8 Months Old...

My big little girl is 8 months old today! She is such a cutie and so fun to be around...can't say enough about that! I keep thinking "this age is my favorite" at every stage but I love seeing her personality come out and being able to interact with her...she is the apple of my eye and I know her daddy misses her like crazy...we send him lots of pictures and he can check the blog too!

Here are some things Riley is doing at 8 months of age:

• Sleeping 10-12 hours at night...we love those 12 hour nights especially if they are on the weekend so we can sleep in too...but if she happens to wake up at 6:30 on the weekend we take advantage of guggling (that is cuddling in our family) time and let her sleep on one of our chests for a little longer!
• Grabbing everything and pointing at things...she likes to bang her toys together and make noise as well
• Playing fetch with mom and dad...especially when she is in her highchair she likes to take her toys and play with them and then throw them on the ground and then repeat and repeat
• Clapping like a pro and waving sometimes as well...we love to play clappy clappy!
• Very close to crawling...she can move in a complete 360 degree circle on her tummy and sometimes backwards but no forward movement yet...she has yet to get her legs up under her body...she is also trying to figure out how to get from a sitting up position to a crawling position...I'm telling ya she will be moving before I know it!
• Much better at not crying when someone leaves the room...still happens some but we have progressed!
• Still eating like a champ...I attempted some Stage 3 foods this past week and I don't think we're ready for that...she didn't quite know what to do with the noodles in the spaghetti and it was making me a little nervous because of the gagging faces she was making so we aborted and are not rushing on those...the jar says "around 8 months"...maybe we'll slowly work them in and work on getting a few more teeth!
• Speaking of teeth...she has two very noticeable bottom teeth...they just keep creeping up...she still gnaws on everything so there are soon to be more teeth making their debut
• She is talking more and more and has started roaring like a monster in an attempt to play with whomever she is roaring at...with the roaring comes mimicking and it is SOOOO cute...I will roar at her and then she will roar back at me and so on and so forth...we both end up giggling because it is so fun!
• We are working on Peek A Boo...she's getting the hang of it!
• She can give kisses...her dad was much more successful at getting open mouth kisses than I have been but I have managed to get a few!
• She is now making diaper changing a little more difficult because she tries to roll all over the changing mat and grab things out of the baskets so that is a lot of fun!
• Lastly, this girl has got some rhythm...I have found that she loves music and starts laughing and dancing when she hears it...last weekend I was playing RockBand with CJ and Gaby and Riley was sitting on a blanket right beside all of us and she was clapping, rocking back and forth, and making noise the ENTIRE time we were playing...today I put her in her car seat and turned the car on and as soon as the Texas Country music came on she just grinned and started grooving in her car seat...she knows how to have a good time!

Happy 8 Months Miss Riley!