Daph Stats: Month 8

Dear Daphne,

On Sunday someone asked me how old you were and I promptly replied that you were going to be eight months old "in a couple of weeks."  Then yesterday I looked at the calendar and realize you turned eight months the very day I told them you still had a couple of weeks!  It shocked me to realize how fast this first year of your life is speeding past us and how much you have grown in just one month.

Although you still despise being on your belly, this month you learned how to roll from your back to your belly and back again.  You can paddle quickly around in a circle when I move something just far enough out of reach to one side, as well as scoot yourself back a few inches at a time which makes you so frustrated as you get farther away from the intended object in front of you.  *UPDATE!* I drafted this paragraph yesterday morning and in that short time you have now begun lunging forward and rocking on your tip toes!  You are days away from crawling and Daddy and I couldn't be more excited!  Good work baby girl!

I forgot to document in your letter last month that you have your two bottom teeth came in at the end of December (at about 6 and 1/2 months).  They came without too much fussiness on your part and add such a charm to your wide-mouth, gummy smile.  You continue to eat everything we put in front of you and sometimes I strip you down to nothing but a diaper before tubby time and let you eat mandarin oranges or gnaw on apple slices or carrots.  It's so fun to watch you improve your fine motor skills as you pick up the small bits of food and navigate them into your mouth.

(Look at those pearly whites!)

You are so funny with the fake laughs that you'll bust out from time to time as well as your lip buzzing, squealing and dadada-ing.  We are pretty good at knowing what you want from your sounds and by our routine, but we are working on some new avenues of communicating through baby sign language.  After about a month of signing "more", "eat", "drink", "all done", "please" and "thank-you" I was delighted to see you purposefully putting your fingers together to sign "more" a few days ago.  I just have to be more consistent using the signs so you can learn what they mean.  My absolute favorite new trick you have been doing for just a few days now is where you scrunch up your lips, wrinkle your nose and squint your eyes while blowing air out your nose in rapid succession.  You did it all during church on Sunday and had us holding back giggles.

Lately the letter "D" seems to stand for "Daphne, Daddy's little darling."  Every day when Daddy comes home for lunch, you grace him with a giant grin.  You know he will squeeze and tease and kiss and hug until you collapse in giggles.  When he pulls out his guitar at night, you stare intently, bobbing up and down or reaching out to strum the strings.

Each night you go to bed so peacefully.  You are so used to our routine, that instead of crying yourself to sleep, you now reach for your giraffe blanket, shove a little ear in your mouth and are asleep in minutes.  The only disruption is when you roll too far over and wake yourself up by ending up on your stomach.  We check on you a dozen times before we finally turn the lights off ourselves and often laugh and sigh over our angel baby before drifting off to dreamland.  I'm always happy to see you in the morning and slightly sad to put you down at night.  It is such a joy to spend my days with you and I can say without a doubt that I have the best job in the world - being your mother.  Grow on little one.

Love you forever and always,

Your Mama

(Out for our daily stroll - this time with Daddy at sunset)