Dexter's Diggs: Harper 8 Months

I can't believe this girl is 8 months old already!

Granted I'm just over a week late in finally finishing this and getting it up. #secondchildproblems

Age: Eight Months Old

Weight: 17ish lbs (15lbs 12 ounces at 6 month appt)

Length: Bot sure current length (26 ¼ inches at 6 month appt)

Size: Harper has moved up to size 3 diapers, still wearing a few 6 month clothes but mostly in all 9 month clothes and pajamas.

Hair: Light brown/blonde and filling in nicely

Eyes: She has the most beautiful big blue eyes with long eyelashes. Everyone always compliments her on those gorgeous eyes of hers and she sure knows how to work them already.

Health: Another great month of health!! We have been really lucky so far with this one and hoping it continues.

Teeth: Two teeth still but I am certain she is getting close to her top two coming soon.

Sleeping: Do I dare say it…..Harper has been officially sleeping through the night!! (knock on wood) Dave and I went out of town for just one night the weekend right before she turned 7 months and that Sunday night when we came back she blessed me with sleeping the entire night through. She has continued to sleep through the night since then and has only woke up maybe a handful of times but has been able to easily go back to sleep with just a short backrub and pacifier if she does wake. Now that she doesn’t wake in the night she tend to never sleep past 6:30am on weekends and usually is up between 6-6:30am. She still goes to sleep between 7-7:30pm. Her morning nap is still typically 2.5 hours. Afternoon nap varies from 20 minutes to 1.5 hours, usually always on the shorter side.

Eating: This month new foods we tried out were pasta, eggs, blueberries, peaches, whole wheat toast, shredded cheese, chicken, canned green beans, watermelon, cherries, Stage 2 baby purees, black beans. She seems to like the Stage 2 foods much better than the Stage 1, or maybe she’s just getting accustomed to food and the texture more. So far her favorite foods appear to be Puffs by a long shot, dried yogurt melts, banana chunks, sweet potatoes, cheese, chicken with apples, pasta, watermelon and sucking spaghetti.

Harper is still breastfeeding like a champ. Definitely prefers mom over bottles, won't take one if I try to feed her one which is pretty rare and won't take one from daddy either. She usually eats about 5 times a day, two bottles at daycare. The past few weeks she has been drinking slightly less at daycare, she has come home with an ounce or two still left in one of her bottles.

Movement: She is not full on crawling just yet but she is doing what I call the Worm. On all fours she will take one or two steps then drop to her belly and push in the direction she wants to go then gets back up onto her hands/knees takes 1-2 steps and drops back down to her belly to push off and repeats. A half regular crawl/half army crawl. She gets around pretty well this way and gets to what she wants. She still stays relatively around the area I put her down but usually never in the same spot. She is awesome at holding plank and downward dog!! My little yoga baby :)

Milestones: Sleeping through the night!! Getting up on all fours. Sitting up on her own from tummy. Army crawling. Reaching out to be picked up or held. Doing better and better at self-feeding.I call those all big wins!

Favorite Toys/Activities: Jumping in her Jumperoo. Getting a hold of any of big brothers toys he has within close proximity. Stacker toy. Knocking down blocks or things that are stacked. Bath time and splashing in the pool. Playing peek-a-boo. Being tickled. Fascinated with the bathtub drain. Grabbing hair, necklaces, drinks, anything in front of her or within reach. Putting her toes in her mouth. Likes to touch/feel/grab faces. Still loves diaper changes and being naked. Watching big brother all of the time!

Dislikes: Refuses to take a bottle from daddy and definitely won’t take one from me or if I’m around. Is turning into a mamas girl, in the evenings she is not a fan of mommy putting her down to make dinner or do anything else around the house without her. She is becoming more aware of unfamiliar people and strangers and not too sure about them at first. She also has started showing some separation anxiety.

Words: She does not technically know the sounds she is making are works yet so I don’t count it but she makes sounds similar to dada and hi

Sounds: She squeals and makes high pitched screeching noises, girlfriend knows how to get loud! She makes the sounds with ba-ba, da-da, ga-ga, ma,

Favorite Moments

A few weeks ago my friend Tiffany visited us. We went out to dinner for pizza and then stopped by Whitey’s for ice cream on the way home per Tiffs request. Auntie Tiff sat in the back seat between the two kids’ car seats and on the way home with ice cream little Miss Harper could not stop staring at her ice cream cone and giving her the eyes. Harper even was sticking out her lip pouty the entire car ride home. Tiffany couldn’t take it! She asked us “How do you do this?! How do you not given it to these children!” It was killing her. Even when we got home Harper was sitting in my lap and kept grabbing for mine. Finally I decided to wait to eat mine until she was in bed.
Let's just say Miss Harper has found her voice! A couple weekends ago Uncle Mike came into town because their Aunt June had a 90th birthday celebration. Dave had to work but I took the kids, we then had Mike and Dave's parents over to our house later in the evening for dinner. Well Dave got off work much later than expected so we were short on time as Mike wanted to get on the road before it got too late. We ended up all going to Culver's for dinner. The entire time while at Culver's, Harper seemed to realize she had a voice and was quite fond of hearing it. She talked and yelled, and screeched the ENTIRE time. Employees from the completely other end of the restaurant were looking over at our talk and laughing because she was so loud. I was thankful it was happy talking and yelling versus upset and crying. Girlfriend has some lungs on here. Grandpa Jim even made the comment about wondering what this means for down the road and if it if this a prediction of how loud and talkative she will be.