Now that Maribelle is a sophisticated eight-month-old, we decided to take her to the place all big kids go: the playground!!! We even let her wear a pair of shoes for the special occasion (She's been barefoot all summer, but I must say, I love, love, LOVE this pair of Vans shoes!). We're lucky that our little neighborhood has quite a few playgrounds, so I think we may become "regulars" now. Maribelle loved the swings, and I even had the chance to meet a few of the moms in our neighborhood. It's amazing how many more people we're meeting now (translate: who want to
talk to us now) that we have an adorable little girl to "
ohhhh" and "
awwww" over. We've met more neighbors in the past eight months than we have in the six years we've lived here!
Anyways, I digress. Let's talk about what Miss Rosie Posie is doing now in her eighth month:
* She's happy and she knows it, so she claps her hands! Maribelle gets such a kick out of smacking her little chubby hands together, and thinks that 2 or 3 a.m. is the best time to practice her new trick.
* However when she's NOT happy, she's doing the polar opposite and throwing tantrums and giving us plenty of 'tude. All of a sudden our little darling has lost all patience for the most fundamental of baby activities, things like being strapped into her car seat, getting dressed for the day, laying down to have her diaper changed and, of course, having a toy taken away from her (or anything else she’s preoccupied with at that moment). And when I say tantrum, I mean a full-on back arching, breath holding, leg stiffening tantrum. I had no idea tantrums happen at such an early age!
* She's a wiggly, wiggly worm to hold these days and basically lunges at everything she sees. She wants to touch EVERYTHING.
* She says “dada” pretty much all day long and throws in the occasional “blahblah,” "naanaa" and the more elusive “mumm mumm.”
* She does really well standing up against furniture. However, I've learned no matter how stable and sturdy she seems to be, you still can’t turn your back for a second. I’m not even going to elaborate on how I know that.
* She loves small details, like buttons, jewelry, clasps, hair, guitar strings and Velcro. It's the cutest thing to see her all mesmerized by the tiniest things.
* She's still not sleeping through the night, but her sleep has gotten much, much better. The past few days she's been going to bed around 7:30 p.m. and is up for the day between 6 and 6:30 a.m., with one feeding around 4-5ish. However she still has nights when she completely forgets how to sleep and is up and down all night long.
Here's a recent video of Maribelle exploring her "pincer grasp" and enjoying a feast of white bread crumbs. It's pretty much my favorite thing to watch her pick up tiny crumbs and to hear all the little mouth noises that she makes as she eats them. It kinda makes me want to eat HER and all her cuteness!
