Annabelle is 8 months old! And our little lady is so mobile! It’s almost as though I blink my eyes and she’s started crawling faster, standing more, and walking along side everything so much more confidently.  Annabelle’s teachers keep telling me that she’s a daredevil and likes to hang out with the “big kids” (you know, the 1-year olds).  I’m starting to realize what they mean; she just has all kind of energy and never wants to stop moving.

This weekend I helped host a BBQ and diaper party for some friends of mine who are having their third child this summer and it’s been the first time we’ve all got together since my friends and I have had babies (and since our little ones are old enough to realize that there are other babies around). It was so much fun to see Annabelle play with some of the kids I hope she grows up around and becomes friends with.  I see lots of play dates coming in the near future.

Although Annabelle is very mobile now, it’s still so much easier to take her places because she’s able to sit on her own and doesn’t need her carrier. Restaurants specifically have become a whole lot easier.  Meeting friends up for dinner or drinks with Annabelle is actually fun.  We’re training Annabelle early to be an awesome restaurant patron.  So this week Annabelle and I met a girlfriend of mine for a little sushi.  Annabelle was great, eating her dinner and smiling at everyone.

Annabelle helped  cheer my sister Jodi on this weekend.  Here’s a picture of the two of them right before Jodi ran her 5K race.  Annabelle loves supporting her family!

Here are a few party pictures of Annabelle and two of her friends, Rowan and Emma.  Rowan wasn’t too happy with Annabelle’s overwhelming personality.  She was all about getting in his personal space and he wasn’t.  I wish I could have gotten a better picture of Emma and Annabelle but there were just too many more exciting things going on than smiling for a picture.

And again, one week later and I’ve seen a fourth tooth getting ready to poke out (I hope this doesn’t continue—at this pace we’ll have a whole set of teeth within the month). We now how two vampire teeth up top and two front and center on the bottom.

And another first to add to our book of Annabelle treasures, she got her first incident report from school. And this also happened to be Annabelle’s first major accident as well. The culprit, a toy horse. Have I mentioned how movable Annabelle is and that’s she’s not only standing up but walking along furniture, walls, people, and anything she can get her hands on. Well, this time around she stood up next to a toy horse with wheels, the horse moved and she toppled over, hitting her face on the horse. It all happened on one of the busiest days for both Dusty and I (isn’t that how it always happens).  I was helping host a conference for more than 50 undergraduate students from around Nebraska and Dusty was heading to South Dakota.

I had just introduced our morning keynote speaker and heading to the back of the room when I noticed that I had just gotten a call from daycare. I called back and they said she had fallen and gotten a cut right below her eye. It had stopped bleeding but they suggested we stop by to take a look at it and make sure we didn’t think it needed any extra attention. Dusty stopped as he was heading out of town and said it looked just fine. By the time I picked her up at the end of the day she was as happy as a lark and you wouldn’t have known anything had happened, if it weren’t for the bruise and cut under her eye. And as you can see from her weekly pictures taken five days later, you can’t even see a thing.  It’s crazy how fast kids heal. Here’s a picture of that darn toy horse. I wanted to get a picture of Annabelle’s bruised face for posterity sake but by the next day you could barely tell there was anything worth talking about.

Our newest treat for Annabelle this week was an avocado.  Loved it!

And of course everyone’s always asking, how’s Annabelle sleeping?  My answer, she’s sleeping! Not through the night but she’s in a good routine.  She wakes up 1-3 times each night/early morning.  Sometimes she wakes up more but most of the time it just takes a minute of snuggling from mom or dad and she falls back to sleep.

Annabelle had spring break at school and got Friday off so I took her to work with me. Here she is helping me restock the paper.

We also celebrated Easter. So much fun! My family throws a huge Easter egg hunt every year and this year we had absolutely beautiful weather!  Her eggs were filled with baby snack foods and cookies.  She loved them! And then Sunday we went to Dusty’s family to celebrate the holiday! Two days filled with family, delicious food, and lots of smiles!

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One week later and we’ve found a second tooth!  This time it’s on the top a bit to the right side.  And as we were trying to feel around in that little mouth of hers it feels as though there’s another one ready to pop out on the upper left side.

Our little cookie monster!  We’ve started to feed Annabelle more.  Instead of just two/three ounces of food at lunch and the same for dinner she’s getting three/four ounces at lunch, another two for her afternoon snack and then at least two ounces for dinner.  We tried pureed broccoli this week. Surprise! She liked it.  I don’t think there’s anything she doesn’t like.  We’ve even started feeding her little bits of banana.

Annabelle had picture day at school this week.  When I first saw the announcement on the quarterly newsletter we get I was a little intrigued.  First, picture day at daycare? Second, how in the heck are they going to take a “school” picture of a 7-month old?  To answer the first question, yes, picture day at daycare.  And to answer the second, in the infant room they only take a group picture of all the kiddos (not sure how it goes with the older kids) so no individual “school” pictures yet.

Of course, I wanted Annabelle to look super cute for her first classroom picture so I gave her a bath in the morning, brushed her hair and proceeded to put on a super cute outfit.  She promptly spit up all over her super cut outfit so we put on her second cutest outfit.

I left for a work trip to Phoenix at the end of the week and I think it might have been even sadder to leave her for just this one night than it was to leave her when she was 3-months old and I left her for 5 days.  I survived and when I returned she was saying dada.  It was something closer to dadadadada-gagaga-nanana with dada in the middle but she’s got the “d” sound down.  No mama or “m” sound yet but I’m sure it’ll come soon enough.  Now just trying to help her understand that when she says dada that she’s referring to the guy that hangs around the house all the time is another story.

The biggest news of the week is that we’ve found our first tooth!!  It’s reasons like this that I love writing weekly updates.  On Sunday (March 30) Dusty was playing with Annabelle and made the discovery.  It’s one of the bottom middle ones.  This means teething has begun.  I promptly got out the baby Tylenol and teething gel to help relieve some of this pain that has to be coming but we haven’t noticed any real changes in her demeanor and she doesn’t seem to bothered by this foreign object in her mouth.  I had assumed the negative effects of getting teeth started right at away but nothing yet.  All I hope is that it’s not too rough on her when it all starts. Read more information about Delaney Park Dental for oral health and hygiene.

This week Annabelle had a couple of play dates with her cousins.  It’s so much fun to watch them all together.  Emma and Mia take turns carrying her around the living room and making her laugh.  They have this game they play where one of them gets to try to make Annabelle laugh and once she does the other gets a turn.  They go back and forth like this while I’m watching from the kitchen, trying to get some dishes done.  I’m so amazed that even though Annabelle and her cousins are more than 7 years apart that they have so much fun together.

Now that she’s getting a bit older and has started getting teeth I wanted to introduce some new foods.  Annabelle ate pureed plums and zucchini this week.  As always, she did fine with both.  I think the zucchini is a little less flavorful for her and isn’t as exciting as some off the other foods.  We’ve been mixing the zucchini with other foods to make it a bit more tasty.

Evenings at home are a lot of fun.  She’s old enough now that she can play on the kitchen floor when we make dinner.  While Dusty’s cooking I’ll prepare some dinner for Annabelle and feed her.  And then I’ll give her a few baby buff snacks that she can gnaw on for a bit.  She’ll play for a bit longer and then right before or right after dinner I nurse her before going to bed.

Putting Annabelle to bed is usually a family affair.  Now that I think about it, it’s not only bedtime but anytime she needs a new diaper or a new outfit.  She’s such a wiggler and wants to be on all fours or sitting that laying down for a diaper change or to get pajamas on involves Dusty entertaining her while I carefully maneuver around and change her.  In the mornings I’ll hold her, facing Dusty and while he talks to her I’ll put her onsie on and then Dusty quickly puts pants on her.  If there’s only one of us she’s already crawled across the room with a shirt around her head, naked from the neck down.