11 Months!!

How is that real? I can't believe this sweet little girl has been a part of our family for 11 whole months. Every month really goes by faster and faster and I'm grateful for these posts as a reminder to slow down and write the things that have happened so I can remember them!

This month has been full of big milestones and little favorite memories. She:

- took her first steps! She can do about 3 at a time right now and only when she doesn't realize mom or dad has let go
- has totally embraced being a daddy's girl - she gets to him as fast as she can every day when he gets home and loves to be held by him
- points out people she knows in pictures (mostly daddy)
- can point out the picture of Jesus and say hi to Him on the wall (both in the living room and her room)
- loves being outside
- loves bath time, except when we pour water on her head
- can pull herself up on most furniture and cruises around (crib, couches, shelves, etc)
- occasionally will crawl like normal but still prefers army crawling and pulling herself around on her belly
- is the most unpredictable eater
- constantly rips bows out of her hair even if they're attached to a ponytail or bun
- has recently really gotten into books
- says uh oh (it's as adorable as it sounds)
- says her own version of dad, all done, all better, and buttons (still no mama)
- finds great entertainment in pulling every movie and book off of our shelves
- likes to "share" her toys but only if you give them back immediately
- signs please when she wants anything and has forgotten all of her other signs
- still loves stuffed animals and squeezing them (see the pictures)
- has 5 teeth and one pushing through her gums
- gets called stinker bug, stinkeroo, peyton lu, sweet girl
- constantly gets complimented on her eyes
- gets the cutest squinty face when she's smiling big
- is such a happy part of our family!

10 Months

Can you believe it? We're still kind of in shock over here. Peyton's personality shines through more and more every day and we can't get enough of her. This month was full of late nights with the olympics, fun visitors, attempts to crawl and walk, and squeezing in snuggles whenever she'll let us.

This month Peyton:

- cruises along any and all furniture she can
- has figured out how to splash in the bath tub - quickly making it her favorite part of the day
- has gotten pickier with her food
- eats more "grown up" food than before
- found about 5 different kinds of laughs that she cycles through
- discovered her love for bubbles
- recognizes the sound of dad coming home and gets SO excited every day
- LOVES stuffed animals (this has been a fun one to watch develop recently)
- still loves walks
- is happiest with a full belly and holding on to mom or dad walking around
- figured out how to point and loves to point at anything and everything, especially outside
- still loves watching other kids/babies no matter where we are
- enjoys playing in laundry baskets, especially if there are socks to play with
- is getting better at staying in the carseat happily
- dances lots to all kinds of music
- has 4 teeth! We think we feel the next one too :)
- has continued to sleep through the night, thank goodness!
- is exploring new sounds (still no mama though)
- found the knobs on kitchen and bathroom cabinets and loves to grab them
- also loves her dresser drawer pulls
- figured out she can pull all the movies and books off the shelf
- loves to be moving constantly, which is probably part of the reason she likes to eat so much
- does not like to be put down, loves to be held or walking 99% of the day (the pictures make this pretty clear)
- is obsessed with looking at lights and light fixtures
- signs "more" and "all done" pretty frequently (she understands a few others, but won't sign them back)
- makes us the happiest parents!

9 Months!!

Peyton has now been in the world as long as she was in my belly. That's a hard concept for me to wrap my head around. I still have a hard time remembering what life was like without her sometimes, then other times I can't believe how fast time is flying and how big she is getting! No worries though, she's still very "petite." That's the word the doctor uses when we go get checkups haha. She's got a big noggin (close to the 75th percentile), she's around the 25th percentile for height, and barely on the chart for her weight in about the 2nd percentile. We love our little lady and had another awesome month with her.

Currently she's:

- exploring more and more of mom and dad's foods instead of her baby food
- dying to be moving around on her own but very cautious to try
- happiest when we're holding her hands helping her walk (she gets pretty speedy if we let her)
- more giggly than ever before. Mom can't get enough of it
- babbling away on a regular basis
- hating being put in her carseat, but does fine once she has someone or something to look at
- loved on by lots of family (she got to meet lots of cousins, and spend time with lots of aunts and uncles and great aunts and uncles and grandparents and even great-grandparents this month)
- a big fan of swimming at the lake and in the pool, but not a huge fan of bathtime
- fighting bedtime consistently, but sleeping through the night (woohoo!!)
- a huge flirt. She waves and giggles and plays with all the boys a few months older than her at church (we're in trouble when she grows up)
- great at waving hi, bye, and night night
- shaking her head constantly. Sometimes to be silly, sometimes to dance, and sometimes to copy mom/dad. We're hoping it doesn't include saying no...
- getting shy around strangers and hates to be left alone
- got 3 teeth! The 4th one made a brief appearance last week, but is currently nowhere to be found.
- a big mama's girl. Separation anxiety has definitely set in.
- drinking from her sippy cup all on her own
- regularly throwing food and her cup on the floor
- starting to explore walking in a walker toy
- throwing really great tantrums that either involve her head thrown back, a full-out sprawl on the ground, or folding herself in half until her face is on the ground (we're very nervous for the toddler versions of these)
- very stubborn about when she wants help. Even if she can get to something on her own, if she wants help doing it we usually see one of her tantrums
- discovered how fun it is to pull hair
- loving exploring people's mouths - we joke that she's already following in her dad's footsteps to be a dentist!
- the happiest part of both mom and dad's days. We love her to pieces. Can't wait to see what else she learns and does this next month!!

8 Months

This year keeps going faster and faster. I can't believe it's been a month since I last did an update! Peyton is so much fun to have around and keeps us laughing on a regular basis with her funny faces and new things she is learning. It's been a busy month for her developmentally and she's so close to so many new skills too. We love her more every day!

This month she:

-- learned how to wave!! It's my new favorite thing about her. She gets her whole arm into it and it's adorable. She waves "hi," and "bye," and "goodnight"
-- is eating table foods more and more and sometimes seems like she prefers them to her baby foods
-- figured out how to fake cough and fake laugh and cracks herself up doing it
-- wants SO bad to be mobile, but is too stubborn to do it herself
-- knows what we're signing to her and responds when we show her
-- signed to us that she wanted to be nursed just once in the car, but refuses to do it again haha
-- learned how to use her sippy cup
-- started to pull herself up on mom and dad's hands, and sometimes on her walker toy
-- has loved going swimming, and goes under water and comes up a little startled, but not crying!
-- started singing to herself
-- is a very good actress/stubborn about what she eats. If she's not interested in the food we've picked out she can almost convince us that she's not hungry, and usually succeeds in getting us get a different kind of food for her
-- started putting syllables together
-- loves chanting da-da-da and aja-ja-ja
-- learned how to be content in her crib after sleeping. She'll talk and play with her stuffed monkey in there for 30+ minutes on a good day
-- mastered an army crawl/roll/spin to get to where she wants to be
-- has started bouncing/dancing when she hears music or us singing or just when she's really happy and excited
-- tried her first lemon (probably dad's favorite part of the whole month)
-- met her great-grandma and grandpa Haws for the first time! She loved them
-- watched Aunt Julia graduate high school (and was a HUGE trooper through the ceremony)
-- started taking steps if mom or dad is holding her hands and helping her forward
-- holds herself up on furniture/people's legs and laps for about 10 seconds before getting distracted and losing her balance or forgetting that she's the one holding herself up
-- has started pulling out books to read from the shelf and definitely has some favorites
-- is still fascinated by the diaper bag (sometimes we wonder why we bothered spending money on baby toys)
-- LOVES to play with the car keys (thank goodness we have a keyless start car) - it's mom's go-to meltdown fixer
-- laughs with/at us when we pinch her bum before bathtime
-- has gotten much more social and interactive with people around her
-- is guaranteed to laugh when we hold her and help her chase anyone around
-- gets comments ALL the time on her pretty blue eyes
-- goes by sweet girl, stinky, stinker bug, stinkalous, peyton lula, lula, little lady
-- recognizes and responds to her name

7 Months!

I'm a little late writing this one... we've been a little busy around here, in the best way :)

Peyton turned 7 months old! Her personality is getting bigger every day, and this month especially she's really turned into such a happy baby. We can't get enough of her and love to play with her!

This month she:
-- has mastered sitting up (although we still put a pillow behind her because she hasn't figured out how to lay down gently)
-- is exploring lots of finger foods
-- is being really stubborn about not trying crawling, instead she rolls from her back to her stomach and back again over and over until she gets close enough to grab the toy she wants
-- does much better in the car, she loves to babble to herself in the mirror behind her carseat
-- has gotten a little bit of stranger danger, she doesn't love to be handed off to people she doesn't know
-- sometimes shows a strong preference for mom and will lean out of people's arms if I'm standing too close
-- still loves to watch older babies
-- loves to read books, especially ones where she gets to lift the flaps
-- has started to turn into a real chatterbox, but mostly when she's playing by herself
-- still loves to see herself in the mirror
-- has started grabbing onto mom at random times, and usually ends up grabbing a (tiny) fistful that results in a very hard pinch (unfortunately she usually gets the backs of my arms or my neck - ouch)
-- loves, loves, loves playing in the water. She seems to be much less scared of it, and kicks and splashes all the way through bath time
-- her favorite part of her bedtime routine is saying goodnight to dad - she gets a HUGE smile on her face and does a kind of wave to him as he shuts the door and turns off the light. It's adorable.
-- has started shaking her head (also usually just with dad)
--still loves playing with her toes
-- has mastered the pincer grasp and grabs onto anything and everything she can
-- does a great job shopping with mom (riding in the grocery cart on a regular basis), and smiles at lots of people - she always gets comments and people making faces at her
-- pretty consistently is napping 3 times a day (I think this is the biggest contributor to her happy moods) - we couldn't be happier to have figured out this sleeping schedule (at least for now)
-- is getting better and better at playing by herself, as long as mom or dad is still in sight
-- is finally losing the bald spot on the back of her head!
-- loves to jump up and down in her bouncer
-- has discovered a love of blowing spit bubbles

(There were too many good ones to narrow it down, so hopefully you don't mind some extra pictures this month!)