Lena: 8 Months

Lena Lou is 8 months old today. I feel like she's grown so much and developed so much personality in the past month!

Routine
Still very similar to last month. She wakes up right around 7. Takes a morning nap and afternoon nap. The evening nap has become hit or miss. If she doesn't take one, I struggle to keep her awake 'til 7:00. If she does get that evening nap, she usually goes to bed a little later.

Eating
We haven't made much progress with solid food. Actually, she's already becoming picky. I've made the mistake of giving her bread, which has become her new favorite food. She wants nothing to do with fruits or vegetables. I've given her slices of pear and apple this month straight from my dad's trees. She sucks on them for a little while, then throws the slice on the floor. And she's totally over eating food in the mesh feeder. That goes straight on the floor as well. I tried avocado slices again recently. Not a fan. I bought some sweet potatoes and carrots this week. I'm going to try roasting them for her. We'll see!

She loves puffs, but I think they really make her constipated. So I've been trying to avoid giving her too many. And she had apple juice for the first time this week.

Sleep
Nothing has changed on the sleep front, except that she's been going to bed much easier. It used to be a long process of rocking, singing, laying her down, listening to her scream until I couldn't take it, then rocking and singing some more. Haha. We've finally gotten into a good rhythm. I rock her and sing 4 songs, then lay her down awake. She has 2 loveys - one on each side of her head - that she grabs onto, and she usually goes right to sleep. Still waking up every 3 hours throughout the night though! Lucy was sleeping through the night by this age. Sigh.

Milestones and Personality
She started scooching last Tuesday and has gotten pretty adept at it since then! She can get onto her belly from a sitting position. So when I sit her down by her toys, then go sit on the couch, she flings herself onto her belly and scooches to me crying until I pick her up. Haha. 

She pulls up on her little toy bin all the time. But she has horrible balance and just ends up toppling over.

She still adores walking. She shrieks happily anytime someone holds her hands and lets her walk around. She would do that allll day if I would let her.

Before her constipation problems started, jumping in the Jumparoo made her poop almost every time without fail! Haha. I renamed it the pooparoo.

She's started to spit out her binky when she knows I'm going to feed her. It usually pops out as soon as I sit down in the rocker. :-)

She loves the bath. She actually gets really mad when I take her out.

She hates getting dressed or having her diaper changed. And she is not a fan of having her nose wiped.

Lucy and Lola always elicit smiles and shrieks of joy. But Mama is still her favorite. I started getting called out of church this month because she doesn't last the whole service in the nursery. She sure makes me feel loved! The feeling is mutual. ;-)