11.8.15 - Clara at 8 months

My l'il miss is just over 8 months old now. Recently she's been pulling herself up onto everything she can, often shortly followed by her looking across the room at me and grinning proudly. At first she would get stuck in the upright position and start crying, but now she's getting better at slowly letting herself back down.

Now that she can crawl around she keeps herself busy for longer periods of time. She and I spend the majority of her time in the kitchen/living room area and it's pretty well Clara-proofed so I can get other stuff done (chores, work on the laptop) while just checking on her every couple minutes. She usually starts in the middle of the living room with stacking rings or her blocks and then crawls all around examining the bookshelf, the wicker basket with her second tier toys, the farm magnets on the fridge, and the little mirror on the floor resting against the wall.

Messing up the shoe racks.

Sometimes she'll fuss even though she's not hungry or tired, and it turns out she just wans my direct attention. I often pick her upa nd cuddle her, but other times I'll just lay on the floor near her and let her crawl over to me, smiling, Then she'll use me to lift herself up and she'll have her little hands on my stomach or chest while she stares at me and smiles and giggles. She'll put her little hands all over my face, which I think is her way of being as close to me as possible.

She's also trying to learn to kiss. I'll make puckering noises and slowly get close to her and then kiss her cheeks or lips, and more and more often as I get near her she'll open her mouth really wide and push it against my face, haha. She doesn't get it yet but she is trying.

She's added "ma" sounds to her "ba ba ba ba ba" babbling. You can tell they don't mean anything yet, but it's cute. I notice she does more "ma" and "na" sounds when she is complaining about something. I wonder if that trend will stick. :-P

When I put her on the changing table I very often sing to her, which usually pleasantly distracts her. Even though I'm sure I know a lot of songs, the same half dozen or so always pop into my head. "If I Only Had a Brain," "All Kinds of Kinds," "The Way You Look Tonight," "Walking After Midnight," and "You are My Sunshine" are some of the most common ones. A lot of times, especially if she's a little tired or fussy, as soon as I pull her onesie over her belly I gasp dramatically, and she looks at me and starts smiling or laughing, and I say "Look! At that! BELLY!!!" and then give her a whole bunch of belly kisses while she laughs. I usually repeat that three times, switching to zerberts the last time. It almost always makes her smile or laugh (unless she's *really* fussy).

We Skype with people probably 3-4 times a week, so the sounds of Skype calling or of us calling someone else on Skype are familiar to her and usually she starts grinning hugely and staring at the screen in anticipation. She seems happiest when the person on the other end is Mom, although she also likes Skyping with other people.

She also almost always seems so happy to see Jack come home from work. If I'm holding her when he gets here she'll start leaning toward him for him to take her. It's very sweet. A nice welcome for him.

I'm already feeling nostalgic and bittersweet about how big she's getting and how fast. I'm trying to soak up the baby cuddle moments as fast as possible, because I'm sure it won't be long before cuddling becomes much rarer. I love her so much, it's crazy.