Lots of updates!

We took her to a pumpkin patch to take some pictures. It was after Halloween, so there weren't many pumpkins left, oh well, I guess next year we will be more on top of things.

We also went to a party at the Little Gym, where G takes classes. G liked showing off to Daddy all the things she can do. Here she is crawling through a tunnel to Daddy. She got bored the second time around and Daddy came in to help coax her out. She was heading for a little container of bubbles she "won" in one of the carnival games at the party. As usual, she wanted to suck on it (but we didn't let her).

Here she is with Daddy jumping on the balance beam.
Playing peek-a-boo with Daddy on the bars.
And jumping on the low bars. Yesterday in class, we combined a low beam with these bars so G could "walk" along the beam holding onto the bars on each side.
G loved playing with Daddy and showing off all her new skills. Is that a wink?

Mommy had to do this one with G while Daddy took pictures. Here she is starting her roll:

Here she is with her hands down, that's a baby reflex.

Check out how excited G is to do her rolls on the beam!

We tried to put G down for a nap the other day and she wanted to have no part of it. After some time passed and it was clear she wasn't going to sleep, S went into G's room to get her and this is what she found. E rushed in and I told him to get the camera. You can't tell from the picture, but when she saw us, she had this big smile on her face, like she was so proud of herself!

The short story is that G finally figured out that one of the ties (in the corner) of the bumper was torn off so she could pull the whole thing down. I used a large  binder clip to clip the tie to the crib railing, but she managed to pull that off too. After much searching around the house, I finally found a needle and thread and attempted to sew the tie back on properly. So far so good. We also lowered her crib to the middle setting, but I'm sure soon enough we will have to lower it all the way down.

Feeding update: G is doing much better. We no longer have to strip her down to her onesie nor do we have to hold her hands down (much). While she still sometimes fusses, she will open her mouth and lean in when the spoon is in front of her. We are trying to do 2 feedings per day. We do, however, still think she's teething, as she's still more fussy than normal.

8 months (late)

I know, it's several days past her 8 month birthday, but oh well.

So, I think can rule out separation anxiety, as we were at a Halloween playdate and G was the only baby that didn't cry when all the moms (10+) wanted a group picture of the babies in costume and put them all down on the floor to take pictures. She just smiled at me and looked around wondering why everyone was crying (and all the mommies laughing). Too funny, it was the most chaotic few minutes I've experienced recently. However, G still tends to be more fussy when tired or hungry, but I guess that could be normal. She still could be teething or having a growth spurt. Also, within a few days after S's parents left, G was back to sleeping 11-12 hrs. She still woke up at 6am once, but I think she's back to a 10-12 hr schedule, plus her 2-3 naps during the day. And she isn't crying anymore during her bathtime.

Ok, so back to G and 8 months. She's crawling now, we realized that it's the hardwood surface in our house that's holding her back. She's been doing a hybrid crawl that looks like an inch worm where she comes up on hands and knees, then goes flat on belly, then back on hands and knees, etc, but she's still very reluctant to go from sitting to on the belly when on the floor (she'll do it on her bed, our bed, the couch, etc). However, on Saturday at our church's Harvest Festival, she crawled the entire length of the picnic blanket (maybe 6 feet) several times without going flat.

Stats at 8 months: 27 inches tall (I think we can say tall now, instead of long, since she's starting to stand), 14 pounds. For those tracking, yes, she lost some weight from last month. We think it is a combination of her getting sick last week and her becoming much more active.

Besides crawling, G loves to climb. I think she actually likes it more than crawling. She's also getting a little better at eating, and will actually open her mouth and lean her head forward for grapes and rice noodles. Her current list of foods: rice, oatmeal, zucchini, spaghetti squash, sweet potato, spinach, peas, avocado, grapes (once I let her suck on a piece of honeydew, so I'm not sure if that counts). Coming up of things to try: artichoke (I will steam whole ones and just mash up the hearts), apples, pears, butternut squash, broccoli, carrots.

We have also completed G's transition to cloth diapers. She just completed 24 hrs of all cloth. When we first started , it was only at home and during the day, then, last weekend, we tried overnight, and this week we have kept her in cloth going out on short trips where won't need a diaper change. We have not yet changed a cloth diaper outside of the house. G has been successful pooping on the toilet too, except for a tiny bit that got on her diaper once.

Here are some pictures of her Halloween costumes (yes, we borrowed a few):

This one was a bit small for her (and she didn't seem to like it), so we decided not to use it, but she still looks cute.

Here she was on her first Halloween playdate. There were two other ladybugs there but we think she was the cutest one! This is the one we will probably use for Halloween.

Here she is dressed up for our church's Harvest Fest & Pumpkin Patch! We took home the same pumpkin that we brought. What a bargain!