Lightly Dappled: 8 Months of Hazel

Hazel my dear,

How can another month have possibly gone by already?! It just can't be so!

It was a huge month for you! You're hitting the milestones one right after the other.

You are now 18.4 lbs and 28 inches long. You are still wearing most of the same clothes you were last month.

We've added green beans, turkey, peas, apples, and prunes to your food rotation. You liked your peas right away, but all the rest you were/are pretty hesitant about. We were shocked that you don't like apples!! We got some store bought baby food to try it out for our upcoming Thanksgiving trip and the apples are one of the flavors, and you just hate them. We'll have to make you some homemade honey crisp apples and see if you like those better.

The biggest milestone this month is your mobility!! You started army crawling early in the month and now you can make it a little way up on all fours! We are now on high alert because you like going for all the dangerous stuff, like cords and the outlet covers. You also like to try to eat whatever is on the ground. You can spot a tiny piece of leaf from across the room and you will go after it and try to chew it up. You have started trying to crawl into other rooms than the one we are in to explore. You are becoming so independent, but at the same time, you can now crawl over to me and let me know that you want to be held. It's incredibly sweet.

You are also proficient using your walker to go wherever you want to go and you love the fact that you can pull things off of the coffee table. One day when you were supposed to be napping, I heard you fussing, walked in your nursery and found you STANDING in the crib by yourself!

You love it when we tickle your belly by giving you lots of raspberries. You only like snuggling occasionally, but I absolutely love it when you press your forehead to mine and just chill.

This month you started the Shrimp Swim class at the YMCA, and you have been enjoying the warm pool. Even when you get dunked you don't cry because you really like the water!

We try to surround you with your many toys, and you like to play with them. Sometimes. But most of the time, it seems, that you are going for the items mentioned above. You do like to bang things together, use your pincer grasp to pick at things, and chew on pretty much everything.

And speaking of chewing, your first top tooth started poking through, and then a week or so later 3 or 4 more started coming through. The top teeth have been beating you up the last two days, and you have been pretty grouchy, but you've been doing your best to sleep it off.

Last night, we were convinced it was going to be a rough night, and then we woke up to morning light. We LOVE it when that happens, but it doesn't happen very often as you are still mostly waking up once a night.

What is parenting if it isn't an excuse to talk about poop...

Last night, we were getting you ready for a bath and your dad took your diaper off. You were wearing a cloth diaper and had gone poop. With cloth diapers we have to empty them into the toilet, and since you've started solids your poop has been pretty solid too so it's pretty easy to do. I had you in the tub, and your dad called out to me, "I think I lost her poop!" He had picked up the diaper to come empty it, but it was already empty! He found it, of course, but I made fun of him of course.

Then today, the EXACT same thing happened to me. I changed you and set you down to play, then went to take care of your dirty diaper but when I got to the bathroom to empty it, once again, there was no poop!! I had to go back and find it on the changing table. Oy, you and your run away poop!

There is so much going on in your head at all times. You can tell you are absorbing and learning the world around you, while developing your own likes and dislikes. Time is speeding up even more as we watch you develop by the day, hour, minute. We love encouraging you to push the boundaries of what you can do in order to learn new things, but at the same each new milestone makes me a little sad. Remember it's okay to slow down, little girl, and take your time. You are only little once.

Much love,
Momma