Eight Months
4:35 PM
We've had a really amazing month with Frankie. As always, we're learning to parent on the fly and there will always be challenges, but watching her personality shine and develop is so fun. She's hit a lot of milestones this month and learning to be more independent and I am so proud to be her mom. Sometimes I just wish she'd sit still to snuggle with me, like she did when she was so small, but its also kind of hilarious to have a wild child on my hands. I'm sure it wont be long before she's giving me hugs, so I'll let her explore for now.
Likes:
-Creepy robot dance machine toy-Eating literally all the things
-Naps on Dad
-Other kids and babies
-Getting into absolutely everything
-When people sing to her
Dislikes:
-Being set down or put in the car seat when she doesn't want to
-Mom or dad or someone not being in immediate eyesight
-Us taking too long to get food to her mouth
-Sitting still
-Being set down or put in the car seat when she doesn't want to
-Mom or dad or someone not being in immediate eyesight
-Us taking too long to get food to her mouth
-Sitting still
Schedule: We're all over the place, as usual, but its nice to know she's a flexible gal. We've finally perfected the art of getting her in jammies if we're planning on not being home so we can just plop her in her crib once we get home. She eats solids as much as anyone will giver her, including "real" solids thrown in like scrambled eggs, avocado, or shredded cheese. She eats about 5-6 6 oz bottles a day. Shes still taking one quick morning nap and a longer afternoon nap. Half way through this month, we started sleep training (see Challenges) and now she's sleeping from 7:30 pm to 6 am pretty regularly. We're loving it!
Features: Her fuzzy, medium brown hair is finally in all over her head, no more bald spots. She is learning to use her voice in all kinds of loud and funny ways. She's in 6-9 month clothing and in size 3 diapers, but I'm not sure what she weighs. She still loves to laugh and dance and smile at strangers. She's still got her funny little birth marks on her head and her beauty mark that matches mine. Her eyes are a lovely shade of chocolate. She is warm and happy almost always. My little ball of sunshine! The kid care workers at our gym never want to give her up when we come get her. Every time I look at her face, it's hard to imagine that there was once a time I didn't know what it looked like.
Features: Her fuzzy, medium brown hair is finally in all over her head, no more bald spots. She is learning to use her voice in all kinds of loud and funny ways. She's in 6-9 month clothing and in size 3 diapers, but I'm not sure what she weighs. She still loves to laugh and dance and smile at strangers. She's still got her funny little birth marks on her head and her beauty mark that matches mine. Her eyes are a lovely shade of chocolate. She is warm and happy almost always. My little ball of sunshine! The kid care workers at our gym never want to give her up when we come get her. Every time I look at her face, it's hard to imagine that there was once a time I didn't know what it looked like.
Milestones: Frankie cut her very first tooth during Hurricane Dorian on September 4th. On September 8th, she learned to crawl AND cut her second tooth! It was a very busy week. She says DaDa and can shake her head and bounce to dance. She can clap and KIND OF does the itsy bitsy spider. Then, all of a sudden, she decided to pull all the way up to standing at the end of the month. She sort of just went all in on the milestones this month!
Firsts:
-"Real" foods (eggs, bread, avocado, a tamale, puffs, shredded cheese, meat sauce, yogurt melts)
-Hurricane (Dorian... we were out of work for two days and had Grandma and Grandpa Russo and Great Grandma and Great Granddad Paul with us for two days due to evacuations. The storm ended up shifting and Jax was spared)
-Fall from the bed (she's completely fine... she was mad, but shes all good. Lesson learned for mom and dad)
-"Real" foods (eggs, bread, avocado, a tamale, puffs, shredded cheese, meat sauce, yogurt melts)
-Hurricane (Dorian... we were out of work for two days and had Grandma and Grandpa Russo and Great Grandma and Great Granddad Paul with us for two days due to evacuations. The storm ended up shifting and Jax was spared)
-Fall from the bed (she's completely fine... she was mad, but shes all good. Lesson learned for mom and dad)
Challenges: Sleep. This month, we started to REALLY feel the burn of her late night party habits. After almost an entire year of never sleeping for more than three or four hours at a time, Daniel and I reached our limit. We decided to try the Ferber method of sleep training and it WORKED. She has been on this method for almost two weeks now and regularly sleeps from 7:30 or 8 until 6 am. Sometimes she wakes up a little earlier if she's hungry, but we just hand her a bottle in her crib and she does her thing. THANK YOU, FERBER METHOD!
Thoughts: She's reached the age where shes reaching out to us deliberately and I didn't know my heart could break any more than it already has. Watching her cling to Daniel, give hugs to great granddad, play with and hug Harper, and having her ask me to pick her up is incredible. When she was super little and completely dependent, it was different. Now, I'm watching her independently choose us and its just so special. I love this phase of her life!
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