8 Months Old

This post is about 2 weeks late (oops), but Brooklyn turned 8 months old!!  We were actually vacationing in San Diego on her 8 month birthday, so we thought it would be fun to take some pictures on the beach, in addition to pictures at home.

Brooklyn absolutely loved the beach.  The water was a bit cold still...but if it wasn't so cloudy and windy, it wouldn't have been too bad.  So she wasn't able to really sit in the water, but she loved crawling around (and eating) sand!

As far as what happened this past month in regards to her likes/dislikes and development:

• Brooklyn started crawling just after she turned 7 months old!  Her first successful crawl of more than one or two steps was across the ABC mat to get to Flounder (a stuffed animal from The Little Mermaid).  Now that she's crawling, her thighs are thinning out also...but those cheeks are still little chipmunk cheeks!
• She began clapping.  She claps for everything now.  When she is proud of her self and is being praised by us for doing something, she claps.  And now her claps are even beginning to make some noise!
• Brooklyn attended her first Diamondbacks game (baseball) on Mother's Day.  We made a sign stating that, and we ended up on TV!  They even stayed on us for quite a while!

• Toward the end of the month she started pulling up on to her knees.  I actually walked in to her room to get her after she woke up from a nap one day and she was up on her knees in her crib!  Now she's beginning to try to get all the way to her feet!
• We had been attending a class called Baby Gym at a gymnastics center in town. It's free and just lets the babies move and socialize.  It's for 6 months - 18 months, so there is a wide range of kids.  We created a little group of about 5 kids (and mommies) that were all within 2 months of Brooklyn.  She loved it. We played with toys, practiced crawling, tumbled (front rolls and back rolls - assisted obviously), and bounced on the trampoline.  Unfortunately they have a really awesome summer camp too, so Baby Gym went on hiatus through the summer.  So now we have to find something else to do - we're thinking music class.
• Brooklyn also started eating Puffs this month - they're basically a dried cereal that is designed to dissolve really quickly.  It helps her start learning how to mash food in her mouth and swallow it.  The first time she tried them she didn't seem to particularly like them...but now she LOVES them.  She also started drinking out of a sippy cup.  Even tho it's spill-proof, she still ended up with more water on her shirt than in her mouth! I finally figured out it's because she was sucking too much water in to her mouth than she was able to swallow.  But now she's getting much better and doesn't wear nearly as much water.

I can't believe my baby is already 8 months old.  The time is flying by.  I just love the age she's at though because she's able to do more (though admittedly it's exhausting running after her now), and she can really start interacting with you. Her personality is really showing now - stubborn little thing.  Though I'm finding I miss certain things already - like how small and cuddly she was.  Now I'm lucky if I can get her to sit through a bedtime story!!

I'm looking forward to everything that happens the next month!  Brooklyn will turn 9 months just days before we fly for the first time with her to Florida to attend my grandma's funeral.  If anyone has any tips on flying with a baby, please leave them in the comments!