8 month state of the Willa address

Look at her, acting all casual about being such a big girl!

Our little miss is eight months old!  In the past month she sprouted her top two teeth, leading to quite a toothy smile.  She is doing well with nursing, not biting too much, but she definitely likes to take those pearly whites on test drives with everything in sight.  Her favorite thing to nom is anything cardboard or paper, so we have had to be vigilant about keeping those things away to avoid ingesting any!  She has also started to grind her little teeth, which sends chills up and down Mommy's spine.  I'm hoping I can redirect her to other teethers often enough that she will stop, but for now, yikes!

She has started going to the Little Gym twice a week, as of last week.  It's a fun class for her to take with other kids her age, and I appreciate the time to meet up with other parents.  They have lots of fun, padded areas for her to experiment with crawling, walking, and even hanging from bars (although she isn't doing much of the latter two just yet).  They have fun songs, coach the parents in spotting some flips and rolls, and paves the way for her to continue to attend classes as she grows.  Given how uncoordinated I was as a kid, I hope that this will help her avoid my fate!

She still sleeps very well, but her schedule is steadily creeping earlier.  She's been getting sleepier in the evening, usually around 9 or 9:30, and I can get her asleep by 10:30, which is about an hour earlier than it used to be.  Subsequently, her days have started earlier as well.  Today she started stirring at 6:50 and was fully awake by 7:30, much to Mommy's chagrin.  Luckily, she's good about waking up happy and talking to herself long enough for me to get a shower and become fully conscious before needing to get her up.  I just need to keep all this in mind so that I make sure to push my bedtime earlier to compensate ;-).

Willa continues to be a champion eater.  She has graduated to lots of pureed fruits, vegetables, and savory baby foods.  She loves the fruit the best, and has been known to polish off an entire jar of apples or pears.  She is up to three solid meals a day, with snacks in the afternoon and a feeding right before bed.  There has yet to be anything she refuses to eat, but she gets tired of the poultry based food the fastest.  She likes to assert her independence with her sippy cup, often refusing to drink from it while I'm holding it but immediately picking it up when I set it down.  That's my girl!