8 months and almost walking!

Our little baby chicken is such big stuff these days. She is standing by herself fairly well now and has even taken two steps by herself (we'll have to get some video of it pretty soon). She still has a little bit too much momentum when she steps forward so she has a little ways to go yet before she starts walking on her own, but I think we'll have a walker by Christmas. It's so surreal to think that we have an 8 month old already. She is growing so fast!

Here are some of the things she has been up to lately.

- She said da-da for the first time yesterday (it wasn't crystal clear, and of course she doesn't know what it means, but I heard it).
- She can stand by herself and walk along furniture now.
- She tries to pull herself up from a sitting position, but she hasn't quite mastered that yet.
- She still doesn't like textured foods. I tried giving her some organic puffs several times and she refuses to open her mouth (go figure, something she actually can put in her mouth and she doesn't want to). I was able to slide one into her mouth at one point and she gave the most disgusted face I've ever seen (it was very comical) -- they dissolve fairly quickly, but she just can't figure it out yet.
- She scooted on her belly for the first time the other day and since then I have seen her get up on all fours in a crawling stance, but she hasn't actually crawled yet and I've only seen her scoot on her belly twice.
- She wants to walk around the house with me holding onto her hands all.day.long!
- She loves playing peek-a-boo with her blankie (there is a video of her playing peek-a-boo with her cousin Makenna below).
- She got her first cold this last week and she has been such a trooper suffering through a stuffy/runny nose.
- She LOVES anything shiny -- whenever she sees anything shiny (car door handles, light fixtures, faucets, knobs, metal strainer, etc.), she has to touch it!
- This is something she has done since day one, but I don't think I've ever mentioned it, she loves getting her finger nails clipped!!!  Can you believe it?!?!  She literally sits as still as can be and lets me hold her hand while I clip her nails.  She watches ever so intently.  I hope this keeps up.  You don't know how grateful I am to have a baby who doesn't fight me when I cut her nails...I would be so worried I'd clip her skin.  Only bad thing is Teirney said that probably means she is a girly girl all the way and will want manicures and pedicures all the time.  Oh well, that's part of being a girl, right? :-)

I'll probably think of more things after I post this, but oh well. 

So this last week, I had to make a very difficult decision.  I decided to take her earrings out. :-(  ::sniff, sniff::  I didn't tell many people, but one of her ears was pierced at an angle, so you could see the back of her earring from the front.  I thought this may change once I could take her studs out and put different earrings in that had smaller backs, but alas, the 6 weeks were up and I tried different earrings, but you could still see the back.  I struggled long and hard with the decision, but I finally came to the conclusion that I didn't want her to have to grow up with one ear that she would constantly have to be careful with what earrings she wore.  And as she gets older, she will probably wear heavier earrings and I didn't want that hole that was lower to cause her grief.  I had a really hard time with the decision and have had some guilt over it.  But in the scheme of life, this is not a big deal.  I much rather fix it now and get them repierced correctly, than have her have to live with it the rest of her life.  I'm just hoping the holes will close quickly.  In the meantime, I know I may be "judged" by some moms who see my baby with holes in her ears and they will probably wonder what kind of mother I am -- piercing my baby's ears, taking them out, only to repierce them again.  Ugh...it pains me to wonder what people think, but I just can't let it bother me.  I know I love my baby and just wish her earring hadn't gone in at an angle the first time. :-(  Okay, moving on.

We are almost done introducing the basic fruits and veggies.  I still have broccoli and cauliflower to do yet.  This last week, I was able to puree a bunch of fruits and veggies to stock our freezer for awhile.  I love making her baby food and am so glad I chose to do so.  The other weekend I had to buy a canned fruit and veggie when we went out of town because I forgot to take her food out of the refrigerator before we left.  She actually didn't like it and I had bought pears and sweet potatoes, which she ordinarily loves.  I'm going to try asparagus this week, which I'm sure she won't like, but maybe I'll try mixing it with something to trick her. :-)  I made a baby stock the other night that you use as a liquid to mix with other veggies, or the baby can drink it alone as well.  You just boil asparagus, leek, and sweet potatoes together for 1 hour.  Strain the veggies and freeze the liquid (I plan on using the liquid in other baby food recipes that I'm going to try).  Then, I pureed the veggies and froze those as well and I'll introduce that to her after I introduce the asparagus this week.  We'll see how it goes.  Below is a picture of the acorn squash I made for Kaydence the other day.

Here is the video I spoke of.