Eloise at 8 months

Eloise's eighth month has been a big one! She got her second tooth and started a true crawl!

Before she could crawl in the traditional sense (she was rolling all around before that) she had learned how to get in and out of sitting position. I was very impressed by this! She also sits up VERY straight.

She loves bath time! She splashes in the water and has a curious-excited look on her face. This is a surprise to us, since Rosalie is anti-bath. Rosalie does not like the association it has with bedtime nor does she like water on her face. (I get it- I was the same way.)

Eloise loves to stand. She can pull herself up, too! She wants to be running with her sister, but crawling will have to do for now.

She is a fan of crawling into "coves," such as under kitchen chairs or under our kitchen desk. She gets stuck under the kitchen chairs, so I'm waiting for her to figure out that is not where she wants to be. Come to think of it, she does get my attention and held after she gets stuck, so maybe that is exactly what she wants!

She much prefers sharing our bed than sleeping in her own. If I could only have the same preference! Yes, it is sweet and all, but I do not sleep effectively. I wake up every few minutes to make sure she hasn't been squashed and that she's breathing. By morning, my whole body is kinked up from sleeping in unnatural positions to make room for her.

She still doesn't take long naps during the day, but we're working on that.

We've been very, very slowly introducing solids through a technique called Baby Led Solids (or Baby Led Weaning). So far she has enjoyed mango, peach, avocado, banana, sweet potato, and carrot. And she has sucked on green beans, but didn't actually chew on them. We provide them to her in strips, like fries, and she picks them up, holds them in her fist, and gnaws on the end. With BLS, there is no puréed food, so that makes life simpler. She did have a stomach bug a few weeks ago, just after having banana, so she has not liked banana since. Her diet is still 99% breastmilk.

She puts everything in her mouth. Everything. She'll crawl under the table to get to the strap in Rosalie's booster chair, and then she'll suck on it like an utter.

She startles very easily. If she is concentrating hard on a toy (or strap mentioned in previous paragraph) and you say her name, she'll jump a little bit. Her little gym teacher noticed that she flinches each time we clap. LOL. She also shivers randomly. She did that in utero too. Some theories are that she does it when she pees, but I haven't been able to confirm that hypothesis.

She has a great, chill demeanor and everyone always recognizes her sweet smile.

We are SO BLESSED!