Dearest Elliana Bell-
You are now 8 months old. It's hard to believe that time has passed so quickly. You are a very busy little girl these days and growing so very quickly. You are a beloved child, despite momma's blogging record--just look at her instagram feed or facebook posts. Your life is being documented in other ways too :). At 8 months you weigh about 16lbs--so you are still a little nugget.
At 7 months we discovered your first tooth was coming in. It didn't seem to bother you much and then suddenly you starting cutting a second tooth on the bottom. At 8 months we discovered you had a top tooth coming in. I can't imagine your wide mouthed, toothless grin now with teeth. I am sure it will be just as beautiful as before. Your sweet open mouth smile is one of my favorite things about you, especially when I haven't seen you in a while. When I come home from work or daddy brings you to eat, you greet me with the biggest smile and arm flapping. You give the same greeting to your brother and sister every morning as well. Your hair continues to grow and every once in a while (and Gigi would swear) that we see a little red in it. Wouldn't that be fun if you were a little red head like papa ER.
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| This smile says it all |
You continue to love momma's milk and nurse 4-5 times during the day and you continue to not take a bottle (although you might now if we tried), but you also have developed an affinity for other foods. During your 7th month of life you discovered a love of baby food pouches and starting sucking those down like a champ. You also love mum-mums and puffs because that means you can be ms. independent and feed yourself. At 8 months, we have started giving you the food we are eating cut into small pieces. Just last night you ate potatoes, carrots, and sweet potatoes and loved them all. You picked them up like a champ and kept stuffing them in your mouth. Guess you liked dinner:) Pretty much if you can pick it up and put it in your mouth you will--good for food, bad for legos and hair clips and all sort of other little things we have floating around our house. You are a human vacuum sadly. Just last month you put a bug in your mouth at Barnes and Noble while momma wasn't looking--sorry about that. Your sweet siblings were distracting me.
Speaking of Barnes and Noble, you love books. You love to sit in our lap (well wiggle around in our lap) while we read stories. It's one of the few times you are sort of still. You are a girl on the move. you are a speed crawler, particularly if you we call your name. When those words "Elli Bell" come out of our mouths, you acknowledge us, and then quickly crawl in the other direction. Most often you are crawling into one of your siblings' rooms to play with their toys or vacuum up any small bits and bobbles that they might have left on the floor--including paper, legos, balls, etc. You have also discovered the dogs water bowl--and boy do you love it. Nothing better than splashing around in slobbered filled water huh. Your new favorite place to play is the pantry. It's full of all sorts of fun things to get into to. Fortunately, it is enough to keep you distracted while I am cooking dinner or packing lunches or cleaning up. I imagine that you will be walking soon, as you are pulling up and cruising around the furniture like a big girl. On occasion, you will let go and stand on your own for a bit. Your sister walked at 10 months which I thought was really early, but you may beat her record.
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| you like to be really close to me...including when i am in the bathtub. |
At 7.5 months you gave me my first interrupted night of sleep--it was amazing, but only a one time thing. You have been doing better sleeping though, waking only once a night for a little snack and then going right back to sleep (although the last two nights, you have gone back to 2-3 times a night). We are trying to be more consistent about putting you down for naps in your bed (yes the one in our closet) so that you get used to sleeping in there more. It seems to be working better for you. You are ready for bed at 7:30pm almost every night and are very vocal about that. You generally sleep till about 7am. You still take 2-3 naps a day (one in the morning, one after lunch, and if you can, one around 5:30pm).
On September 11 you were also dedicated at church. In was a beautiful
celebration of God's love for you and his love for us as your family.
Mimi, Gigi, Clayton, and many of your friends and family came to
celebrate this special day with us. Together our church family committed
to raising you with God's guidance. Then that afternoon, we got to
celebrate your brother and sister's birthdays. It was a grand
celebration all around.
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| Sweet sisters in their baby dedication dress. |
In the past few months you have tried a few new things...You enjoyed your first swim in the water slide out back. We put it up for brother and sisters' birthdays and you had a blast. You had your first swing in the baby swing out back--also a big hit.
You are a true joy. Full of so much life. We are blessed by your presence in our lives.
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| Checking out bubba's halloween mask. It didn't scare you. |
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| my sweet smiley girl |
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| a little morning cuddle--just the girls |
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| beautiful girl, so photogenic. |
