An 8 Month Love Affair

Our baby girl is 8 months old now and I must say that I am totally smitten by her. Like I have said before, it was love at first sight and my love for her seems to grow stronger each day. She is easy to love so much. She still smiles most of the day, and not just a little smile, a BIG wide open, eyes squinting smile that makes you feel so special.

At 8 months old her skin is still very fair, her eyes are blue and her hair is a light, strawberry blond. We don't know where she gets her "red" hair. I remember my grandmother saying that my dad had red hair when he was born, but I've never known him to have red hair, so I'm sure that Ellen's hair will not really be red when she grows up. For now, however, she is a beautiful little red head.


Ellen's appetite is great some days and then other days she isn't interested in solid food. She likes the finger foods that we put on her tray the best - puffs, strawberries, bananas, peas, carrots and 1/4 of a bagel. As for mommy's milk, she gets most of what she consumes at night. The only time that I can really get her to nurse during the day is before a nap. And if she does nurse at a non-sleeping time, she has to straddle my belly and nurse sitting up because that is the position that she's in when I wear her, which is often. She is usually way too busy, however. She is different from her brother in this way. If I had to call it now I'd guess that she won't nurse much longer than a year, but we'll see.

She is still a long, thin little bird. She usually wears 6-12 month clothing, but can also fit into some 3 month and 6 month clothing. Everyone comments that she is long. She has tons of shoes (thanks to maddie!), but doesn't wear them yet since she's not walking. They do look very cute on her when we dress her up though.

She is on the move and into everything. She loves to crawl up the entire flight of stairs and then reward herself by pulling out all of the mulch from the plant at the top of the stairs. She also loves to play in the Tupperware cabinet, climb onto the dishwasher, and pull things out of the fridge... you get the idea.

So, now for an update on her sleeping patterns. I thought for sure that we were given a good sleeper this time around to "reward" us for the 3 years of no sleep that we struggled through with Lucas, but I spoke too soon. I am thankful that she was a good sleeper at first, because Lucas was still waking up at night when she first arrived. So actually we were given the gift of more sleep, just not too much of it (sigh). My theory is that she stopped sleeping when she started moving. She would sleep for 12 hours until she learned to roll over, and now that she can stand up I swear she pops up as soon as a sleep cycle is over. Sometimes when she "calls" for us she is sleep standing and we just have to lay her back down, insert her pacifier, and cuddle her up with her bunny. We've actually started swaddling her again this past week (not her arms), and this seems to be helping. She can still stand up, but it requires more effort and maybe the swaddle reminds her that it's time to sleep. When I nurse he to sleep around 8pm I expect to see her again at approximately midnight, 2am, 4am and 7am (on a good night). She is very easy to get back to sleep and rarely cries, so our midnight rendezvous are not that painful.

Ellen still seems to be open to strangers. She usually studies their face and then gives them a huge smile. Lately, however, she's developed a little bit of separation anxiety, or we could call it "separation from mommy anxiety". Totally age appropriate. When SaSa was in town we experimented by having me hand Ellen to her or to Jeff at night (she only has it at night when she's tired), and she would get a concerned look on her face as she reached for me and cried. I'm flattered. And if anyone else tries to console her when she wakes up, forget about it. The baby that never cries gets totally ticked. We are sure that Lucas taught her this tactic!

Ellen still thinks that Lucas is the cat's meow, although she has learned to express her opinion when he picks her up or takes a toy away from her. She also is infatuated with Tyson, so we have to keep an eye on her since he can be a big grouch. And finally, she is growing more attached to her bunny. When we put her in the crib she dives for it and cuddles into it.

Jeff and I are still amazed by this little girl's contentedness. We comment on it every day. She rarely cries, and if she does she is easily calmed. This weekend we went to the pool for three hours and I wore her in a sling. She napped for an hour and then just quietly looked around for the rest of the time. She's getting to be harder at dinner because she grabs for everything, but this is to be expected. She'll also sit happily in the high chair as long as she has food and toys to keep her occupied.

We can't believe she is 8 months already. We're enjoying her so much and know that we have a lot to look forward to!