Gracie month to month: 8 months

This summer seems like such a whirlwind. Even though it's now the middle of July, I'm taking us back to May when Gracie turned 8 months. 

Here is my big eight month old! 

She had a terrible cold when I took these pictures, but as you can see, she was as happy as can be!

I'm not sure if you can tell from these pictures, but Gracie has a rockin tan on her legs these days. But, only on her legs. :) We spend a lot of time outside in the mornings; the girls get a ride in the jogging stroller while I get a workout pushing it. We've done 187 miles since April 21 when I started keeping up with our distance and we all have major farmer tans because of it. The girls legs stick out from under the stroller sun shade and I have a wonderful tan from my tank tops, running shorts and tennis shoes. It's lovely. :)

Gracie made me one proud mamma this month. She started the army man crawl a few weeks ago back in April, but on May 25th, I walked into our living room and she was crawling around on her hands and knees. I couldn't believe it, she officially started crawling on MY BIRTHDAY, JUST LIKE HER BIG SISTER. I'm not kidding. Isn't that crazy??!??! The funny thing was, I forgot Ella Claire crawled for the first time on my birthday until I saw Gracie doing it. It was just a little bit special for me. 

Gracie pulled up right around 8 months, got her first tooth (bottom, front left), and learned to gives kisses(pure sweetness). Major milestones for this little girl. She also got to eat cheerio's, sweet peas, plain yogurt and cheese this month. This as you can imagine, made her very happy. It made me happy too. Eating and entertainment all wrapped up in one!

These days are flying by! Gracie is still not sleeping through the night, but she is so pleasant and such a sweet baby. All that sweetness is making up for her my lack of sleep! Love this baby and her sleepless self!

 Gracie at 7 months

busy bodies....

...that's what I've got on my hands these days; two little busy bodies. I think Gracie will be walking within the next month or so and then I'll really have two busy bodies! Right now, our days are as predictable as I can get them, but not as predictable as I would prefer. I can count on Ella Claire to sleep 3-4 hours every day. But, I never know if Gracie is going to take a 30 minute nap, a 15 minute nap or her favorite, no nap at all! How can a baby not nap? She is small for her age and I'm convinced it's because she doesn't sleep.  A full day with no naps leaves plenty of time to play though, and that we do! :)

I had to document Gracie's first time crawling into our kitchen to find me!

Ella Claire LOVES her toddler Bible.  Poor thing, we're going to have to buy her a new one because hers has fallen apart many times despite us taping it back together every other day. What's that saying...."A Bible that is falling apart usually belongs to a person that isn't." 

        

Sweetest birthday card I've ever received.

It's been a busy summer so far. We seem to go from one activity to the other. Life is full right now and we are soaking it up and enjoying each other! I'll be back soon though, with Grace's 8 and 9 month pictures.