11 and #3 and cute

Okay, I have one more thing to add to my list...

11) Kiddopotamus Tiny Diner Placemat

I used this at Olive Garden tonight and it works great!

But, the real reason for this post...

On a side note, Elise got her 3rd tooth today (top right center). Last night she woke up screaming at midnight, stayed up for about 10 minutes (but wasn't hungry and no tooth), and went back to sleep. That was the only indicator that tooth #3 was approaching. She was totally normal all day today, and I might not have noticed her tooth except that she leaned back when we were playing and I saw white on her gums.

Another note for the baby book: She's also been scooting, turning towards me, or trying to climb up me when she wants to be picked up...outstretched arms and all...very sweet.

Get excited... she also pulled up for the video camera.