Brianna is 8 Months Old!

I had finally gotten used to saying "7 months" when people would ask me how old Brianna is, and now she's 8 months already! What is our girl up to these days?

First, here is Brianna's monthy photo with Baby Kelly:

"Hey Momma, look! Baby Kelly has hands just like me!"
One word that definitely describes Miss Brianna these days is curious! She wants to touch everything, taste everything, and study everything with her eyes. I have an increasing number of photos where Brianna is looking at anything but the camera. She loves to whip her head around and crane her neck to take in all of her surroundings.

Sleep is still a challenge some nights, well, most nights actually. She generally falls asleep very easily, but will still wake several times during the night. Most of the time, I will just sit her up in her crib and she will burp then fall back to sleep. Sometimes, I can just pat her back and give her the pacifier and she will go right back to sleep. We do have a few nights here and there where I don't have to sooth her back to sleep at all, but most nights I get up with her at least once.

She isn't very attached to the pacifier. In fact, the only time she really takes it is when she is going to sleep. Once she is asleep, she will spit or pull it out. We find her in her crib like this a lot:

Brianna is still wearing size 6 to 9 months clothing and size 3 diaper. She has outgrown all of her size 2 shoes, so we are breaking in the size 3s.

She is still mimicking things we do all the time. She says "Dada" and said "Mama" one night last week several times when she was crying in her crib and I was refusing to go in there. She will also try to repeat after us, and sometimes it sounds very close to actual words. She loves to clap for herself when she knows that she has done something good (like after she's finished her bottle or food). She also claps when she sees someone she likes or if we give her a toy she's dropped, etc. I love her little clapping! She waves bye-bye, but has only done it in context about 3 times.

Brianna is standing and pulling up on things a lot now. When I first started standing her at things, she would get very excited and let go, then fall. Now, she remembers (mostly) that she has to hang on!

She is brave sometimes, and only hangs on with one hand!

She is pretty proud of herself when she stands at things. She loves it!

As far as meals go, B takes 4 bottles a day, eats oatmeal cereal in the mornings, rice cereal before bed, and usually two jars of baby food sometime in between. She loves veggies and isn't too crazy about fruits, but she will eat any baby food that I had tried to feed her so far. This includes prunes, spinach and potatoes, peas, green beans, corn and squash, sweet potatoes, mixed veggies, carrots, pears, apples, bananas, blueberries, plums, and peaches. She also eats yogurt melts (loves them), puffs, and wagon wheels. We feed her some "table" food, but we limit it to a bite here and there of whatever we are eating, especially since she still does not have teeth. She isn't always a great eater, but she usually does okay. She gets distracted very easily.

Brianna is not crawling in the tradional sense, but she does get around. She scoots, pulls herself, rolls, wiggles, and rocks to get to anywhere she wants to go. I suspect she will start crawling very soon.

We love watching her little personality develop more and more each day. She is so fun to play with, laugh with, and grow with. We love you, Baby B!