(videos courtesy my parents, who came over yesterday, took these, and emailed them to me today. if you understand Mandarin, you may get a kick out of my parents’ conversation on the videos. most of the voices are theirs, and I wasn’t even present at the time the videos were taken, except for the couple in which I’m feeding Allie)

Allie turns 8 months tomorrow. Aside from minor setbacks here and there, things have been pretty nice. Today, she resisted both her naps despite being tired enough to fall asleep on us before the transfer to the crib. I had to give up after a few failed transfers wherein she ended up crying as soon as she hit the crib, and I took her out of her room, went downstairs for awhile, and tried again half an hour later with no problems. The neighbor doing his weed-wacking and lawn-mowing woke her up in just half an hour, though. The second nap was Mr. W’s doing. I had gone to Ruby’s bridal shower. Reportedly, Allie resisted the 1pm nap despite falling asleep on Mr. W while they walked back from lunch across the street, so Mr. W did the same thing — took her out, tried again in half an hour, and she slept for over 90 minutes. Things like that happening are about the worst it gets most of the time. She’s been amazingly healthy; no ear infections, ailments outside of that first bout with RSV, diaper rashes, or teething issues *knocking on wood*. No serious injuries aside from stuff like what happened yesterday on Mr. W’s watch, when she banged her head on her Exersaucer from the outside 3 times, hit her face on the side of the couch on her way down, nearly choked on a piece of peach that Mr. W fed her from a slice, and swallowed liquid bath soap. =P No, she’s not eating whole foods yet, altho yesterday while we were out having a salad, we did take the shell off some cooked peas and let her gum the inside soft slippery part. That went well and she liked it. Other stuff she likes:
* eating her homemade purees. (I’m also having a blast making all sorts of purees for her; never would’ve thought.) So far the only thing she’s really rejected was avocado, and we’d only tried it once. I figure, more for me! (in the food videos below, she’s trying cauliflower for the first time)


* doing things for laughs, such as making funny faces and doing fake coughs. A favorite funny face of hers is wrinkling up her nose while snorting in and out loudly with teeth bared.


* playing peek-a-boo around corners or behind furniture with us, and with fabric covering her/our face (burp cloth over her head, us saying, “Where’s Allie?” as she dramatically pulls the cloth down. “There’s Allie!” we’d say in relief as she laughs. Then, “Where’s mommy?” She pulls the cloth off my head. “HERE I am!” She laughs.)
* drinking water from a straw. No, not sucking it out, yet. We plug up one end of the straw with a thumb and offer the bottom of the straw to her. She sees it coming and her mouth’s already wide open, waiting.
* climbing stairs by herself. Jayne told us they were practicing this on Friday, so of course this weekend, we had to see for ourselves.


* crawling on the tile. We try to keep her on the soft living room rug, but she beelines for the travertine. It’s a losing battle because Jayne lets her crawl there. We try to preserve her tender little knees and knee-skin.
* pulling herself up and standing (in the video below, I can tell by my dad’s sound effects that he’s opening and closing his hands at her, and she mimics him to my parents’ surprised delight)


* being wrapped in a hooded towel as she’s handed off to me coming out of a warm bath (biggest smile ever. we don’t get it, but it always makes Mr. W laugh)
* rubbing her face on and stroking soft furry things, such as the monogrammed “A” blanket Auntie Jordan gave her, and her fuzzy bear from the Sheriff’s Dept. Both of them seem to send her right to sleep.
* showing signs of excitement, like “jumping” (except her feet don’t actually leave the ground), clapping, waving her arms left and right, opening and closing her hands to show happiness or to respond to a greeting


* playing with anything that’s not a toy (diapers, tubes of ointment, plastic bags, crinkly paper, cardboard boxes, paper bags… she’s basically Dodo)
* and oh, yes, she loves Dodo. She’ll freeze in anything she’s doing if he meows or passes by and watch him, even if he’s not doing anything. (Dodo, on the other hand, generally ignores her because he’s learned that if he gets too close, she’ll grab his fur hard and pull, like she does to her mommy’s hair.)

Stuff that makes her complain…loudly:
* being put on her back for a diaper change or clothing change, especially during the nighttime routine (she’ll squirm, kick, twist, crawl away, making the entire experience twice as long as it has to be. giving her a Pooh character from her mobile has been working recently, as it’ll absorb her for the few minutes it should take for us to do what we need to do)
* bedtime reading (man, she’s impatient. this has mostly been cured by making sure she’s not too tired, and gets her own cardboard book to chew on while we read her another one)
* going into the carseat in the car (oddly, she has no problem with going into the carseat carrier in the house, and being carried into the car and snapped in. returning to the carseat and being buckled in from inside the car is the problem.)
* anyone who was interacting with her visibly walking away from her (this is new)

This doesn’t fall into either category, but surprised us all the same — she understands and is obedient to the word “no.” When she’s crawling along the floor going for the Glade Plug-In, Mr. W has told her “no” when she reaches for it. She may reach for it another time or two as if to make sure this is the activity we’re forbidding, and if he continues with a firm “no,” she’ll give up, but look at it longingly. Yesterday, she was so excited having a puree she enjoyed that she “hopped” up and down in her seat, kicked her legs, said “Mmm! Mmm! Mmm!” and clapped and swung her arms back and forth repeatedly. Sometimes our motions would be unfortunately simultaneous and she’d end up clapping the approaching spoon and causing a mess. Mr. W told her “no,” and “stay still,” and each mouthful after that, she was very, very still and careful, altho she’d wave around after the spoon has been removed. But as soon as she opens her mouth, signaling readiness for another bite, she would be very still and quiet. This lasted until the end of that feeding. It was remarkable.
She also understands “You wanna come out?” when she’s in the carseat, high chair, Exersaucer, swing, walker. If she wants out, she’d lift her arms toward me when I ask.
One thing she understands and no longer obeys is “let go.” The girl is a human velcro. Now we have to gently remove certain things from her grasp, i.e. drinking straw, my hair. Ouch on the latter.

She’s still being nursed to sleep at night. I have no idea what to do when she’s weaned, but meanwhile, I’m enjoying this. After she dozes off on the Boppy and I ready her to be picked up by lifting her head slightly with my left hand and sliding my right arm quickly underneath so that her head rests against the inside of my right elbow, I give her a few seconds to fall back to sleep while cradled in my arms. At these moments, I frequently look down at her and marvel at her delicate, cherubic sleeping face. The long dark lashes, the sympathetic-looking curvature of her eyebrows, her cute little round nose, sculpted lips, rounded cheeks, softly pointed chin, the growing downy fuzziness of her hair on her still-visible scalp. Her features and lines are as flawless as a drawing, but imagination alone couldn’t have come up with this combination of details that works so perfectly together. My little girl. Thanks for the past 8 months, Allie. Looking forward to the many, many more.