Baby Book

As I'm not keeping the baby book anymore (somehow I always get behind on that record keeping stuff) I'll post now about Maddie's accomplishments. As of three days ago, she has her first teeth. The sharp little edges finally poked through her gums, and she proved it by biting me while nursing the other night.

She's also crawling a bit now. Just a few "steps" at a time, but she's realizing that she can go forward, and not just in a circular motion. Up til now, she's been leaning forward, shifting her butt to the side, then sitting back up again, thereby changing her position. But now, she's actually trying to locomote on her hands and knees.

She turned 8 months old 4 days ago.

She's LOUD. She had the ba-ba-ba sound going quite a while back and she recently figured out the ma-ma-ma sound, which she uses quite effectively to ask for more banana or for Mommy and any number of other things. It eqully means "yummy" and "pick me up" and "Mommy where'd you go?" She attempts to talk with her sister, who enjoys making her laugh. Maddie shows her affection by sucking on your face or hitting you --none too gently, I might add -- on the face and head.

She no longer falls asleep while nursing, but likes to fall asleep in her crib on her pillow. We never used a pillow with Angie until she was in her big girl bed, but Maddie is a back sleeper and seems to be more comfortable and comforted by the presence of a pillow.

She's overcome whatever sleeping issue was keeping us all on edge those few weeks. I spent three nights sleeping in Angie's bed while she slept in mine with her Papi. Angie had a cold and her coughing was waking Maddie just as I got her back to sleep. I made sure not to pick Maddie up when she cried in her sleep, but patted her and soothed her while she was still in bed. I discussed the strategy with Miguel before hand so he wouldn't get upset with me for letting her cry. I think those two nights (the third was a bonus, through which we both mostly slept), broke her habit of consolation. Now, she comes to bed with me around midnight, which is when I'm going to bed anyway, so it's alright.

I think that's about it. I'm looking for non-pureed foods she can eat and enjoy. And I really think it's time to move to a two nap a day schedule, but she still seems really tired after about 2 hours, so maybe not yet. But sometimes it's difficult to get her to sleep after only two hours, too, so I'm not sure.

Ok. End of Update.