Norah: 8 Months

The other day we were at the store and I was wearing Norah in the Ergo baby carrier. A lady stopped to smile at her and asked me how old she was. She must have questioned whether Norah was truly my daughter, because I blanked. For the life of me I couldn't remember how old she was! The lady laughed as it finally came to me, "She's almost 8 months!" and I made the excuse, "You know, the second child..." and she said, "Oh, I know," with a smile. Ha ha!

A week and a day ago, Norah turned 8 months old! :) Things are much different the second time around, especially with a completely different baby than the first! Time has flown by much faster than when we only had Charlie, but I guess life has been particularly crazy lately with selling our house and preparing to move. Thankfully, Norah is a pretty easy going baby! Here are this month's developments:

* Norah loves to "sing" or vocalize (happily) until she runs out of breath. It gets pretty loud during car rides lately!
* Overall, she continues to be incredibly happy, and can't keep from smiling when you smile at her.
* She loves to laugh, especially at her big brother!
* She started crawling a few weeks ago! With her arms straight, and using one knee and her tip-toes slightly, she pushes off and then falls to her tummy, gets up and does it again as it propels her forward :)
* Now that she's crawling, she loves to find crumbs and other tiny debris to shove in her mouth. This might be my least favorite part of this baby stage- constantly fishing gross things out of baby's mouth.
* She is still working on getting her upper front teeth and is drooling/chomping on anything in sight.
* Norah started "baby led weaning" which is just a fancy name for baby learning to self-feed, a way to introduce solid foods without mashing everything up and feeding on a spoon. The purpose is really just to get tastes for different food, explore, feed themselves, and learn how to chew before learning how to swallow (the reverse of what happens with feeding mashed foods). She's tried banana, avocado, & carrots so far. We believe, though, that "food before one, is just for fun." She's still getting the majority of her calories from nursing, but loves playing with her food and tasting new things :)
* One of our favorite developments this month has been her cuddles! When I get her up from a nap, she gives me a tight hug around the neck and gives me little head butts (with the cutest smile in the world) when she's in bed with us in the morning. Sweetest thing ever!
* Norah's still pretty tiny for her age and is just now in 6 month clothes mostly, some of which are a little big on her. At least her clothes have lasted longer! :)
* We are hearing more and more from people that she looks like a good mix of Dan and me or that she looks a lot like me, which is surprising to us since we haven't been able to see much of a resemblance yet. But she sure does sometimes remind us of Charlie's baby pictures!
* She says, "Dada" a lot now, but still don't think it has a connection to the person yet :)
* Norah loves other babies and children!
* We put her in nursery for the first time and she did pretty well, though got tired toward the end and wasn't too happy to be away from me. She has shown signs of stranger anxiety starting a little bit, but mostly when I am across the room and she gets a glimpse of me.
* Sleep at night is getting better. For the past few nights she has gone to bed around 6pm, wakes to feed at 10 or 11, wakes again between 2 and 4am, and finally wakes up for the day between 7 and 7:30am. Once we get into our new house in a few weeks, she will have her own room and maybe sleep even better!

Stats: 16 lbs, 26 inches