8 Months

Dear Charlotte,

You're 8 months old today!  You've had a pretty fun month, although it was marked by your first real fever and illness.  Still, you got through that like a champ and moved on to being your normal happy, smiling self.

This month, you've perfected the army crawl and are so close to learning that you could probably go much faster if you just stayed on your hands and knees.  You even crawled to Tandy's bowl and snatched up a handful of catfood before I could stop you.  And you put your hand in Tandy's water dish and splashed about, which I found gross, but you apparently quite enjoyed. 

You are also so close to being able to sit up on your own (you sit there fine if we plop you upright, but you haven't quite figured out how to go from crawling to sitting).  You love peek-a-boo.  Your daddy and I will hide below the crib and pop up and you just laugh and laugh.  You figured out pretty quickly that if you pull down the bumper you can see us.  You're pretty proud of yourself.

You've had a very long stretch of 12 hour plus sleeping, dotted with times where you're up screaming and inconsolable, but those times are rare. And during those 12 hours stretches, more often than not, we actually wake you up.  Daddy and I are very thankful for the extra sleep!

Your daycare lady swears that you wave and say "bye-bye" but I'm calling shenanigans as neither Daddy nor I have witnessed this.  You do open and close your hands in a waving-type motion, but it seems to have nothing to do with waving hello or goodbye.  It's still pretty cute though.  You babble all the time and your favorite string of consonants is "da-da."  Daddy is pretty tickled pink by that.

And oh my gosh!  We finally have signs of a tooth!  I thought it was some white food hanging on your upper gums, but no, it's a little bit of tooth poking out.  I swore when you were four months old that you were already teething (I got my first tooth at barely four months, but your Daddy was a late teether), but I guess not.  Maybe by 9 months, that tooth will have fully erupted.  In the meantime, you're pretty good at using your gums to mash up little pieces of food - you love cheese and bread just like Mommy, and you love hummus!

And here's a picture of you standing up, holding on to the ottoman.  You've been able to do this for three months or so, but only for a few seconds.  Now you love standing up and have figured out how to keep yourself upright if you start to topple over!

We love you a lot!

Love,

Mommy and Daddy