8 is Great!

Nora's 8 months old today!  She continues to get happier and more independent with every week that passes.  This month she is getting more vocal and more mobile.  Though she doesn't talk, she babbles, squeals, and laughs pretty frequently.  She still hasn't gotten too close to figuring out crawling, but she gets around by doing barrel rolls across the room and pushing herself backwards while she's on her belly.  She's also very excitable and determined now, so she is prone to banging and motioning her hands around in an attempt to express her wants.  She doesn't pull herself up to stand independently yet, but if you give her your hands, she can pull herself up from a sitting position and lower herself back down, and she periodically moves her feet like she wants to take some steps.  She is finally starting to let the other people she recognizes hold her without immediately demanding to be given back to me.  I've started taking her to Gymboree to play on their equipment and spend some time with other babies, and I can tell she really enjoys it even though she's always the most serious baby there.  She is so busy taking everything in and watching all the different people that she only periodically stops and remembers to smile when she likes something.  At mealtimes, she's getting really good at getting pieces of food into her mouth and is beginning to improve from a mashing mouth motion to a chewing one.  Speaking of chewing, her four top teeth are easy to see beneath her gums, so we think they're coming through soon, but thankfully they don't seem to be causing her too much discomfort so far.  She's taking great naps, sleeping well at night, and able to stay awake and content for longer and longer periods of time during the day.

Her determination, curiosity, and developing body control meant she wasn't interested in sitting still for very long during today's photo shoot.  After cooperating for a few pictures that show how big she is getting in her little seat, she began trying to sit up in it, paused for a moment to peel off her sticker and throw it on the ground, and then pull herself forward into a sitting crouch position.  Once she got herself upright she was very pleased with herself and started rocking herself back and forth.  See what I mean?

Taking her to Gymboree makes me realize that she's still a pretty itty bitty little thing, and she still fits comfortably in her 6 month clothes, but I'm in no hurry for her to grow up too quickly.  : )  What her classmates have on her in size, she more than makes up for with hair-- hers is growing thicker and longer all the time.  Today during "socialization" time she rolled up to each of the three (bald) babies and they kept patting her head and playing with her hair.  She just stared at each one curiously and then rolled back the other direction.

My favorite change within the past month or so is that she's usually awake and fairly happy from the time Billy gets home from work up until her bedtime.  This means the three of us get to hang out together for a few hours every day and Billy gets to observe more of her developments than he did when she was regularly cranky in the late afternoon.