8 months old and standing...and crawling...and chewing...and lovely

Julia, you are 8 months old and just the apple of our eyes.

You are such a happy little girl, and are already such your own person.

What's life like for you as an 8-month-old?

Well, you chew on just about everything, as your teeth are all trying to pop through all at once:

You've quickly gone from no teeth,

to two teeth...

to now three teeth!

You clap! (and LOVE to clap!)

You stand up wherever, and however, you can. Sometimes you get very creative in how you try to get to standing, too!

And sometimes you try standing during night or nap time. One night you were crying and crying away in your crib and we finally went in and found that you were "stuck" standing up!

And one nap time, your Mom came in and found you sleeping like this:

Was that a "fell asleep standing up and slid down?" Who knows?

You also LOVE your big brother. You play with him, you goof around with him, you LAUGH at his jokes. This is the best.

Oh, and, new as of last Thursday: you're officially crawling...when you want to! No need to roll where you want to go any more.

Oh, and now, since I took too long to write this post, you're trying to walk too! You can do it pretty well with some hand-holding, and you're even starting to use the walker!

You LOVE pulling on hair (whether it's mine or Pops' or our friend Oliver's or your brother's). Nothing will make you squeal quite like pulling someone else's hair!

You are now into FEEDING YOURSELF some finger foods! And you do it pretty well. But the dogs are ever hopeful that you'll toss them some. You're also very vocal too! A trait that really comes out when we sit down to eat.

Your sleep is really day to day...sometimes you sleep well. But now that you're cutting tooth #4, sleep is back to being pretty hard to come by.

You WAVE to your Mommy and Daddy, and light up when we enter a room.

You LOVE the baby in the mirror, and are even more fascinated by other real babies!

You are a cuddler. You are a giggler. You're a busy little girl, with busy little feet and legs. You are fearless (crawling straight for the sprinkler!)

You are a rock star.

You are love. 

You are 8 months old!

Singing Here, There and Everywhere

Aidan,

You've always had such a sweet song in your heart. You've never been shy about singing that song.

But lately, you've really come into your own when it comes to singing.

I remember when we caught you "singing" Let it Be last summer.

Well, you still love to sing "Letter B," and have a much better grasp of rocking out!

In the tub...

Or on the road (it's a bit hard to hear, but listen closely):

But, of course, you have other songs in your repertoire too:

There's Old McDonald:

And Twinkle Twinkle too:

A lead singer, for sure. But it seems like you may be destined for a little lead guitar too!

But, you do really love to drum, play piano and bass too...

Your dancing is superb as well:

Like I said: you have a song in your heart. I hope you continue to sing that song and ROCK ON forever!

You Have Teeth?

One day, out of the blue, Aidan came home from school and asked your Mommy, "You have teeth, Mommy?"

She smiled, laughed and said "Yes! I have teeth. Do you have teeth?"

"I have teeth," Aidan replied, showing them to her, tapping on them. 

This little question proved to be a major philosophical raison d'etre for your brother, as he is still fascinated by teeth- and what creatures have them, and which ones don't- to this day.

"Birds have teeth? No, I guess no. Birds have beak."

"Toby has teeth? Toby has teeth."

"Daddy has teeth."

"Cats has teeth?"

"I have teeth?"

"Julia. She no has teeth."

He learned a lot. Beaks, teeth, gums, and that babies- like you- don't have teeth...yet! But they're growing them.

He's pretty sure that "Julia no has teeth," even though we've been able to really feel them for weeks, and we've all felt your pain of them coming in for even longer. 

But this weekend, your toofers totally sprouted, and are photographable!

Your beautiful smile has only gotten more beautiful!

As you can see, you have two that have cut through on the bottom! They seem to have sprouted flanking a middle tooth that hasn't quite come in yet, but we'll keep you posted.

They're sharp and they must have hurt when they poked through, as the rest of them continue to do. 

But we're here for you, as long as you don't bite us. No, even if you do bite us, we'll be here for you!

Aren't you excited? 

Yes, Julia has teeth!