8 months

Oh, what to say about this little girl full of personality. Sometimes I try and describe her personality and I feel like words do not do her justice. I am constantly amazed when I watch Olivia in motion. I see her thinking and processing and make calculated movements, and it's absolutely awesome.

Hours old and after her first bath.

I'm blown away by how quickly Olivia has developed and grown in these past 8 months. She is crawling very quickly and able to get anywhere she wants to go. Olivia is pulling up on objects with ease. Her balance is getting better each and every day, and a couple of times she has even taken a few steps while holding on to the wall or furniture.

While we saw Olivia progress from rolling to sitting to crawling to standing all so very quickly, in about a 4-6 week time span, she has become more cautious lately.  Thank goodness! I was so worried about her lack of caution. I would hover over her protecting her pretty little face from getting bumped and bruised. Olivia now works hard to steady herself while gripping whatever she is holding herself up on and seems to somewhat understand the concept of falling. Babies are so smart.

Olivia's very first car seat experience.

Olivia currently has a very strong dislike towards the car seat.  She hates being placed in the car seat and will fight it like crazy.  So much so that she has earned the nickname of Emily Rose in our household when it comes time to put her in the car seat.  It doesn't take her long to settle down, but the act of getting her buckled in can be pretty darn dramatic. 

 My sad, pathetic attempt of trying to get a nakey baby picture under our little tree.  (3 weeks old.)

Olivia is communicating with us more and more. "Da-da" was a favorite of hers, and in the past month she has finally started to babble "ma-ma" and "ba-ba." She also makes a funny sound back at you when you tell her "boo!" Olivia claps, she waves, and she nods when we say, "yes, yes, yes"! She understands who Thor is, and the minute we get home she squeals with delight at the sight of him. She also whips her head and body around to be able to see him wherever he is at in the house when we say, "Where's Thor?" He's a wonderful big brother to her.

Olivia is still only kind of sort of eating solids. Some meals are better than others. Overall, she just is not a very big eater, whether it is at the breast, bottle or spoon. I've slightly given up worrying about it so long as she is drinking enough milk throughout the school day, and nursing well for me at home.

Yesterday, I took a picture of Olivia during lunch and sent it to Dave. It was just a cute picture of Olivia being busy at play. Dave wrote back, "Nice picture. I seriously cannot wait till she starts talking." And believe it or not that was enough to make me cry! While her growing and becoming the most precious little girl is amazing, it also makes me teary-eyed. I know babies grow up, and I know there isn't anything I can do to slow down this process, but I am certainly working VERY hard to remember each little thing along the way.