8 Month Pictures

Yesterday morning we took Taylor to Meadowbrook to do her 8 month pictures.  Overall I have to say it was pretty unsuccessful.  First, it was horribly humid (even though it was only 8 in the morning) so we were all uncomfortable.  Second, Taylor was a lot more interested in the grass, dirt, leaves, plants, basically everything but the camera.  And since she is still in the middle of teething, any time we did get her to look at the camera, her hands were in her mouth.  After her nap, I set up a "studio" in our living room since we have such good light coming in and I was able to take some more inside.  Even though I took around 140 pictures of her, I only ended up keeping just over 30.  It's not that those were the only good ones- I just figured we didn't need tons of pictures of her eating her hands (and yet somehow we still ended up with a lot like that). 
All of the pictures can be viewed on my picasa album (http://picasaweb.google.com/joannal.willis/Taylor#) but here are a few of my favorites.

8 Months

Today Taylor is 8 months old.  Her "unofficial" weight and height of 15 pounds and 26 inches might be more appropriate for a 5 month old however.  I keep waiting for some big growth spurt and it still has yet to happen.  But she's gained almost 2 pounds in 2 months which is pretty much what her growth has been all along so at least she's consistent.  I worry that perhaps she isn't eating enough but she's been eating very close to the amount per day recommended by formula companies, plus she eats solids twice a day.

Our girl has 4 teeth and is working on 2 more.  She has her 2 bottom central incisors, and  her two top lateral incisors (the teeth next to your center teeth).  Her left top central incisor is sooo close to coming in- we can see it through the gum; it just hasn't popped through yet.  I think the right one will still be a while.  I have to say that these 2 teeth seem to be the most painful so far.  Walker and I will be very glad when both of them are finally through.

Developmentally, Taylor is doing great!  She can now transition from laying down to sitting (and back again) by herself quite easily.  She also is great at getting around doing the "army" crawl.  In fact, she's pretty fast at that.  Taylor has started to push herself onto all fours a rock back and forth so I expect crawling will come soon.  And she can pull herself up.  Unfortunately for her, she's too short to reach anything in her house to pull up on (ha! this is fortunate for us!) so she has to practice on our hands.  And no, Walker and I do not help her pull up. 

I think Taylor's cognitive development is right on track as well.  She knows her name and will turn to look at you when you say it.  She also will stop when you say "no!" but then she goes right back to what she was doing so we need to work on that.  And she lifts her arms in the air when she wants to be picked up.

Language wise, she still does a lot of babbling.  Lots of syllables with /b/, /k/, /g/, /d/, and /m/.  I'm pretty sure she understands what "milk" means when we sign it.  She has made the sign a few times but it's not always in context so I'm not sure she really knows when to use it.  I'm not really concerned about that since the Baby Signs program says most kids don't start signing until closer to 12 months.
Of course we did 8 month pictures today but I will post those in a different post. 

Bath Time Fun

One of the benefits of a baby getting older (and bigger) is that bath time becomes a lot more fun!  Now that Taylor can sit up on her own, we no longer have to use the infant tub.  We have graduated to the blow-up duck!  Taylor loves to sit in her duck and splash the water, chew on her water toys, and now peek at herself in the drain cover.  She has also discovered that the duck is great to use for pushing herself onto her feet.  Unfortunately, she has not discovered that standing up in the bathtub when you're not that good at balancing is not a bright idea.  Taylor seems to be immune to bumping her head against the side of the bathtub as that has not deterred her yet.  Now if we could just get her to clean the tub when she's done....

More Teeth!!

Today Taylor offically cut her 4th tooth.  I noticed about 2 weeks ago that her upper gums were swollen but I didn't think anything of it because I thought it was too early for any teeth on the side (which is where they were swollen).  Then last week, I looked in her mouth and saw that the left lateral incisor (the tooth next to your center teeth) had cut through!  And today the other lateral incisor was through.  I have to admit she looks a little silly- kinda like my first graders who have just lost their middle teeth!  This could explain why she had a runny nose for so long.  It is funny how doctors give us guidelines for how babies develop, but they truly do their own thing.  Most babies don't get their lateral incisors until they are at least 9 months old and usually get their central incisors before any lateral ones come in.  I guess Taylor just wanted to do it her way.  Perhaps this is a sign of things to come....oh boy!

And trying to pull up on objects is Taylor's new favorite game.  The problem is, she's so short that she can't reach many things to pull up on (I'm actually kind of relieved about this).  So many times we will just hold our hands out and let her use those. 

I feel like I could update every week on all the new things Taylor is doing!  Hmmm maybe I should actually do that!

And in sad news, we are no longer "4 Beauties and a Geek."  Sadly, we had to put our dog Missy down.  When we got an injury checked out in May, the vet found she had a bad tumor in her leg.  She was able to hobble around okay but she started losing weight (and obviously as a greyhound, she didn't have that much to lose!) so we knew it was just a matter of time.  We didn't want her to suffer anymore.  She was a good old dog and we know she's enjoying doggie heaven.  I don't think we'll be getting another dog anytime soon.  We have our hands full with Taylor right now, but maybe in a few years we'll be ready for another dog.