8 months...and time to catch up...

Surprise, we're all still here! :) Apparently, we forgot that part of having a blog was actually keeping it updated, so it's time to get caught up on the past few months. Every week, and sometimes every day, brings something new. Within the past two weeks she has started to "army crawl", and has gotten quite good at it now. Very soon our house will be transformed with gates and corner guards since the days are soon to be long gone where we can turn our backs even for a second.
So here we are at 8 months. She loves to stand...with a little support of course...but then again who doesn't like a little support when standing? She is starting to wave and clap, and above all else loves eating her mum-mums and cheese puffs. We have considered dropping baby formula and baby food and going to an exclusive mum-mum/cheese puff diet. Speaking of those, she is using her fingers to feed herself now, which can be quite a scene at times when the cheese puff gets caught on her hand and she ends up with four fingers and a cheese puff in her mouth. To finish off, she washes it down with water from her sippy cup, which she's gotten quite fond of and has learned to hold and drink from without much help at all now. She's also quite the talker...if we only knew what she was saying. Among the words we would like to believe she is saying are "da-da" and "hey!". But that could be us projecting :) The two things in this world she hates more than anything at this point are 1). Car rides longer than 20 minutes (if we're lucky) and 2.) Having her hair rinsed when taking a bath. Hopefully those two dislikes go away soon, as they can both present quite a challenge...especially the car rides.
For her first Memorial Day weekend, we headed down to see Nana and Grandaddy. The car ride wasn't fun, but the time spent there was. I had been waiting to show her the sheep, but she's not quite interested in them just yet, although she will be soon I'm sure. We waited too long to get pictures of her at home in the Blue Bonnets, so we settled for wild flowers instead, and it ended up being a nice substitute we think.
She had fun sitting in Grandaddy's lap on the front porch (especially fascinated by his watch), as well as playing with Nana and mommy. But unfortunately she wasn't in the best of moods on this trip since she was a little stuffy/congested, along with the fact that her naps continue to be a challenge. But all in all she had fun and I know Nana and Grandaddy did as well.
In June we took her to see the tigers, lions, and other big cats at the local big cat sanctuary (http://www.insyncexotics.com/). After $20 and walking around in a ridiculously sweltering heat for half an hour or so, we realized that she was far more interested in the orange wrist band they had given me than any big cat, regardless of how close that big cat may be ( a few feet). So with that in mind, we called it a day. But we did get to see a tiger eating ice cream...so that's gotta count for something. So it will be a little while before we make the first trip to the zoo I think.
She also got her first swimming pool, which she has quite a time in. She splashes almost the entire time...not caring a bit if it gets in her face. Which of course makes perfect sense considering she hates it in her face in the bath tub. Go figure! Maybe we should bathe her in the pool.
For her first 4th of July weekend, Nana and Papa flew in from South Carolina. Nana had seen her in March, but this was Papa's first visit since she was two weeks old, so needless to say she had changed quite a bit since then. The reintroduction to Papa wasn't one for the story books though...as she stared for a few seconds...and then bawled big tears. Unfortunately, the timing of this trip happened to be at a phase where she is not at all crazy about anyone (including me, at times) holding her other than mommy, so there was a lot of fussiness. But it ended up being a great stay for them, and Papa finally got to do what he'd been talking about doing for many months...which was getting in the floor to play with her. After a couple of days she was really warming up, but by that time it was almost time for them to leave. We think she picked up the "Hey!" during their stay, so we'll give them credit for that one. :)
(3 generations)

So that's it for now. For those who have been keeping up and waiting...and waiting for an update, forgive us for being a little slack. I mean, it's not like we have a baby to occupy all our time or anything. ;) We will definitely keep things a bit more updated going forward. So stay tuned...

Oh, one last thing before we go...Riley would like to say a few things.