Letters To My Little One | Eight Months Old

>>this post contains affiliate links.  thank you in advance for supporting bethadilly photography!<<

tuesday, december 13, 2016

hello doll!

goodness gracious, eight months!  i might as well start planning your 1st birthday party, as it will be here tomorrow.  (everyone laughs, but i have given it some honest thought).  every day with you seems to go faster and faster, making us suddenly at eight months.  it was such an amazing month for our family and you are proving to be simply the best little girl.  it seems like life isn’t much different with a baby, but only because you just fit in so well with our family.  sure, our days are different now that you are here, but it seems like we can just go and do fairly effortlessly and you are happy to go along on any adventure.  you’re curiosity gets the best of you, especially when shopping with mama, and you just look around and take in your surroundings with such wonderment.

this month, you took your very first airplane right back west.  honey, you did amazing.  mama and daddy planned and packed everything we thought we would need to keep you entertained and cozy throughout our travels and you took to flying across the country in style.  even with the 3 hour time change, you transitioned well and slept wonderfully while we were on vacation.  after worrying about traveling for a month beforehand, you quickly proved that i had nothing to worry about.

visiting family and friends for thanksgiving was so much fun for you and our family.  for the first couple of days, you preferred to only be held by mama, as you warmed up to your new surroundings.  but you quickly allowed others to cuddle and play with you and absolutely fell in love with grandma’s puppy.  oh the giggles that came out of you, every time he was near!  we took a few videos (thank goodness) of your happy laughter and you had everyone laughing along with you as we anxiously watched your sweet excitement over the puppy.

if your adorable fits of giggles wasn’t exciting enough, you decided to sit up for the very first time and grandma and grandpa’s house.  with everyone surrounding and watching your every move, you suddenly just did it.  just like that, like you knew how to do it all along.  everyone was so thrilled for you, even your great grandmother!  we have been waiting for you to sit up for about a month and, honestly, i think you were just waiting for the perfect audience to debut your new skill.

while surrounded by friends and family, you were baptized during our trip home.  the priest who married your mama and daddy baptized you and you charmed everyone that entire day.  while the priest read encouraging and beautiful words to us, you tried to grab his Bible.  i think you thought it was story time and, in a very beautiful way, it was.  just watching you listen intently and take in your surroundings always amazes us and we really had a wonderful baptism day that we will look back on with great memories.

you are still a swimmy fishy!  each and every lesson with your baby friends is so much fun and you are getting better and better each time you hop in the pool with mama.  you can easily anticipate going under water now and close your eyes and hold your breath.  you really like it when mr. j puts all the rubber duckies in the pool and you have to jump in, go get them, and swim them back to the side of the pool.  once you reach a ducky, you clasp it in your hands and then…chew on it as you swim back to the wall.  you like to chew on everything, it is really cute.  your favorite chewy is sophie.  we may need to buy multiples, one for the car, one for the diaper bag, one for upstairs, one for downstairs…

your first christmas is upon us and we have been creating the most amazing memories so far.  each night we read a christmas story to you before bedtime…mama bought countless christmas books for us to enjoy all throughout december.  and each morning, oliver our elf comes back from the north pole to keep an eye on you throughout the day so he can report back to santa.  so far, he says you are doing such a wonderful job and i think there is going to be a pretty full santa sack with your name on it.  silly ollie comes back in the silliest of places.  he likes to hang from the lights, sit in our wreath, hop on top of picture frames and even pretend to be a wise man in our nativity scene.

you really love staring at the beautiful christmas tree and seeing all of the lights.  we had fun making your very first ornament with daddy, a clay imprint of your sweet little hand so we will always remember our first christmas with you.  it hangs on our tree and it makes mama so happy!  it took us a couple tries to get it perfect, you really wanted to play with the clay and would grab it between your little fingers when we tried to press your hand into it.

while mama has taken to peppermint coffees this winter, you have enjoyed some really fun new foods as well.  you have now tried oatmeal, pears, prunes, potatoes, and enjoy munching on rice wafers.  it is so much fun to watch you explore new foods and you are such a great eater.  when you have pears, i don’t even put a bib on you because i know you won’t let a single drop get past your mouth.  you love them so!  the same with prunes!

we have the best schedule, you and me, and have so much fun every day.  95% of the time you sleep through the night, at about 12-13 hours straight. every once in awhile you like to wake up for some mama time, but are quick to fall back asleep.  it must be when you are going through a little growth spurt and want a little snack and girl talk in the middle of the night.  when you wake for the day, you are all smiles!  i always hear you cooing and babbling away in your crib, telling me you are ready to get up.  you are just in there talking to your toes…it is so cute.

once you get up for the day, you are awake for only about 90 minutes before you really want a morning nap.  but once your morning nap is out of the way, we are free to have our fun.  whether it is shopping, swimming, taking a walk, or reading stories (we are trying to read 1000 books before you go to kindergarten!), we always have so much fun together.  before we know it, daddy is walking through the door at the end of the day and we get to play with him before bedtime.

life with you at eight months is all we wanted it to be.  you are such a sweet little girl who charms us every day with that sweet grin and your constant excitement.  you adore your puppies and sometimes even cry when they walk out of the room, but they have learned to scurry back in and you smile the instant that you see them.  we are working on petting the puppies gently, instead of pulling their hair.  you don’t mean to, you are still learning.  but you love to reach for them as soon as they are in sight.

the year of your birth is coming to a close and we are ready to start the new year with you!  there will be a lot of wonderful things in store for our family in 2017 and everything we do, we do for you.  i have said it before, but it is worth repeating…we are smitten by you.  sometimes, after you go to sleep, we find ourselves curled up on the couch scrolling through pictures of you, remember both the moments when you were teeny tiny and the current moments of the day.  our house is full of such happy sounds and i am so blessed to wake up to such a beautiful and HAPPY family every single day.

merry christmas, darling.  we love you more than you will ever know.

love,

mama

to read more of my mama bee adventures with #babyadilly, be sure to check out the posts that are trending below!