While we were in Texas, Ally celebrated 8 months. In the last month she has just taken off- literally! She is now crawling full speed ahead in all directions and is trying as hard as she can to pull herself up onto her feet. She also has one tooth and a second is coming through this week. She is so busy and is getting difficult to keep up with, you can't leave her alone for a second or she is into something else. Her current favorites are crawling under the kitchen table, emptying her toy basket, emptying Ella's toy basket and turning on the playstation. She also loves going for walks and playing on the swings at the park next to our apartment.
As Ally gets more independent, feeding her has actually become sort of a challenge because she wants to do it herself. She loves finger foods like bread and cheerios so she gets frustrated with being fed off a spoon. She doesn't really like putting soft/mushy foods like bananas in her mouth herself yet so we have the be patient and mix some of the things she can feed herself in with her pureed foods off a spoon. We are going to start expanding her menu to include more proteins and more small pieces of soft fruits and veggies to help her feed herself. She is still working on the sippy cup and its pretty slow going. Although she can hold her own bottle she prefers not to and its the same with the cup.
Sleeping is still about the same and we have a pretty solid routine. She fights naps a little sometimes but she is consistently sleeping 10 hours a night (9:30pm to about 7:30am) and takes a short nap in the morning and a little longer one in the afternoon if I'm lucky. She definitely has those days though where she refuses to nap other than a half hour around 11am and those are tough because she gets crazy by dinner time.
The best thing about Allyson is her smile and her funny little laugh. She thinks just about everything is funny so she can be entertained fairly easy. She moves quickly from one toy to the next but she really likes standing on your lap and doing hand motions to the Itsy Bitsy Spider and Wheels on the Bus. We can get her laughing hard when we look away from her and then look back quickly and say boo or push her away in the stroller and sneak up on her. She jumps a little but laughs like crazy. We have been going to the YMCA a few days a week and next week she starts swimming lessons there. We have found a new pediatrician for her in town and her first visit with him will be at 9 months. She seems to have slowed down in terms of growth so we will see. Here are some pictures from this month to enjoy:
Wednesday was our first baby and me swimming class at the YMCA. Ally had not napped all day so of course she fell asleep in the car on the way there. She wasn't too happy to be so rudely awaken when we got there but once we got by the pool she was happy. There was a lot to look at including fish on the wall, a lifeguard and lots of other kids. The pool is only three feet deep and they keep it very warm so she had no trouble getting in at all. We splashed and sang songs and it was over before we knew it (its only 30 minutes). She is the youngest in the class but there are two other that are 9 and 10 months and then 5 kids that are between 1 and 2 years old. Ally enjoyed floating around and looking at things, she didn't enjoy rinsing off in the shower when we were done or starving on the car ride home. Better preparation needed on the eating schedule for next time but overall I think this is going to be good. She certainly was the cutest and most fashionable baby there!
