Say Cheese!

Our sweet lil' Lia is now 8 months.  And like every mama, I have to say "she's getting so big."  Not in the size-sense, because she's definitely my tiniest baby.  But more in the "she's growing and my heart just can't keep up with the changes!" kinda way.  And I know that some people may snort at that exclamation, particularly those who have had babies that are walking at this age, but it wouldn't matter if she was walking or still wearing her newborn diapers - it all goes by too fast!



But I am grateful that she's not walking yet, or crawling.  Heck, the girl barely rolls over.  She did start sitting up on her own this month.  She's still not very good at it so we don't leave her by herself.  She also has a few things working against her, such as a Jack and a Jude, that think it's funny to give her a push and watch her fall.  Poor thing.

She also finally has her two bottom teeth in.  Woo hoo!  But her lack of teeth has done nothing for her ability to put away food.  Actually, that's probably an overstatement as well.  Julia still takes "mama milk" (as her brothers would say) all day and then gets to sample a little food at dinner time, usually whatever we're eating.  It works out well at this point because by that time of day I'm tired and short on time (and milk). 

Brown rice and avacado.

Raspberries

Muffins

quinoa (this stuck to everything, no matter, she just licked it off!)

We'll see how long this lasts.  After 8 months I seem to have a more difficult time nursing with all my kids, but since she *could* be my last, I'd like to keep it up as long as possible.  Then again, Jon and I also have a no-kids-allowed vacation coming up this winter that might make that kind of hard.  After TIME magazine ran that lovely cover story I'm curious to see if I really am "mom enough."  Okay, okay just kidding!

Anyway, back to the Little Miss.  She's getting more vocal and has started repeating certain sounds.  Like "mamamamama" which I'm going to go ahead and interpret as "mama" since she looks at me and smiles when she says it.  She also says "babababa" (sorry no interpretation there).

In addition to chatting she's really perfected her raspberry blowing ability.  She's always had a knack for this but lately her skill has gone through the roof.  As in, you don't want to be within a 12 inch radius unless you've brought your umbrella.  Really Girl, this isn't very ladylike.

There she blows!

She's also added a new sound to her repertoire this week, we like to call it the "hairball noise."  It sounds exactly like she's hacking up a hairball and has been the cause of alarm for Jon or I on several different ocasions.  But she's always fine, just testing her vocal limitations. 

And then there's the groaning.  She does this on long car rides especially and was driving her Daddy and I crazy last week on our way home from Virginia.



Recently she's started waving, too.  Actually, it's more like a "hail" ... or worse yet, a Nazi salute.  But I'm sure she really means to just say hello.

Hail mom!

The double hail! (This is in no way indicative of a future as a cheerleader.)

But my favorite Julia-act by far is her "cheese" face...

Big toothless grin, eyes crinkled ...

Photo Credit: Nonnie

We may have caught it on camera a few times ...

Photo Credit: Nonnie

I mean, if I managed to collect this many pictures imagine how often she does this a day!

Photo Credit: Nonnie

Seriously, she's so entertaining.

So year, we kinda like having her around, and we're looking forward to seeing what developments that next few months have in store!