Emily: You are EIGHT Months Old!

Today is Wednesday, September 26, 2012 and YOU are EIGHT Months old! Today is also Nana's Birthday!!!

Wow, here we are again! 8 Months, Little Miss E! Wasn't I just pregnant with you? Oh yeah, I was! And yet, another glorious month in you sweet life has rushed by, with Momma still demanding time to stand still.

You have grown so much in the last month! You are now almost 20 lbs and now finally weigh MORE than NATALEE, who is 13 months older than you! You were weighed on Wednesday, September 12th and you weighed exactly 18 lbs. 

You have the biggest thighs, girlfriend and I hope your little itty-bitty feet can hold them up! I love everyone of your little rolls!

You love to eat and suck on your feet and toes! You are very flexible.

There is no denying that you LOVE to eat. You open your mouth as wide as you can for every single bite. You would eat all real food and have no bottles if I let you. There isn't anything that you don't like. You eat breakfast, lunch and dinner now. At least two jars at each meal, sometimes three!!!! Like I said, PORK-CHOP!

You are constantly giggling and smiling. You love to laugh and I love to hear you laugh.

You love that your highchair is next to the window and often you will stare out the window at the birdies and the trees.

You are a big drooler. You are always sucking on something.

You can find the tag of anything and you love to play with them on anything. Just like your Momma.

You are a great sleeper. You sleep from 8PM to 7:30AM. You take one nap from 12:30PM to 4:00PM. Sometimes I give literally FIVE minutes in the am if you are fussy and must have a nap (or if you happened to wake up really early!).

You are in size 4 diapers because of your big thighs!

You can wear almost the same size as your big sisters. You aren't as long, but you are growing like a weed! You can wear 9 month, 9-12 months, 12 months and even some 18 months stuff. Six months is pretty tight on you now and I have packed it all up. Your sleepers are all 9 and 12 months.

You have grayish-brown eyes and light brown hair. Your skin is beautiful! You have long eyelashes and perfect little pink lips.

Your two bottom teeth are ALMOST here!!!!!! Ahh! I cannot wait, but I will miss that toothless smile of yours.

You are still the most easy-going baby ever. Seriously, all babies should be as good and as easy as you!

You have really started to show a lot of interest in crawling. You get up on all fours and rock back and forth just like your sisters did. It won't be long until you are chasing after them!

You love to swing still!

You LOVE to watch the TV, especially in the dark!

You love your bathies!

You love your pink bear lovie and your paci.

We LOVE you so much, Ems! You are such a blessing to our family and we couldn't imagine our lives without you!

Madelynn, Claire and Natalee, You are 8 Months Old!

Where has the time gone!?! I cannot believe you girls are 8 months old today! My big girls!

Playing:

Madelynn, you are crawling like crazy! You can get anywhere you want to in a matter of minutes! You love to pull up the mat and chew on it and the blanket is no deterant for you! You crazy girl!

The big pen will be up very soon, because you have escaped the mat many times.

You love to sit up, but still need some assistance.

One day a few weeks ago something funny happened: you and your sister, Claire were on the floor next to one another playing and you pulled your sisters arm over and pushed it back behind her so you could grab her toy and bring into your pile! You are too funny! Momma saw though and said, "we don't take toys from our sister"!! LOL!

Madelynn, you also love to suck on your sister, Natalee's feet! You crazy girl! Natalee just loves to laugh at you!

 

You love to pull at our faces and you also love to jump!

Natalee, you love toys now. I was really worried because you were not "playing" like your sisters were, but as soon as I mentioned it to your PT, you started playing just fine and now will pick up toys on your own and bring them to your mouth. You also love to bang on anything that makes noise or lights up. You used to whine the moment I put you in the exersaucer, but now you love it...even though it's not good for you...so "they" say!

You have also started to show interest in holding your own bottle! Praise Jesus!

You are so crazy and love to be upside down and in all these crazy positions!

Nat, you still stand up so much more than your sisters. You still love to suck your thumb and stare at your fingers. You still love to sit back and watch your sisters though, and you have to see where Momma is at all times! You will whine and scream if you don't see your Momma or Daddy.

Claire, you are just still a crazy girl! You love to laugh and talk so much! Your favorite thing to do these days is jump (first time you started and couldn't stop was on 8.15.11! You have also been caught sucking on Natalee's foot!

You still love to wrap yourself in the blankets all of the time, as I have mentioned before!

All of you "talk" so much more these days and Madelynn and Claire, you love to whoop and hollar...it is cute, but sometimes it gets to be a lot of noise!!

You all love to grab anything you can, especially the remotes and phones! It's so funny. You grab at our plates and forks and anything we have!

Eating:

Madelynn, you are the slowest food eater but you suck your bottles down in seconds.  You eat more than just applesauce now, though and you love mango. You just like to harbor food in your mouth, like a little squirrel, which is so funny because the whole time you were in my belly, I called you a little squirrel since you buried yourself down in my pelvis and stayed there the entire pregnancy. You are also very picky about textures. Anything with the slightest thickness, makes you gag still. You refuse to eat cereal, and even if I disguise it really good, you gag instantly.

Claire, you have started the cutest thing: you put your hands over your eyes whenever you drink your bottles, especially when you are tired. I just love it. You still love all food. You are very sensitive to fruit, I think, and we have done a lot of experimenting with you on it. If I give you a vegetable and a fruit in the evening, you are up screaming for hours (wanting to just play and not sleep) so you get no fruit and only a veggie at night, and so far it's really helped with going to bed on time.

Natalee, you have really started drinking more, especially before bedtime. You love most foods, and you have just recently begun to love green beans! You will eat almost all vegtables, expect peas.

All of you drool constantly, but Madelynn and Claire are the worst! I constantly have to put bibs on you, and Claire, you love to pull them off all.of.the.time!!!!

Schedule:

Normal wake-up is between 7:30-10:00am...just depending on how the night went. Each morning, Clalire and Natalee, you get oatmeal cereal with fruit and Madelynn, you get something like Peach Banana Oatmeal or Raisin Cinnamon Oatmeal...something where you have no idea that there is cereal in it. Breakfast is normally between 7:30-9:00am, and then bottles around 11:00am.

I am going to start giving you lunch this month....I've held off as long as I can!

Nap is promptly at 12:30pm and goes until 3:30pm, when Daddy is home! You normally get a bottle then and play for awhile before you start hollaring for dinner!

And for dinner, it starts at 5:00pm, each of you have a veggie and a fruit (expect Claire). On nice days, we go for walks around the neighborhood and then baths (every other night). Speaking of baths, normally now you each shower with Momma. I get in and start with one of you and we just rotate, until everyone is done. It is much easier on Daddy's back and you all love it! I now use the seat I used to use when I was pregnant with you and I put a towell over it (so the tub doesn't slip) and put your bathtub on top of it and it is a perfect situation!

And your bedtime bottles (if you drink them) is normally around 7:30-8:00pm and then to bed it is.

Sleep:

We have had to put up a pack-n-play in our room, and it's known as the "time-out crib" and it's basically for anyone who does not want to go to bed when it's time or wants to play in the middle of the night and I can't risk waking the other girls up. Both Claire and Madelynn have spent the night in this crib and actually everyone sleeps better when one girl isn't in the room....it's strange but it's working. Sometimes someone just wants to talk and yell for an hour while trying to fall asleep, and Natalee is a very light sleeper and gets very mad if she is woken up by her sisters, so I had to figure out something to do. This is working well and something I just adapted to since I have multiples in one room!

Sometimes one or two of you sleep through the night. Each night is very different. Sometimes, you will all be up a lot, sometimes you sleep until 4-5:00am and it's great! It just depends! What works one week, doesn't work the next, so it's a constant effort to figure out what works.

Firsts This Month:

The pool!

Sitting in the quad stroller without carseats!

Visiting with Dr. Stillman!

Natalee- Nana gave you a french fry one Saturday and you LOVED it! We took it away and you had a fit! Haha!

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I love how you all are changing each week and growing so much! It's so fun to watch you transform to bigger little ladies and I can't wait to see what this month holds for us! Mommy and Daddy love you all so much!!!