Crazy Eight

Well, it's official. Things are about to get crazy over here. Vivi is 8 months old and is on the verge of crawling. She practices her yoga moves..until she wears herself out and collapses.

I found my chi, and I'm over it.

I can confidently say that my little Vivi Lou is finally sleeping through the night in her own crib! We transitioned Bobby a lot earlier, and we had no problem with letting him cry it out. But something just seemed off with doing that to Viv so early. We had tried a couple of times in the past, and she would scream and scream, but she would never calm down. And I don't know why, but it just seemed disrespectful to her character to make her scream if she just wasn't ready to switch yet. I know, that sounds crazy and new-age-y, but you'd just have to meet her to understand. She's the sweetest, most gentle little soul. Anyhow, we finally decided it was time to try again transitioning to the crib at 8 months. We put her in, and she cried for a few minutes, but she wasn't hysterical like the previous attempts. After a couple of minutes, she gave up the good fight and went to sleep, but she woke up several times. I would let her cry about five minutes, and then I would go in and pat/shush her in her crib in the dark, and she would go back to sleep. After a couple of nights like this, she slept completely through the night. She's been doing this about a week now, and I cannot describe how amazing it is. I have two children sleeping at least twelve hours at night, and it is glorious. I already feel so much better when I wake up in the morning. 

Vivi is quite the enthusiastic eater. We have taken a different approach to food with her than we did with Bob. With him, I tried making my own baby food (which he rejected, so I quickly abandoned), and we did lots of traditional baby food purees (which he often rejected..a lot). With Viv, we have followed a baby-led weaning approach more than too many purees. We still spoon feed her some (at least once a day), but a lot of the food she eats is food that she feeds herself. I give her pieces of fruit and small pieces of whatever we are eating, and she loves feeding herself. 

So far her favorites are pear, macaroni and cheese, oranges, and any kind of bread. We haven't done a ton of meat, since she doesn't have much in the way of teeth. Whenever she does eat purees, she looks longingly at her brother's plate, as if she is silently trying to will his food onto her tray. Bless her heart.

Viv is so enthusiastic about eating that she has been growing A LOT lately. I just had to order 12-18 month pajamas for her. I thought, "surely that will be way too big, but she can grow into them." Nope, they fit just fine. She's 8 months old. Is that normal? 

I can't get over how different two children can be, raised by the same parents, just one year apart. Bobby was always right on track with clothing sizes; Vivi has always been ahead. Bobby was the most frustrating baby to feed and has always been particular; Vivi eats anything and everything, and doesn't waste a morsel. Bobby crib trained much earlier; Vivi has done it later. Bobby lets you know if something isn't just to his liking; Viv is more laid back and only fusses if something is truly terrible. I now completely agree with the statement that every child is different, and you have to parent accordingly. 

 At eight months, Vivi keeps herself busy with scooting backward into corners, under furniture, behind curtains, and really any inconvenient place she can think of. Even when I found her underneath her dresser, she wasn't fussing about it. She just patiently waited until I found her. 

Her two bottom teeth are continuing to come in, and she looks so adorable with them poking through.

She babbles a bit and says "dada," although I'm not sure she knows what she's saying.

 one // two // three // four // five // six // seven // eight // nine

Her favorite toys are a tambourine and an activity cube, and she is also starting to enjoy playing with her brother's many trucks. She loves standing in her walker (I can't find the one we have, but here is a really attractive one), and I have started putting her moccasins on her. These shoes are awesome; they stay on her little feet, and she can't pull them off. She wears leg warmers a decent amount now that she is scooting around and on the verge of crawling. I mentioned these bibs in this post, but they are awesome; she doesn't eat without it. And our night routine consists of bath, a book, and then listening to "Mr. Tambourine Man" on her new pretty pink record player. It puts her to sleep every night. Aside from her sweet yoga moves, her favorite activities include being dragged around by her brother. 

I swear I intervened..

Her other new favorite activity is taking her diaper off. The saucy little minx. Hopefully it doesn't snowball into this:

Because it's a life goal to stay off of the Maury show.

This is hands-down my favorite age, and I really want to freeze time. I guess I will enjoy these yoga moves as much as I can before she progresses into crawling and my life is over.

 Happy Hump Day!

Keep on keepin' on!

-Annette