Eight Months: Abby on the MoveAbigail pretty much began her transition from baby into toddler this month (September).
I don't tend to identify stages of childhood in terms of their expected development so much as how much of a person's identity you can see depending on their age. To me, a person goes from a quiet little lump who doesn't really tell you much about themselves at all to a fully alert and aware individual who interacts with you on an easily understandable level. You can tell babies are thinking but they can't tell you much about it. Toddlers begin to tell you what they're thinking and they also begin to have interests beyond just eating, being walked around and sleeping. This month, Abigail definitely has a lot more interests than she's ever had before. She has always been curious, but her curiosity has expanded to the point that she investigates all the time. She's always looking, touching, tasting and banging things, usually talking to herself the whole time. She makes a lot of pretty complicated sounds and I suspect she's actually saying quite a few words but they're still too garbled to make out most of the time. |
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She definitely says "down" when she wants Grandma Lila to put her down, "all done" when I tell her there's no more food in her bowl, and "hi Dad" to Ben in the morning. She also says "John" very clearly and now comes crawling straight for him when Leah and Benjamin come in. We're not big on "cousins playing", but they do find each other pretty interesting. Along with speaking a few words, she also hums or sings a lot and tries to match pitch, which is surprising to me considering how young she is. If I hum a note to her, she keeps humming different notes back to me until she gets fairly close. Maybe she'll be able to sing in tune as a little kid, which is more than I could do - my parents affectionately labeled me "Alfalfa" because of my terrible singing at three or four.
I'm having to work with her much more earnestly now that she can move - very quickly, these days! - and I spend a lot of time keeping her from eating unedible items (paper is a favorite), playing with the wheels on Grandma Lila's wheelchair and taking things out of cupboards she's not supposed to go into. My family always had the tradition of allowing the babies to play in the cupboard where all the plastic dishes were kept and I've continued that with Abigail; which means our kitchen has the familiar (to me) problem of having tupperware scattered around it most of the time. She does come when called most of the time now and is getting much better at sitting on our laps without constantly twisting around when we tell her that's what she needs to do. She's not 100%, but we keep practicing and she's to the point where she's much easier to take places and do things with because she's doing what we tell her to. Now if she'll only go to sleep when we first lay her down instead of having to be put back down twenty-five times at night, we'll really be doing well!
Because she's moving around so much more, her little knees and shins often have bruises on them now; and at one point this month she fell facefirst on the hardwood floor and got a pretty impressive black eye that took a few weeks to fade to the point where people didn't ask, "What happened to her?!" I actually delayed her eight month pictures because the bruise was so big and dark in photos, so her eight month photos are more like eight-month-and-ten-days photos.
Abigail's joining us for most of our meals now and particularly likes bananas, broccoli, graham crackers and ice cream. She's only had a taste or two of ice cream but cries if I tell her "all done" and show her the empty bowl. She generally has a taste of whatever I have, though I'm still not giving her very rich or spicy things and don't give her a whole lot of dairy. She's had enough tastes of dairy now that I'm pretty sure she's fine with it, but I figure there's no reason to rush her. She has also tasted eggs and nuts (no peanuts yet) without any noticeable problems, so I'm guessing she's pretty free from food allergies at this point. I'm very pleased with that, since it makes feeding her much easier!
Her hair has started to curl now and has gotten much lighter, which means we probably have a little girl with curly blond hair and blue eyes. We'll have to be careful not to let that go to her head. She has also slimmed down quite a bit - no doubt from her constant activity! - and she's growing into her cheeks a little. She still has only the two bottom teeth but her top two are pretty swollen and have been bothering her, so I expect she'll have her top two teeth by the time she's nine months.
Grandma Lila continues to be very fond of her and remembers her probably more than anyone else except Mom Turner. She doesn't remember who Abigail belongs to and generally thinks Abigail is her baby, though she knows that can't quite be true, but having Abigail around often smooths things out with Grandma to an amazing degree. For example, she used to have a really hard time doing physical therapy with the therapist who comes to the house and would be very unhappy about the exercises, but if Abigail's sitting there with her she watches Abigail the whole time and doesn't seem to mind the exercises that much. She often tells Abigail that it's a good thing Abby knows which of "the women" is her mommy because Grandma Lila certainly can't remember. She also thinks Abigail should generally be in bed by 9:00, though Abby herself has proved to be pretty much a night owl and isn't ready to go to bed until at least 10:30 or 11:00 most nights. For a while when I gave Grandma showers I would leave Abigail with Ben and she would cry pitifully most of the time; these days she generally keeps Grandma and me company and puts towels over her head and gets lotion all over her face and plays in the water on the shower floor after Grandma gets out and has other such adventures. I think Grandma enjoys that and I notice her old habit of always remembering sad or disturbing things while taking showers has pretty much vanished.
All in all, we're moving very quickly toward that one year mark and Abigail is rapidly becoming more of a person than a small noisy responsibility. All the signs are that she'll be standing on her own soon and that means she's going to be walking and talking almost before we know it. I've always said I love the newborns, but newborns are really just the potential of the person they will eventually be and it's the person who becomes more enjoyable and more loved the longer they're around. Abigail is following that path just like everyone else and it's kind of amazing to me how this small person who is part of me and Ben becomes a little bit more a familiar part of life every day. Even the sound of her voice is familiar now and it's a unique feeling when your baby is suddenly singing to you and calling for you. Her aunts and uncles are waiting a little impatiently for her to be more interested in doing things with them and I can see the time already coming when she's even going to be away doing things with other people instead of right by me all the time.
I'm having to work with her much more earnestly now that she can move - very quickly, these days! - and I spend a lot of time keeping her from eating unedible items (paper is a favorite), playing with the wheels on Grandma Lila's wheelchair and taking things out of cupboards she's not supposed to go into. My family always had the tradition of allowing the babies to play in the cupboard where all the plastic dishes were kept and I've continued that with Abigail; which means our kitchen has the familiar (to me) problem of having tupperware scattered around it most of the time. She does come when called most of the time now and is getting much better at sitting on our laps without constantly twisting around when we tell her that's what she needs to do. She's not 100%, but we keep practicing and she's to the point where she's much easier to take places and do things with because she's doing what we tell her to. Now if she'll only go to sleep when we first lay her down instead of having to be put back down twenty-five times at night, we'll really be doing well!
Because she's moving around so much more, her little knees and shins often have bruises on them now; and at one point this month she fell facefirst on the hardwood floor and got a pretty impressive black eye that took a few weeks to fade to the point where people didn't ask, "What happened to her?!" I actually delayed her eight month pictures because the bruise was so big and dark in photos, so her eight month photos are more like eight-month-and-ten-days photos.
Abigail's joining us for most of our meals now and particularly likes bananas, broccoli, graham crackers and ice cream. She's only had a taste or two of ice cream but cries if I tell her "all done" and show her the empty bowl. She generally has a taste of whatever I have, though I'm still not giving her very rich or spicy things and don't give her a whole lot of dairy. She's had enough tastes of dairy now that I'm pretty sure she's fine with it, but I figure there's no reason to rush her. She has also tasted eggs and nuts (no peanuts yet) without any noticeable problems, so I'm guessing she's pretty free from food allergies at this point. I'm very pleased with that, since it makes feeding her much easier!
Her hair has started to curl now and has gotten much lighter, which means we probably have a little girl with curly blond hair and blue eyes. We'll have to be careful not to let that go to her head. She has also slimmed down quite a bit - no doubt from her constant activity! - and she's growing into her cheeks a little. She still has only the two bottom teeth but her top two are pretty swollen and have been bothering her, so I expect she'll have her top two teeth by the time she's nine months.
Grandma Lila continues to be very fond of her and remembers her probably more than anyone else except Mom Turner. She doesn't remember who Abigail belongs to and generally thinks Abigail is her baby, though she knows that can't quite be true, but having Abigail around often smooths things out with Grandma to an amazing degree. For example, she used to have a really hard time doing physical therapy with the therapist who comes to the house and would be very unhappy about the exercises, but if Abigail's sitting there with her she watches Abigail the whole time and doesn't seem to mind the exercises that much. She often tells Abigail that it's a good thing Abby knows which of "the women" is her mommy because Grandma Lila certainly can't remember. She also thinks Abigail should generally be in bed by 9:00, though Abby herself has proved to be pretty much a night owl and isn't ready to go to bed until at least 10:30 or 11:00 most nights. For a while when I gave Grandma showers I would leave Abigail with Ben and she would cry pitifully most of the time; these days she generally keeps Grandma and me company and puts towels over her head and gets lotion all over her face and plays in the water on the shower floor after Grandma gets out and has other such adventures. I think Grandma enjoys that and I notice her old habit of always remembering sad or disturbing things while taking showers has pretty much vanished.
All in all, we're moving very quickly toward that one year mark and Abigail is rapidly becoming more of a person than a small noisy responsibility. All the signs are that she'll be standing on her own soon and that means she's going to be walking and talking almost before we know it. I've always said I love the newborns, but newborns are really just the potential of the person they will eventually be and it's the person who becomes more enjoyable and more loved the longer they're around. Abigail is following that path just like everyone else and it's kind of amazing to me how this small person who is part of me and Ben becomes a little bit more a familiar part of life every day. Even the sound of her voice is familiar now and it's a unique feeling when your baby is suddenly singing to you and calling for you. Her aunts and uncles are waiting a little impatiently for her to be more interested in doing things with them and I can see the time already coming when she's even going to be away doing things with other people instead of right by me all the time.