Eight Months Already

A week ago, Moriah turned eight months; and like I always do at such milestones, I asked, "Already??"

Following hard on the heels of that thought came this one: "Haven't we ALWAYS had her?  I've forgotten what life was like without her!"  :)

Nearly a month ago, I shared some of my concerns about Moriah's (lack of) growth, specifically the way she was not gaining weight the way I expected her to.  I am very happy to report that since then, however, she has gained weight; and when I weighed her a week ago, she was about 14.5 pounds, up from the 13 pounds, 11 ounces that she had been just a couple of weeks earlier.  So Jeff and my dad were right: there was no cause for concern.  I'm so glad I didn't worry (much).  ;-)

Besides moving forward in the area of weight, Moriah also seems to be advancing quickly in lots of areas.  For example, I do believe she'll have a very short baby-food period, since already she is more likely to prefer real, regular food than baby food.  She is so good at feeding herself finger foods, and she continues to eat lots of Cheerios, as well as little pieces of bananas, string cheese, green beans, yogurt puffs, etc.  I got out the little hand grinder to make some homemade baby food for her, using bananas, green beans, etc.; but she didn't really care for that texture.  It appears that she would rather have a piece of banana or green bean, rather than a mashed version of it.  Not too many days ago, I gave her some black beans, and she gobbled those up as fast as she could.  She takes after her daddy.  ;-)

Most surprisingly to me this past month, Moriah got pretty close to crawling.  Now I realize that to most people, the thought of an eight-month-old crawling is not exactly shocking; but to me it is.  Why?  Because all of my other kids have been significantly behind the average in terms of large motor skills (although they have all caught up and are just fine now).  Here's a quick run-down:  Josiah crawled at 16 months and walked at 18 months, David crawled at 10 months (I thought he was a genius!) and walked at 18 months, Tobin preferred scooting rather than crawling and walked at 19 months, Shav was a scooter, too, and didn't walk until 20 months.  So to have an eight-month-old crawler is not what I expected at all!  To be clear, she's not really crawling yet; but she is getting up on hands and feet (like she's doing a push-up), sometimes getting her knees pulled up under her like in a crawling position, and sometimes managing to slide a little bit (although so far, it's been backwards...oh, the agony of trying to learn how to crawl towards something; but no matter how hard you try, you end up moving further and further away from it!).  :)  A couple days ago, Jeff had Moriah on our bed, and either Tobin or Shav was there, too.  Jeff told me later that Moriah actually did kind of crawl a little bit on the bed.  It looks like she'll be the champion among our children as far as early mobility!  ;-)  I'm really not too surprised, however, because out of all my children, Moriah is the one who has most loved being on her tummy.  With some of the others, it was quite a challenge to even get them to have a few minutes of tummy time because they just DID NOT LIKE it.  It's pretty tough to learn to crawl without spending time on your tummy.  :)

Interestingly, she has not yet gotten into a sitting position from a laying-down position; and when I put her into a sitting position, she only stays upright a little bit before eventually slouching over to one side or another.    She's kind of a rag doll.  :)

I've been periodically checking in Moriah's mouth because I thought she might have a tooth that was pretty close to coming through; but so far, nothing.  I find teeth incredibly difficult to predict when they'll pop through because I remember many times, with my older children, that I would even feel a bump in their gums and would think that surely a tooth was on the verge of emerging, but then it would be weeks until it came through.  So with Moriah, I really have no clue when she'll get her first tooth.  :)

Earlier this month, I think Moriah had a little cold.  She sneezed and had a runny nose and just seemed a little off; but it--whatever it was--passed quickly and fairly easily, and I'm thankful for that.  I know it's so normal for kids to pick up little bugs every now and then and be sick for a few days, and I know that their immune systems are strengthened by these exposures; but it's still never easy to have a child not feel well.

Moriah babbles sometimes, and I love to listen to her.  The consonant "b" seems to be a favorite of hers.  :)

For her outfit for this month's pictures, I chose a soft, light green outfit, partly because I was thinking of Christmas and didn't want something overtly Christmas-y but did want something green.  I didn't realize just how light the color would appear in these pictures though.  I still admire the dainty details of her clothing: the bows and scallops and embroidery, etc.  Such fun!  :)

Moriah continues to enjoy watching the other members of the family, especially her big brothers.  Often during afternoon quiet times, I put her in the stand-up farm toy/activity center and push it to the doorway of one of the boys' bedrooms so she can watch whoever happens to be playing in that room.  She is usually very content for quite a while like that.

Recently Jeff said to me, "I was thinking that maybe we should get a rug for the living room floor so it would be softer for Moriah."  Like many men, Jeff doesn't gush with verbal expressions of love for his children like I do (don't get me wrong: Jeff definitely does tell his children that he loves them; I'm not implying that those words never cross his lips...but he's not quite as expressive in that way as I am).  ;-)  But I thought it was so sweet to see how he was thinking about Moriah and wanting to provide for her and take care of her, even to the point of wanting to protect her sweet little knees as she learns to crawl.  What a great daddy!  :)

This last picture is my new favorite picture of Moriah.

My favorite picture of my favorite daughter.  ;-)

Eight months looks good on you, sweetheart!  :)