The Eoff's: 8 months!

I know I am a little late with this update but I have been pretty busy lately and was traveling for work last week when Alayna turned 8 months old.

On Tuesday, November 9th, Alayna turned 8 months old. She is growing up so quickly and becoming less and less of a baby every day and turning into the beginnings of a toddler...which in all honesty scares the crap out of me and makes me sad at the same time. I loved having a little baby, who loved to just snuggle in my arms and was content laying on her tummy playing with a few toys every now and then. It makes me sad to see that phase of Alayna's life gone already. It also scares me that she is becoming this mobile, mischievous little toddler.

The past month has seen again so many new things in Alayna's life. She is now clapping all the time, most of the time not really knowing why but she likes to do and loves when you clap with her. She also loves to "dance" to her toys that make music. She will sit and rock back and forth and clap when the music is played and loves when I sing or dance along with her. Alayna is also starting to wave bye-bye. She doesn't do it all the time and definitely won't do it on demand but every once in awhile she will wave bye to us when we drop her off at daycare in the morning or wave bye to her teachers when we pick her up in the afternoon.

Alayna has also tried many new foods this month. She has had pears, plums, bananas, chicken, squash and peaches. I make most of her baby food, but for some of the things that are hard to make or hard to find, we buy the jars. I will tell you, I am shocked by the fact that my baby girl doesn't like most fruits. She did not like the plums or peaches. She ate the pears at the beginning and then stopped, though she does like bananas. She loved the squash and she absolutely HATED the chicken. But, I couldn't blame her on that one. The jarred pureed chicken looked and smelled like tuna. It was pretty gross. Derek and I are at a loss as to what to feed our little girl, we decided to try to feed her jar fruit because maybe she just doesn't like mommy's homemade fruit. That seemed to work with the pears. We decided to maybe step it up and start with Stage 2 fruits that combine some of her favorites with others she doesn't like to mask them a bit. That worked pretty well, she really liked mixed berries with bananas. We'll see how it goes with some of the others. She is now eating at least two solids a day with fruit for breakfast around 9am at daycare and a veggie for lunch. We try to feed her a veggie for dinner too, but sometimes she just doesn't want to eat so we don't force it. Her main source of nutrition is still suppose to be formula anyway.

Alayna is finally holding her own bottle when she eats (well most of the time). She has been able to for about 2 months now but as soon as it started to fall and I grabbed it she would just let me hold it and wanted to use her hands to grab at my face, her hair, the dog, really anything but hold her bottle. Now, we will put her on her boppy pillow and give her her bottle and she will feed herself, which is really nice when I want to finish getting ready in the morning or need to empty the dishwasher. I still like to sit with her or feed her sometimes though because there won't be much more time to have that bonding.

We also had to lower the mattress level on Alayna's crib this past month. My little monkey has started to pull herself to standing on everything, including her crib rails. I went up to get her from a nap one day and there she was standing there waiting for me. She could have easily crawled (or fell) right out, so Derek went in and lowered it as far as it would go. It makes laying her down harder since you have to reach over the rail pretty far down to get to the mattress, but I would rather do that than hear a thud from her falling out of her crib.

Alayna also has 7 teeth already. She now has her 4 top front teeth and then 3 front bottom teeth. I think the 4th might also be coming in on the bottom because she is constantly knawing on her fingers, books, toys, anything she puts in her mouth.

This past month was also a lot of fun with the other firsts we had. Earlier in the month we went with some of our friends to a Petting zoo in Grand Prairie. Each fall this farm brings in different animals and sets up a petting zoo in a park. Alayna saw chickens, turkeys, pigs, horses, cows and many other animals. She also went on her first hay ride, though she slept through it.

This past month we also celebrated Alayna's first Halloween. My parents flew in to spend this first with us. It was a lot of fun. On Saturday, we took Alayna to a pumpkin farm in Flower Mound. She got her pictures taken with many cut out cartoon characters, in the pumpkin patch and she and I rode a train around the farm. It was a lot of fun and was a beautiful day to spend outside. On Halloween, Alayna had a bad cold but thankfully felt better later in the day so we went by our friends' the Kanak's house. We had a good time eating, playing with the kids and when it was dark out all the kids got into their costumes and we went trick or treating around the neighborhood. Alayna didn't go door to door but she sure had a good time in her lamb costume watching all the kids run around and seeing all the decorations. She finally tired out and we headed home to get her to bed.

I am so excited for the upcoming months to watch Alayna grow and learn even more, but also watch her experience the holiday season. Next update will be after Thanksgiving and then after that it will be her first Christmas. I can tell already she is going to be one spoiled girl on Christmas morning.

Here are some pictures from the last month: