Eight Months

Dear Zoey,

Pause. Pause, pause, pause! You are growing up so quickly, Love! You seem to think you're one of the big kids now and don't have any patience anymore for this whole babyhood thing that Mommy cherishes so much. I adore you, little bug! 

Eating: Exhibit A of your lack of patience with babyhood: You refuse to be spoon fed. REFUSE. Will not even open your mouth. Any pureed or mashed up food of any kind has absolutely no chance and ultimately just ends up being thrown away. I finally gave up and decided to give you table food. The same types of foods you'd been eating before... just in a completely solid form and not mashed up. I figured if you could eat the lasagna, brownies, and chips Lauren has been feeding you, eating small baby bites of a whole fruit or vegetable should be okay. And now... you love bananas! And avocados! You just wanted the whole banana, not the smashed stuff I'd been feeding you. 

Learning and Growing: For about a month now you've been army crawling all over the house! You got faster and more sure of yourself every day, and now just in the last few days you're up on your hands and knees! You can pull yourself to a stand using just about anything, and will take several steps while holding onto my hands. I think if we worked with you more on it, you'd be walking within the next couple weeks. I haven't pushed you to walk though. You will when you want to :)

 I love you, Zoey! I love watching you grow and learn new things! And I love when you decide you want to be a baby again, and fall asleep cuddling in my arms.

Love you always,
Mama 

9 Months

Dear Zoey,

Learning: This past month has been crazy in terms of how fast you are learning and changing. The month started with you crawling all over the place, and has ended with you practically walking. I say practically because you haven't realized you can do it yet. You'll walk (or even run, silly girl!) anywhere as long as you're holding on to someones hand with just one of your hands. And I've seen you take as much as two steps in a row! At that point you just stopped and then crouched down and continued on your way crawling. As though you realized crawling was so much faster right now and you didn't want to waste your time, lol. You're not just walking though, baby, you're CLIMBING things. You love to climb onto Lauren's bed and you think its especially funny if you can manage to climb onto the couch. You're so mischievous and have an adorable sense of humor. I think your giggle may just be one of my favorite things in the whole world. 

Your Favorites: The last few weeks you've discovered a new love: DANCING. You love it when I hold you and dance around, but you especially love to dance on your own. You'll bounce to the music or wave your arms and clap your hands. And of course your great love is still Teddy. It's more than just your eyes that light up when you see him- you get this huge smile and you stretch your arms out and give him the sweetest baby kisses and hugs- as though just his being there to play with you has made your whole day. 

TALKING: I love your words! You say Dada, Mama, and bye-bye! You love to wave at Daddy or I when we leave for work. And you've started signing too! You sign "all done" about 10 seconds after I put you into your high chair because you hate being contained in anything, lol. 

Teething: You have two adorable little teeth on the bottom! It was a long and painful process getting those two in, little bug, but you did it! YAY!! 

Eating: Once those teeth came in you became interested in eating again! Your favorites are scrambled eggs, spaghetti, peas, and green beans. And you're still completed uninterested in anything that has to be fed to you with a spoon. 

Sleeping: It's kind of amazing that you have the kind of energy you do with how little you sleep! You don't nap unless Lauren does- which is really hit or miss these days. And at night you wake up, well.... a lot. You're a very light sleeper and if Daddy so much as takes a deep breath or I roll over, you're up. Sorry, baby. 

I love you so much, Zoey! 

Love, Mama