8 Months Old!

Allie continues to grow and amaze us all.  Kaden and Maddie are just as enamored and amazed with her as ever.  It has been so fun to see how much she lights up with joy when she sees them and vice versa.  She has also become a little ham lately, making funny faces that she knows will make us laugh. We were a few days late taking her picture with the bear, but fear not...we fed her less for those few days so she wouldn't grow too much :)


Last month I showed how she was swaddled with one arm free while she slept. That lasted less than a week. She was still rolling over and then would be pushed up on her one free arm smiling at me when I came to check on her.  So, we decided it was time for her to be a free woman, and we have put our ace bandages into retirement.  Now she just scoots happily around her crib and settles in to sleep on her tummy.  This is much more to her liking and after a week or so, she was basically sleeping just as long as she was when wrapped up.  Losing any precious sleep is the main reason I always swaddled my kids for so long.  Being the perfect baby, however, she has made the transition very smoothly.


Allie has also become quite the eater in the last month.  A month ago I was worried that she wasn't taking baby cereal and wasn't eating very much of the baby food.  Now, she can down several jars in a day and hasn't slowed down on the breast feeding.  The only food combination she hasn't loved so far has been pear/mango/spinach.  I mean...can you really blame her?  They have some of the weirdest combinations in baby food these days.  I might like that in a salad, but pureed and sucked through a tube?  I'd pass on that too.


We are not in full crawling mode yet, but her forearm scoot continues to get faster and more efficient.  She does get up on her hands and knees now and rock back and forth.  But when she tries to launch herself forward, she just kind of lands on her chest and commences with her scooting.


Allie Jane is beautiful, funny, loved, and a ray of sunshine in the Vanderploeg household.  She is adored by all and is always happy and smiling.  We could not imagine life without that precious little cheeky and dimply smile.


On another note...Allie's monthly pictures with the bear are getting increasingly difficult to take. You'll notice the paper is on the other side of the bear this month so that she wouldn't constantly grab it and just start eating it.  And just in case you think I snap one picture and we're done...here are a few of this month's outtakes...