8 Months!

(You may have noticed Kiera's obsession with standing up constantly by the 8 month photos!)

Sad that this blog has come to be only monthly updates!  I hope I can change that soon and start making fun posts with videos, talk about our favorite things, and even some non-Kiera centered topics now and then!  One day...

But for now... Kiera is 8 months old!  The changes and strides she has made in the last 2 weeks have been AMAZING!  Here is what she has been up to...

- She has learned to get into a sitting position on her own from her tummy or back, and from there quickly learned to pull herself up to standing.  I had NO idea how big this milestone was!  For three nights after she learned to sit and then stand up in her crib, she woke up screaming in the middle of the night... for a long time... We looked in the video monitor and she would be sitting or standing in her crib, half asleep and very upset.  The first night I was convinced she was sick as this was NOT Kiera-like behavior and I actually let her get up for the day at 5:30am.  Not fun for momma.  But after doing some reading and close Kiera watching, I discovered she was just trying to master her new skill!  Thankfully it only took her three days and she is back to normal Kiera, sleeping all night without a peep!  Phew!  However, now whenever we put her in the crib to sleep she stands up and explores for quite awhile before settling to sleep.  She has also learned to open the shutters near her crib to look outside.  : )  She has started the beginning stages of crawling and can somewhat get where she wants to go (to retrieve a toy, etc) between crawling one "step", rolling over, lunging forward, etc, but she much prefers to stand up and get a little assistance to walk where she wants to go.  She is obsessed with standing up!  Anytime she is anywhere near me she grabs for my hands to use to pull herself up.  She loves to get her balance and then let go and see how long she can stand there alone (only about 10 seconds or so right now).  She also LOVES her little music table!

- She is really enjoying Peekaboo and knows where to look for you and tries to lift the blanket or peer around the corner to find you. 

- She is getting much more attached to me.  She has been a little fussy with light crying in the mornings when I try to leave or hand her over to the nanny or grandma Barb.  I have to work hard to distract her with toys so that she forgets that I have handed her over.  Makes me feel sad (but I guess a little good at the same time)!

- She has learned to kiss!!  It is the cutest.thing.EVER!  When you say kiss or make the kissy face/noise near her she opens her mouth and presses it up against yours.  Slobbery, but simply adorable! 

- She is loud!  She loves, loves to talk and yell.  Mama and baba are the most frequent phrases and she makes the cutest excited breathing noise when you get out her favorite books.  She also loves books and turning the pages!  Her current favorite is The Twelve Dogs of Christmas (I know Christmas is over but she still loves this one).  She is working on bye-bye and uh-oh and has her own version... buh buh and uh without the oh for now.  : )  We are working on Dada, but she just replies with Mama for now!

- We love love love coming home to Kiera at the end of the work day.  She greets us with a giant smile, squealing and kicking her legs.  It warms our hearts!

- She is so interested in whatever we are eating and she enjoys trying anything we will let her sink her teeth into!  She is still having her 4 milk feedings/day with a lunch of fruit/oatmeal and a dinner of veggies/rice (2 oz oatmeal/rice and 1/2 container of fruit/veggies), but loves to snack on bananas, pears, bread, and Gerber puffs.  She still loves to chew on apple slices in the mesh feeder and loves it when we let her take her own small bites from the bananas and pears.  She has also become quite proficient with her pincer grasp and likes to pick up small pieces of food with her thumb and index finger and feed herself.  For awhile she would pick them up and then forget they were in her hand before she could get them into her mouth, but now she's got it down.  We are pondering adding another meal and decreasing the amount of milk in her bottles from 6 oz, but may wait to talk with the doctor at her 9 month visit before making any major changes.  The nanny noted that Kiera wasn't always finishing her 6 oz bottle at the 11am-ish feeding after her fruit/oatmeal, so we just decreased her 11am bottle (the one with her morning meal) to 5oz when I am at work.  She also likes her sippy cup and drinks water, although probably only an ounce-ish each day.  She has been using this cup for a couple months but now drinks out of it more frequently and is learning to pick it up and hold it on her own.

- She also loves to practice her pincer grasp with any little tiny, dirty things that grace the floor or her rug!  Yuck!  We have to vacuum frequently.

- She is down to two naps a day, one around 9am and the other around 2pm, both generally 1.5 hours.  She is sleeping ~8pm-7am at night, sometimes 8am on the weekends when we aren't up making noise getting ready for work in the morning.  Yay!

- She really understands certain signs (we do sign language with her for certain things) and words!  When you say/sign milk, she pumps her little legs and gets very excited, and if you don't provide it quickly from that point she may get mad!  She also knows the sign/word eat, which we do before her solid meals.  She also knows up and if you reach your hands out she lifts her arms or grabs them to pull herself up.  She seems to understand other words like momma, daddy, baby (for her baby doll), bye bye.

- She is still wearing a size 3 diaper and 6-12 month clothes.  Growing so fast though and I don't think they're going to make it to 12 months.

- She loves mirrors!  We have a lot of them around here and she gets so excited when she sees herself and her momma in the mirror!  She makes her adorable excited breathing noises and scrunches up your nose!

- She went to her first Rose Bowl!  Ridiculous, but she actually needed her own ticket!  She is a lucky little girl with a Badger Rose Bowl (too bad it wasn't the Hawkeyes!) and an upcoming Packer superbowl appearance (that she will not be attending!) in her first year of life!  She was an angel at the game.  She just hung out and eventually laid her head on my shoulder and took a nap towards the end... what a sweetheart.