Cara is 8 months old!

Cara has changed so much in the last month. Her appearance looks more grown-up, her milestones are coming wave upon wave, her interactivity is blossoming. This is a really great age--it makes me enjoy her so much while also looking forward to the next month and next phases.

Stats: We went to the doctor to get her ears checked out a couple of weeks ago, and she weighed 18-3 lbs. Her weight has kind of plateaued, as her doctor expected. She's still chunky and getting thicker and longer, but she's too nosy and stimulated by other things while she nurses, so her feedings are shorter than they used to be. Official measurements at next month's 9-month checkup, and I'll be interested to see how much she's gained at that point.

Milestones: Where to begin? Cara pulls up easily when holding onto our hands. We say, "Up!" and she puts both hands in the air, grabs our fingers and pulls up. Then we say, "Down!" and she plops back down on her bottom. She's babbling and saying a couple of words: Hi, Dada and bababababababababa. When she drinks her milk, she'll stop halfway through and just babble while looking up at the ceiling. It's the most innocent, sweetest sound to hear. Cara is pushing up on all fours and rocking, but not crawling yet. She's an expert pivoter and can rotate all directions to get to her toys. She pushes backwards instead of army crawling forward, so she often ends up off her blanket onto the carpet around it. She is grabbing things with a pincer grasp, feeding herself puffs and double-fisting toys. She's learned she can take one ring in each hand and bang them together to make a glorious noise. :) She began her new class at daycare last week and is with the "big kid babies". All the babies are 6-11 months, are all in the same phase of mobility and food, and they all play and interact together. When I pick her up, she's in the middle of a group having so much fun that she barely hears my voice. It's great to see her being social and interacting with her friends. The adjustment to that new schedule has gone really smoothly as well, so she's happy each day too. Cara really likes to play peek-a-boo and gets upset when we leave her to play by herself (non-mobile yet--we still have that luxury of putting her down and staying put!). She's a social lady and wants attention all the time. We're glad to oblige. One of her biggest milestones was getting her first tooth! I found it, bottom left, on 4/21, and it's only grown since. She got the tooth the same weekend she got a double ear infection, so it was hard to distinguish which symptoms went with what issue, but it wasn't a very fun weekend for any of us. :(

Behavior: Happy, easygoing, bright-eyed, social, flirtatious, curious, calm--so many things! Cara needs a lot of interaction and attention, from us or from other babies and teachers. She wakes up happy, loves to play with her toys, sits and talks to us and is happy just to be with us and whatever we're doing. She is learning to pose for the camera sometimes and is just really interested in everything going on around her. I keep thinking that curiosity will lead to her becoming mobile, but so far she's content to pivot, reach and grab, observe and take it all in. She is still cuddly and sweet, though she doesn't fall asleep on my shoulder too much anymore... Those days may be temporarily gone, so I will know to savor them again when they return. There isn't much better than a sweet baby asleep on your chest--no matter how big or small!

Sleep: She's still doing so well with this one. Even when she had her ear infection and teething, she can still sleep through the night. Sometimes when she doesn't feel well it's harder to get her to sleep at first, but once she's out she usually stays asleep (no jinx, no jinx, no jinx). She sleeps at night from 8:30-7. Her nap/feeding schedule is changing a little bit in her new daycare class (all babies on the same schedule together instead of keeping track of each individual newborn), but her morning nap is around 9:30-11:30. She sleeps again at 2:30-4 or 4:30. Just two longer naps a day now; the 3rd catnap fell off a while ago. But she's happy in the evenings without a last nap, so it's fine. She knows immediately when we set her in her crib that it's time to sleep. I feed her right before bedtime, and we usually rock her before naptime so she lays her little head down, wrenches her bum up in the air and her knees under her body and settles in. It's really cute to watch.

Clothes: She's in 6-9 still. I've realized that some months we have more clothes than we have time for (like Sunday church clothes--there are only so many Sundays in a 3-month time period). I've been sending her to school in separates or short rompers and no more pjs because she needs her feet free to pull up, stand and push off the floor into a crawling position.

Food: This hasn't changed much lately. Her schedule and mine work like this: 5:30 am-up to pump (6-8 oz, feed her 6). Cara wakes up at 7 and has a bottle. She eats fruit + cereal (3 tbsp + 2 ice cubes of fruit--pears, peaches, mangoes, blueberries, cherries, bananas, applesauce) at 9:20 before a nap. She eats another 6 oz bottle at 11:30-45 and then veggies (3 ice cubes, usually sweet potatoes or butternut squash plus something else mixed in like green beans, carrots, zucchini, peas) at 2:30. She nurses at 5:30, has 3 cubes of veggies or 2 veggies and 2 fruits at 6:30 and nurses before bed at 7:45-8. Meanwhile, I pump at school at 8:10 and 12:30. I'm producing less milk, but she's also getting older. There are only 5 weeks left of school schedule, so we can make it easily. I have been making her food consistently, and I love it. It satisfies my enjoyment of being in the kitchen, I only have to do it about every 2-3 weeks, it makes a ton and it saves us money. I cooked 2 butternut squash on 3/14, and we still have many servings left. Holy moly.

Likes: bathtime! Cara loves playing and splashing in the tub with her ducky-makes me excited for a splash pool this summer, pulling up on our hands, giving kisses, bouncing in her jumper, playing with Po, being tossed in the air, having her tummy, feet and underarms tickled, hearing us make funny noises, doing the "baby dance" on her tummy-where she moves her arms, feet and body in a simultaneous shake, chewing on her rings or any toy, the ball popper toy, hearing our voices when we pick her up from daycare, being outside

Dislikes: having her nose wiped, diaper rash cream, laying down on the changing pad (unless you're tickling her), being left alone, teething, getting manicures and pedicures--she won't sit still long enough to get her nails clipped

Favorite moments: Oh, there are plenty. One of the best this month was going to a wedding of Chance's college roommate in Nacogdoches, TX. It meant leaving Cara for 3 whole days, but Buck & Mimi were only too happy to watch her. Chance and I got to get away, have fun at the wedding festivities and see some old friends. Cara had tons of fun at "Camp Mimi". It's been really fun to watch her grow into a little girl and picture what she'll be like in a few months now that we're seeing shades of her personality.

It was also wonderful to start to meet some of Cara's new friends this month! There have been several boys that we've been expecting for many months, and the first few were born at the end of April. We met Liam Reitmeier on 4/20--he weighed exactly what Cara did, but I can't remember her ever being so small! Liam is Cara's first new friend, and Chance and Mark were babies together too. That's really sweet. Next came Reed Hill on 4/23, and it was all I could do to keep from leaving school that morning and racing to the hospital. I did leave on my lunch/conference to go meet his sweet boy for whom we've prayed, waited and loved for months already. A few days after he went home, Cara got to meet him too, and they wore their camo for the big occasion. Reed and Cara are going to be second-generation best friends, and it's so much fun to think about watching them grow up together. We also met baby Everett on 4/29, but we didn't get a picture together. Baby Jackson is coming in a week or less, so that means 4 new boyfriends for Cara. What an exciting time!

Most challenging: Again, sickness. Cara got the double ear infection and tooth in mid-April, which had her home from daycare, on amoxicillin, Tylenol, Motrin, Orajel, etc. My sweet, happy baby was gone, and it was so sad. She just wanted to cuddle with me and Chance and was pitiful. I hate to see her in pain and not her usual disposition. I know sickness is a part of baby life, but it's the worst.

Looking forward to: Crawling, but not babyproofing, words and walking, her first birthday party (I've already been planning for a month or so...). In the short term, I'm just looking forward to catching her new milestones and giving her all the attention she wants and making her feel loved.

Bonus: Here are a couple of videos of Cara being tickled and pulling "UP!"