9 Months :)

These 9 months went by way faster than 9 months of pregnancy ;) But really, I can't believe how big Allie is, and how lucky we are to have her as part of our family every day! She's the happiest little girl, so easy going, quick to forgive, and loves to just be around the family. I'm so grateful for the lessons she teaches us regularly.

This month she:
-- is pulling herself up on anything she can find
-- repeats syllables left and right
-- mimics what we say
-- learned to clap!
-- is teething, but we can’t feel the teeth without risking losing the tip of our finger
-- hit the stage where she is mostly interested in whatever everyone else is doing
-- is still exploring foods, has yet to really turn down anything we’ve offered except puréed garden veggies
-- is a SPEEDY crawler
-- will walk if we hold her hands. Sometimes it's normal steps, sometimes it's more of soldier march type walk that cracks us up
-- is getting braver and braver as she cruises along furniture
-- won’t sit still for a diaper change or to put clothes on
-- not a huge fan of her car seat
-- occasionally sleeps through the night
-- is finally in 6-12 month clothes
-- squints her eyes and snort-breathes when she’s excited (mostly when dad comes home, or we go outside, or she’s about to get a bottle)
-- still mostly content to just be (I LOVE this about her)
-- showing more and more interest in books (our fault for introducing them kinda late)
-- sleeps through the night on occasion, other than that just getting up once
-- loves to follow Peyton around the house and get into whatever she's playing with. Peyton usually gets frustrated but when she tolerates it, it's the cutest thing ever
-- does this really cute/funny thing when she wakes up in her crib: she always pulls herself to standing on the crib bars (even after we moved her mattress to the lowest spot), and ALWAYS is holding her blanket in her hand, sometimes burying her face in it while she cries. Then when we pick her up, she drops it immediately. Funny girl
-- still is a daddy's girl through and through

8 Months!

Our Allie girl is 8 months old (and I'm almost 2 weeks late posting about it). It's hard to remember what she learned before the 8 month mark and right after, so we're just going to go with what she knows right now, which lucky for her will make her look extra smart since she and her cousin Raiden helped each other learn lots of new things over Christmas break together.

This month Allie:

-- learned how to wave! She waves hi pretty consistently when we ask her, especially if the other person waves hi too. Sometimes it's with one hand, sometimes with both hands at the same time, but it's always adorable
-- is closer and closer to real crawling. She gets up on her hands and knees multiple times a day, and usually takes 2-3 crawls before deciding she'd rather army crawl
-- loves to pull herself up as close to standing as she can get. She mostly uses our legs, but is happy to use anything else she can find
-- is on the move everywhere and anywhere she can go. She does NOT like being left in a room by herself and will follow us from room to room if we don't bring her ourselves haha
-- has starting stringing multiple syllables together of the same sound. I'm happy to say mamama is the most frequent, followed closely by bababa and dadada - it's led to us having to remind Peyton to use her big girl words (she gets very excited to help Allie learn to talk)
-- learned how to eat out of pouches. It's super helpful and much faster than with a spoon
-- keeps eating more than we expect - like almost every meal. She has started chunking up a little, especially in her thighs and I love it. We're hoping this means we can sleep train her next month
-- gets up usually once a night. It was a little more on vacation, but schedules were thrown off, and we were sharing a room, so I'm pretty sure we woke her up. Plus she was just excited to play with everyone. I'm grateful she's fallen back into her routine pretty easily though
-- has decided she doesn't love her carseat. She gets mad every time we put her in it. Luckily she usually calms down pretty easily and is awesome about falling asleep on the go
-- loves to be sitting up in high chairs and shopping carts every chance she gets. It makes me kind of sad, because it makes her seem like less of a baby, but is also fun to have her be able to interact so much more
-- regularly gets us stopped in the grocery store to have people tell us how cute she is
-- is getting more interactive by the day. It's so fun to watch her face light up as she recognizes people or games
-- figured out how to play peek-a-boo with a blanket by herself. It's SO cute and funny to watch her crack herself up
-- likes when dad sings made up songs, especially "wock-a-doo"
-- has the cutest giggle and will fake laugh to get us to laugh at her
-- is finally moving up into 6-9 month clothes haha (we love our petite little girl)
-- loves to be outside. She gets the biggest smile and kicks her legs and is just so content as soon as we go out the door
-- LOVES to bounce. When we try to put her in her exersaucer or doorway jumper she kicks her legs before she's even in. She also bounces if we hold her standing up on our legs
-- occasionally will take a few steps if we hold her hands. Usually decides to stop a few steps before her goal and just falls to get there haha
-- likes to play with jewelry or anything else she can reach
-- is a total daddy's girl. Will reach herself (or throw herself) out of my arms to get closer to Chase.
-- continues to be a happy, go with the flow, cute little girl. We love her and are so glad she's part of our family!

(not my best pictures, that's what happens when we're trying to beat Peyton's naptime and Allie's extra interested in touching the camera haha - good thing she's still cute)

Waving hi :)