Eight Months

The spoon was to distract her from pulling off her sticker

Clearly this month has whizzed by since I'm late getting to this post.  My baby is turning more into a toddler by the day.  She is so interactive and very social.  One of the things I hear regularly is how well she does with anybody holding her.  While she looks like her daddy, she is still clearly her momma's daughter!

Memorable Moments:

-The biggest milestone this month was crawling.  She started crawling one day after she turned 7 months.  I had been saying she'd crawl by 7 months, but she waited one more day just to prove me wrong.  She's an ornery thing at times.  Again... her mother's daughter.  She is now EVERYWHERE and into EVERYTHING!

Following me into the laundry room- she is now my shadow

-Pulling up.  She has just started doing this in the past week.  There aren't many things a proper height for her to use, so she really just does it on her crib and people's legs.

She's supposed to be napping...

Pulling up and dancing with Daddy

-Lowering the crib- due to the pulling up...

-Increased joint attention.  Most people don't pay attention to these details, but the SLP in me recognizes these actions to be HUGE in her language development!  She is sharing toys with us by holding them out to us, looking at us to respond, and then pulling them back.  Early turn-taking skills!  She is starting to follow a distal point when we point to something away from us. She's a genius!

-Speaking of her genius, she recognizes so many words right now!  She shows understanding of her name, Mommy, Daddy, Lilly, eat (paired with the sign), night-night (paired with sign), ... that might be it... She took a hiatus last month on her verbal output.  I think she was focusing on her motor development.  So we are still at the same point we were- lots of vowels, /b/, and /m/.  But she does watch my mouth intently and try to imitate the shapes it makes when I talk.

-Slimming down.  I see pictures of her from birth and she looks so different now!  She's slimmed down quite a bit and elongated.  *sigh* She's beautiful!!

-TEETH!!  Samantha spent a good chunk of this month in pain and making sure I knew about it.  She FINALLY popped her first two teeth the week of Thanksgiving.  I'm hoping she won't hurt as much with the rest of the teeth : (

-Her first Thanksgiving.  That was an adventure to say the least!  It should have been an easy and fun time with his family in Houston.  But that's not how the Ponders do things... Josh diagnosed with strep throat about 18 hours before we were scheduled to leave.  Well, that didn't happen!  But despite the reshuffling that had to be done, Samantha still got plenty of loving from her daddy's side of the family.

Cute turkey outfit

w/ Great Mop

w/ Great Pop

w/ Great Aunt Judy

attempt at a family picture - Samantha wanted nothing to do with it

We got to stop and see the cousins on our way home.

-Beginning some self-feeding by introducing her to puffs.

-Taking a bath in the big tub.  She kept trying to climb out of the little tub at the sink.  That didn't seem safe...  She also has discovered splashing.

-COLD weather.  The poor thing just doesn't know how to deal with this Texas weather.  Not that I can blame her.  But each time it gets cold, she gets a mini cold for a few days.  Unfortunately, the past few months, it changes every week between 30 degree weather and 80 degree weather.  Thus, she has a cold every week!  It is also messing up our morning walks.  While most people gripe that it doesn't feel like the holidays when it's 70 degrees out, I fully support it!  But cold weather does mean Samantha wears hats, and, seriously, how cute is she in a hat???

-Her new favorite things: cups (especially a yellow Tupperware cup), straws, dishes, a string to her bumpers in her crib (she rubs them between her fingers when she's falling asleep and sucks her thumb on the other hand), phones and computers, Lilly's rawhide sticks (Lilly doesn't appreciate this one), people's toes or shoes, and all the most RANDOM items.  aka- things that aren't actually meant to be toys for her.

Her favorite toy.  This yellow cup goes everywhere with us! This was on our morning walk.

Milestones:
Weight- 16 lbs 8 oz
Height- ??
Diapers- size 2
Clothing- 6 months and some 9 months

And something to end on: