brette: eight months

growth:

ronnie weighed her the other day

and our scale said 18lbs.

not sure on her length,

i guess we  need to bust out our tape measure.

her next doctor appointment isn't for another month

so we'll have to go off our numbers.

she wears size 3 diapers and

is in 6-9 month clothing.

so far she still only has her two bottom teeth

but i think she's working on her next one

because she's starting drooling again.

we had a screening done and she is on target in her development.

she was tested on her
personal/social, fine motor, language, gross motor and problem solving skills.
b was perfection and on target in all areas, but

she got her lowest scores in her gross motor skills,

which is no surprise.

gross motor skills are:

 sitting without support, crawling, scooting, standing, beginning to walk.

so far, she can only sit without support.

we've been working hard over here to have her stand up

which means more time in her jumperoo and excersaucer.

i can already tell a difference,

but since she hates being on her tummy,
its hard to get her to even think about crawling. 

i'm interested to see how she decides to start moving around.

 

sleeps:

brette is back to sleeping through the night just like always.
i think her teething last month has run its course.
the one thing i can complain about is that
every night i put her down around 7:30 and
every night she wakes up about 15 minutes later
and i have to put her back down.
talk about annoying.
i'm really excited for next week
because we're going to start something new
and i hope that it takes care of this little issue.
(more on that under the eats topic)
she is still taking two naps a day.
one is long and the other is short.
sometimes her morning nap is 2 hours
and her afternoon nap is 45 minutes.
then other days, she reverses it and
her longer nap is in the afternoon.
she is definitely not consistent,
which makes it hard on me to plan out our days.
i never know when she'll be asleep.
but as long as she's napping,
i won't complain.
 

  

eats:

watching brette eat is so much fun.
she feeds herself so well
and it makes mealtime an adventure.
she has already moved past baby food
so i stopped making it.
she is able to pick up and eat almost anything with her fingers,
so that's the majority of what we do.
we can cut up veggies and fruit and she goes to town.
her favorite right now?  black beans.
she goes crazy for black beans.
i haven't given her meat, diary or berries yet,
but i think we decided to start meat this month
and start diary and berries when she's nine months old.
i give her food two to three times a day (depending on her naps),
nurse her four times a day
and give her a bottle once a day.
we've started weaning her,
 so starting monday she will be ready to add another bottle
and give up another time with me nursing.
we are going to try to replace her 7:00pm feeding
and have ronnie put her down.
(when i went out with my girlfriends he did a trial run of this and she past out so fast and never woke back up.  hopefully this takes care of her little wake period that i'm experiencing now.)

talks:
i added a new little segment here
talking.
brette is quite the talker
and i'm pretty sure i'm going to be making lists
of the words she is trying to say.
she is always yelling and making noises.
her favorite thing to say right now?
dadadadada
i'm pretty sure she's calling out her favorite parent.
what. the. hell.
new project:
mamamamama

 

plays:

one thing that was suggested by the lady that did her screening
was to not give brette toys.
instead, lay them around her and make her squirm and drag herself
to them to help her gross motor skills.
brette is not a fan of this,
but its what we've started to do.
i used to she sit her down and give her a toy and let her play.
now she is constantly a little frustrated at  t r y i n g  to get to her toys
but not quite making it.

i've also started putting small toys inside bowls
so that she has to work at getting them out.
she's really good at it,
so now i'm working at getting her to put the toy back in the bowl.
we haven't quite mastered that yet.
her favorite toys right now are bath toys.
she plays with them all time
and they are always in her mouth.

 

firsts:

she fed herself with her fingers.
she can stand and put all her weight on her legs.
she had her first dentist appointment.
she had her first month pacifier-free.


time is flying
and miss brette annaleigh is exceeding
all our expectations.

 

and for the first time...

all of brette's outtakes

and what i think she's saying.

 

you will be punished.

 i know, i'm shocked too.

do you smell something?

that outfit is not cute, mom.