8 months

Delaney is 8 months (or was 8 months on December 1) and busier than ever! 

She weighs 17 lbs, 4 oz and is 26.5 inches tall.  She is gaining weight at a slightly slower pace, mainly because she is so active and because it seems that she would rather play than eat.  

Delaney is…

-          Crawling, and FAST! 

-          Busy and adventurous.  Gone are the days when she just needed 4 little tiles of her activity mat.  Delaney is on the move and curious about everything, the more dangerous, the better.  She is constantly doing something- she is never still.  She wanders around the kitchen/den/dining room freely, touching, pulling, putting everything into her mouth. 

-          Has 2 teeth on the bottom. 

-          Pulling to standing and starting to “cruise” (taking steps holding onto furniture)

-          Bobbing her head side to side to music and/or when she’s happy. 

-          Does not yet know her name, but knows Dakota’s.  We ask “Where’s Dakota?” and she looks around until her eyes have settled on Dakota and then smiles. 

-          Loves dogs of all shapes and sizes. 

-          Grunting when she is full and yelling “AAA!” when trying to get our attention. 

-          Showing a preference for me, Brice and my mom, and starting to exhibit some separation anxiety from me.  Especially when she is feeling sensitive (unfamiliar environment, new people, etc.) she wants to be held by me.   Sometimes she does not want to be held by someone else when I’m in the room.  When returning from being away, she gets very excited and crawls quickly over to me.   We are trying to ease her anxiety by always saying goodbye when we leave and then leave, despite cries of protest, but then always greet her when we come back and let her know that we will always come back.   Hopefully she will eventually understand that when we leave, we always come back.  

-          Enjoying solids, green beans, broccoli, cauliflower, squash, eggs and turkey seem to be her favorites.  She does NOT like avocados, bananas, blueberries, pluots, apples unless they are heavily diluted by another vegetable.  We wonder how a child of ours could not like avocado…  The pediatrician gave us the green light to start offering finger foods.   The only things she cannot eat right now are:  dairy, egg whites, honey, nuts.   For the most part, however, Delaney doesn’t really care about eating and would be perfectly happy to play the entire day away and not waste a moment napping or eating.   Some days she eats enthusiastically, other days she can’t be bothered by food at all. 

-          Getting sick a lot.  Unfortunately she has had a cold on and off for most of the last 2 months.  She’s a good sport about it, and hasn’t seemed too affected by it except for a few rough days. 

-          Sleeping less.  She used to sleep for 2 hours in the morning, 2 hours in the afternoon and then a catnap in the evening.  Now she is napping about an hour in the morning, and hour in the afternoon, and because these are both so short, she takes another catnap in the evening around 5pm.   Of course, both the length and times vary each day.  We haven’t been able to get much consistency.  Eventually we hope she will move to just 2 naps, 1 hour in the morning and a longer one in the afternoon.  She doesn’t appear ready to drop that last catnap though if her last nap ends before 3pm.