8 months

As the months pass and Elizabeth becomes more active, it is harder to keep up the blog.  I am so exhausted in the evenings and just want to go to bed.  Greg is now working nights and it is also hard on me during the week.  I love my babies (Greg and E) so much but sometimes I just wish I had the normal family life of Mommy and Daddy home in the evenings.  I really do understand that every life is different and I am lucky to at least have a great father that is around for Elizabeth... it could be worse.  So, in the evenings after Elizabeth is sound asleep, exhaustion takes over and I usually cry myself to sleep in a very empty bed.  Maybe I should invest in a twin size bed so that I don't feel so alone in my big bed.  I really do try and stay strong for Elizabeth but sometimes just the feeling of being a horrible parent to the most beautiful baby gets the best of me.  Then the guilt sets in.  But so too shall this pass...

Elizabeth turned eight months old last week and I haven't even posted her pictures.  Now that she is on the move and I mean really on the move, it is so hard to get a picture.  Just like this morning I wanted to take a picture of her all dressed for Flag day parade at school and she would not sit still or look at the camera.  I was never around a lot of babies and it continues to amaze me at what they learn and know.  A lot of the things I don't think she could learn at eight months she has already mastered.  Then there are also things that she should be doing that she isn't. I love her so much and just typing this makes me feel guilty for the self-pity I just had above.  Elizabeth at eight months is starting to develop her own personality with likes/dislikes and definitely a little attitude to boot! (I don't know where she gets that from :))  She is stubborn, smart, funny, lovable, and just plain cute!  Here are some of the things this little eight month old is doing:

• pulling up and walking around everything... also walking with her toy.  She is getting really good at this and we have a feeling she will be walking soon because she is getting braver and braver by the day and now just lets go and stands there with excellent balance. 
• climbing!  Plus scaring the crap out of us!  She has master the climb.  This past weekend she was playing at my mom's and pushed one of her toys against the ottoman then climbed on top of the toy and tried to climb on top of the ottoman.  She will try and climb out of the bathtub by climbing up on the inflatable duck.  Anything she can get a knee on or a good grip, she will climb.
• feeding herself munchies, puffs, and rice rusks.
• moving on to table food very slowly.  This is a hard thing for her daddy to get a handle on... he wants her to eat pureed food the rest of her life so she doesn't choke!
• Clapping!  Yep, our future musician can clap her hands now.  It is so cute and she usually only does it if people are cheering and clapping or if she hears the ABC song.  I contribute this one and probably everything else she knows to daycare... she learns so much from that place!
• she LOVES music.  We always have music on because she loves to dance to everything.  Sometimes she will be playing on the floor with a toy and a commercial will come on with music, she will stop and look up and start dancing.  So funny.
• No real words yet but we try so hard to get her to say Momma or DaDa.  Sometimes it sounds like she says Momma but I don't really know.  It also sounds like she says Bye Bye too but again, I don't really know. 
• She definitely knows who her parents are now and will follow us around like crazy.  If someone puts her hands up to take her she will throw herself into us like she doesn't want to go.  I don't want a clingy baby so I am really trying to get her used to everyone she sees.
• We are still working on the sippy cup thing but I know if we just force her to drink from it, she will get used to it.  She would rather drink what we have in our cup from our cup.  The other day she was drinking my tea from my cup and I put a little in her sippy cup and she didn't want it anymore!
• She still only has her bottom two teeth but I always think that she is getting her top two and then nothing.  Who knows.

Here is the little princess at eight months!  (and since she can't talk yet, I put some comments of what I thought she might be saying!)

"Is it really THAT time of the month again!"

 "I think I will have a snack!"

 "Daddy, save me!"

 "Lean back... Lean back..."
 (that is what her Uncle sings to her all the time!)

 "Please tell me we are through... I have had enough!"