Weight:  16 lbs. She is still little, but she is growing! We love our little Daffodil!

Health: This month has been rough in Daphne’s world. She had her first ear infection. She got a bad cough right before Christmas. I am fairly certain she is cutting a tooth right now, because she has been really fussy and not sleeping so great on and off.

Diet: We are still going strong with the breastfeeding.  I nurse her in the morning and before bed. Then she has two breastmilk bottles and one formula bottle during the day while I am at work. On the weekends, for the most part we avoid the formula and nurse the whole time. Usually, she has a fruit/veggie packet for breakfast, oatmeal for lunch, and then a sample of whatever we are having at dinner. She has tried all kinds of new things:  turkey, pasta, oranges, quinoa, black beans, crackers, and she can eat a whole fruit/veggie packet on her own so she has tried a lot of new flavors that way. Her favorite is still mashed potatoes. We are doing mostly a baby led weaning approach, but we have done some purees mostly by way of the packets. She gets really impatient when food isn’t getting to her fast enough, and she still isn’t super great with her pincer grasp, so again she can get frustrated easily. We just have to remind ourselves that she isn’t eating to get nutrition right now, and we are fully in the exploratory stages.

Clothes: She is mostly in 3-6 month clothes. She can fit into some 6 month sleepers, and most of her pants are 6 months. She is in a size 3 diaper, and size 1 shoe.

Sleeping:  We started using the Zipadee-Zip because she was rolling over in everything else and not happy about the freedom. It has been great. We have had a couple nights where her sleep has been bad but that was because she had the ear infection and is teething. The nights she doesn’t sleep though are so rough for us since we are so used to her good sleep habits. She also hates to snuggle and when she is around anyone else it means it is time to be awake and alert so co-sleeping is not an option when she has a bad night. She still has two naps a day, but the length can vary. When all is right, she goes to bed around 8pm and stays asleep until 6ish am. She hardly ever sleeps past 7am. We have been so lucky that she has been a great sleeper!

Likes:  Eating. I’m still the ultimate pacifier for her. She loves her Dory pez dispenser and her Oogaa teethers. She loves tickles and raspberries on her neck. She is obsessed with George; he can get the biggest smiles out of her. She loves jumping in her saucer. We tried putting her in her walker and jumper, both which we think she would love. However, she is still so little that the seats kind of swallow her up. She loves dancing whether it be when you are holding her or when you do it in front of her.

Dislikes:  She isn’t fond of baths or diaper changes. She is starting to roll around when I change her, which is a super fun development. She hates the bumbo; she just tries to turn around in the thing. She is terrified of the vacuum.

Milestones: She can stand when she is holding on to something. She can’t get there on her own yet though. She enjoyed her first Christmas and New Years. She can drink out of straws. She loves drinking out of my cups and is always clamoring to get them, and she has her own little camel back now that she drinks water out of. She sort of waves at you. It is more of a gimme signal, but it is in response to waves.

Nicknames: Chunker Cheeks, Daphie, and Daphie Girl. The two most common are Daph and Sister. George actually says her name, but he pronounces it as Naphne. 

Quirks:  She is very hard to impress and she makes you work for her smiles. Oh but when she does smile, it can light up a room.

We parents are:  tired. It has been a long taxing month. We both have been putting in extra time at work, which creates for long days. Then we all came down with a bug after Christmas. Thank God my mom is here, otherwise I don’t know how we would have gotten through those couple days. Tom’s grandma passed away this past weekend, so that has been emotionally taxing on everyone. Grammy was such a sweet sassy lady. She always treated me like I had always been one of her grandchildren, and she is one of the few people Daph would smile for without much work. She is going to be greatly missed, and it has been hard to see this loss for Tom and my in-laws.

George is:  doing great. I just can’t get over how great of a big brother he is. He is very helpful and kind to her for the most part. We have been dealing with him stealing her pacy and hiding in corners sucking on it himself. He also struggles a little bit now that she can crawl and get toys that he is playing with. He doesn’t quite understand that some toys are hers, and the idea of sharing is sometimes lost on him. He does insist on putting her to bed every night. If for some reason I put her to bed without him, he will walk in her room anyway after lights are out to tell her goodnight. 

The dogs are:

I cannot believe that 8 months have passed with this sweet little nugget.

Here is George at this age.