Sally Wally, 8 Months Old

 

Noah has given his sister a new nickname, and it seems to be sticking: Sally Wally.  Sometimes we even call her "Wally" for short. :)

This baby girl is pure joy.  She is such a delight.

She can crawl on hands and knees but still prefers to army crawl because she can get around so much faster that way.  I recently read a Baby Center email that described different types of crawls, and I laughed aloud at this description because it so perfectly fits our Sal: "a soldier bellying through the underbrush."  Yes, that's exactly what it looks like.  She is so strong, fast, and determined when she's on the move.

This past week, she started pulling up to standing, and it is the cutest thing ever.  Problem is, she hasn't figured out how to sit back down so she gets super angry once her legs get tired.  This has made naps interesting. :)  Always something!

She still gets sick a lot, and it breaks my heart.  She has a perma-runny nose.

She is really busy and climbs on and grabs at everything.  She learned to climb stairs earlier this month at Bapa's house.  Unfortunately, she still hasnt learned how to turn backwards to come down.  (Good thing we don't have any stairs in our house, though she does climb the one step to the fireplace.)  At this moment, she is trying to climb on my lap and type you all a message.  It is quite difficult to type with a wiggly eight-month old on my lap... :)

 

She loves her reflection.  She finds herself in everything--windows, appliances, the van door, and of course mirrors.  It's so cute because the minute she spots herself, she waves.  I'm sure she doesn't consciously know what she is doing, but she just likes to see the movement of her hand and body, and it's like she is greeting herself with a cheery hello.  She actually waves at people a lot in response to them smiling at her or waving at her, but I don't think she knows what she is doing--just practicing moving her body.

She has the most delicious cheeks and jowls.  She is our baby bull dog.

She loves to play with doorstops.  She could sit there and boing them for 20 minutes and never lose interest.

She loves to put anything and everything in her mouth but has never been able to use a pacifier because she has a tongue-thrust.  She eats lots of table foods.  We kind of skipped the whole baby food thing.  I was too busy with Noah (or just too lazy?) and she wasn't that interested in purees.  Now we just give her pieces of whatever we are eating at meals, and she gums it down.  Still no teeth but she does surprisingly well with food, and most of her nutrition still comes from her bottles anyway.

I said in the last post that she is sleeping through the night, but I think I jumped the gun on that one.  She is usually up once a night at some point, ranging anywhere from about 2 a.m.-5 a.m.  It's not too bad for Mom and Dad.  And she is so snuggly when you feed her at night--lays her head on your shoulder and cuddles in to the crook of your neck when she's done eating.  It's one of my favorite moments with her.  

She is portable and will take cat-naps in her carseat if we are out and about.  She doesn't usually take long naps, even at home in her crib, but she's generally happy when she's awake, so I try not to let the lack of naps bother me.

She has the sweetest temperament. She makes her needs known if she is really tired, sick, or hungry, but even when she's fussy, she's still pretty easy to manage.  We hit the jackpot with this pretty little lady.

 

We can't get enough of our little Sally Wally!

Stop growing up so fast, Princess!!