Nora at 8 months!

Personality: Such a smiley girl (that is really starting to sound repetitive but I think it is true).  Her grin has gotten more toothy so the smile itself has changed a bit and she squints up her eyes more now.  I have realized it’s not really just that she is smiley, but that she wants everyone to pay attention to her.  If someone—anyone—happens to not be paying attention she will smile, laugh, or babble to get their attention, and it pretty much always works, even with the people who aren’t normally that into babies. 

Still also generally easy going.  Our lives are pretty busy and we do lots of different things and thank goodness she usually can deal with most of it. 

She is just starting to really mimic us.  Tonight at dinner she was doing a little dance in her seat, so we all started doing, then she copied, and we kept going back and forth.  She thought it was great!  The dancing is completely adorable.  She also “dances” when she hears music now!

Physical: Haven’t been to the Dr. this month so I don’t have any new stats.  We know she is pretty big though.  Funny thing is I dress her in everything from 6 month size clothes to 18 months.

Her hair is slowly coming in.  Kind of light brown/reddish right now and starting to curl up in places!

Her eyes continue to change.  I do not think they are blue at all anymore (sorry Debbie)—more grey, maybe hazelish??  Very questionable.  I am guessing they will continue to change and have no idea what color they will end up being.

STILL not crawling.  She really just prefers sitting—she will sit for a long, long time and play contentedly.  She can turn herself around while sitting and even scoot a little on her butt.  On her tummy she can scoot forward, but doesn’t really practice much. It seems strange to me because Joseph was moving all over the place by this age, but she is a much more laid back baby, so I guess it makes sense.  Plus, I know I should just enjoy how easily containable she is right now (especially after reading your blog Meredith!).

“Talking:”  She is very talkative and loud!  She says “mamamamamama” all day long, plus lots of other sounds.  Sometimes she looks right at me and says, “Mama” and it sounds so real, but I know it is still too soon.  She also can be very loud and squeally. I have been trying to sign to her for awhile, but no luck getting her to do it yet.

Eating habits: Lots of eating!  She has gotten so much better.  She hasn’t gagged on anything in quite awhile and she has pretty much enjoyed everything I have given her lately.  She usually eats breakfast, lunch, and dinner these days.  I still am not giving her dairy or eggs because of allergy concerns, but will probably try these soon.  As an example: today she had chopped up avocado, some puffs, and some pear, peach, and strawberry puree for breakfast.  For lunch she had some chopped up steamed carrots, some tofu, and a couple lentils.  For dinner she had some broccoli and some more of the pear, peach, and strawberry puree.  Also a little watered down prune juice. As you will probably notice a lot of these food choices have to do with her tendency towards constipation.  Still a big issue for us…

She still nurses about the same, though sometimes less at night.

Sleep: Got a lot worse (though still not horrible) while we were traveling.  Her awesome schedule went totally out the window, which worried me a bit, but we seem to be back on track now.  She goes to bed around 7, wakes 1-3 times a night (not quite sure why that varies so much—but I sure do love the nights when she only wakes once).  Wake up isn’t totally predictable either, sometimes it is a bit early 5:30 or 6 and then I bring her into bed with me to cuddle and try to get some more sleep.  It would probably help if I got a curtain for her room.  Sometimes she sleeps till 7.  She naps around 9 and 1 for an hour or two.  Still planning on doing a bit more sleep training before she gets super mobile to try, but haven’t had a chance yet.  I would love to get her consistently down to one waking a night.

Cute/Funny Habits:  When she is finished nursing and sleepy she tucks her face under my arm.  When she is sleepy she also plays with her ears a lot, though now that she is getting a little hair she is starting to play with her hair!

Nicknames: Noranator, Norastein,  Babystein, Norabelle, Stinkerbelle, Noni Smiggles, Squeakers

Likes: Probably her #1 favorite thing is her brother.  If she even just catches sight of him there is almost always a smile and squeal.  I honestly kind of took this for granted, but while visiting with my grandmother she really took note of it and that helped me to see how sweet it is.  She also likes everyone paying attention to her, eating, bath time, rubber duckies, trying to get her hands on things she shouldn’t, tickles, smooches, her paci

Dislikes: getting dressed, having toys/items taken away, being tired, very loud noises or being startled