Catching Up with Alison ~ 7 & 8 Months Old

My last Alison post was after her 6 month well check.  Next well check is next month at 9 months...a couple months to catch up on here!



My home measurements of weight/height at 7 months.



At 8 months Alison wasn't as cooperative as she has been with taking these monthly pictures.  Probably because she thinks she's so big.  She sits in this rocking chair and rocks, like crazy! If I wasn't right there the whole time she would just fly out, seriously.  Since I couldn't get the "perfect" shot I just collaged all the different kinds of shots I got.  Pretty funny!  I especially love the one where she's eating her shoe, something new to explore.

 

We took a little day trip up through Prescott Valley beginning of September.  We did get out and walk around a bit, but at a second spot it started to sprinkle so I opted to stay in the car with Alison while Paul went with the other 2 to check out some people who were hang gliding.  Good thing because it did start to pour for a little bit.  Alison loved looking at it and I rolled down the window so she could feel it too.

 

Alison had her first time swinging at the park.  It was at night, so the pictures didn't turn out too well.  But she loved it!  Since the weather had started moving to warm and not just plain hot we made some more park trips and realized this was the first time I let her down in the sand.

 

 

 

 

During Fall Break we went to the zoo with some friends and it was Alison's first time!  Audrey likes to commemorate events like this by making sure she can stick a #1 finger in the shot.  Later I got one sans finger.

 

Today Alison is 8 months, 2 weeks old and she likes...  

• to sit and play.  She sits like a champ and could play that way for a long time.
• standing up while someone holds her (or she holds on to something, like in this picture).
• eating...I mean LOVES to eat.  She loves all the pureed foods we've given her.  She's working on chunky stuff now.

You can't really tell but she had a big drooly, green bean face here,
but it was still cute all the faces she was making!

• to enjoy baby 'finger foods' like the puffs, little crunchies and classic Cheerios.  Mum mums and graham crackers are two other snack favorites.
• chewing on more things than food.  She has 2 tiny bottom teeth now and she uses them all time.  She got a new sippy cup and within 2 days it had tiny teeth marks all over the top as if she'd had it for months!  It makes this really annoying squeaky sound when she rubs her teeth on the sippy cup top because it's a little rubbery.  Not so nice in the middle of Sunday School!

• to whine when she is out of food or snacks.  The second you get up from feeding her or there are no snacks left on her tray, guaranteed she makes this half crying, half grunting sound.  And does so very loudly.  I have been hoping the sign language would stick with her, but just like Owen, she doesn't seem like a fan of it.
• making noises.  Smacking her lips, clicking her tongue, grunting, screeching, moaning.  Whatever she can discover to do that makes noise, she does it. 
• babbling.  Some of her noises actually have recognizable sounds like the usual...baba, dada, mama and something that I really think sounds like papa.  Now I don't officially call that saying her first word as I don't think she says "mama" and thinks it's me.  But she is definitely working on it.
• sleeping with Papa.  Poor Paul doesn't know I post pictures like this for all to see. 
• riding in the SmarTrike Aubelita got her.  She is still technically a bit small for it, it says from about 10 months, but I supervise and the kids push her around and she is all smiles!

• music!  She moves right along to all kinds of music.  It's kind of funny in church she "dances" the same to the hymns just like any other song.  Here's a video of her while watching general conference in October.  Every time the choir started to sing she would turn and pay attention.

And at 8 months, 2 weeks Alison dislikes...

• rolling over.  Just a few days after posting in her 6 month update that she had only done it once by accident we discovered she really could do it.  However, she just really doesn't seem to like to do it.  She would rather be sitting or standing, anything except laying on her back.  Unless she's sleeping.  Although within the last month she has been waking up on her stomach almost 100% of the time.  So she does roll over at some point.
• baths.  Yes, I thought she liked them again once we got her that blow up duck bath shown in the 6 month post.  But it didn't last long.  She cries once the water goes on and the second I put even a toe in the water.  Once I can distract her with some toys then it's ok, but not for long.  The other two would stay in a bath all day, still would, but not #3.
• strangers.  She gets lots of attention out in public, but she could care less.  She rarely smiles at them anymore.  She usually greets them with a stare down.  Kind of embarrassing.  I always tell her to smile.  She looks and me and will smile, but usually not to the strangers giving her the sweetest compliments.
• being separated from me.  But not for long.  She is just at the stage where she cries if I hand her off to someone and she thinks I'm leaving.  She usually stops not long after I'm gone, but a few times she hasn't and I feel bad for those sweet friends who have offered to watch my sweet girl and then she isn't so sweet. 

 

 

Comparison Pics