afton's eight months

Where are all of the days going?
I swear it hasn't been eight months since this little darling was born...

Afton is:

... crawling. Yes, we're officially on the move! She does this funny arm pull where she reaches her arms as far in front of her as she can, then pushes down on her hands and pulls herself forward. Not quite an army crawl - it's a little more involved. But she's got some killer strength in those little arms. She's also starting to crawl on her hands and knees, but she'll get excited or too eager and push herself too quickly and will lunge onto her face. Ha ha It's hysterical to watch.

... pulling herself up. She's pulled herself to a standing position in her crib a few times, and loves to stand backwards on the couch and pull up to see out the front window. She'll climb up my body, using my shirt of hair or whatever she can grab to get up where she wants to be.

... going to be walking before I know it. She loves to be standing on her feet and loves to hold our hands and walk around the house. I think we're in big trouble.

... a great eater. We've been introducing almost everything we eat to her, and so far so good. She LOVES food - any and all kinds. Fruit, vegetables, pasta, rice, cereal, spicy things, pickles, cake. Everything. She loves it and has started making this funny half whine/half groan when we're feeding here - like "More please!" or "You're not feeding me fast enough!" She likes to hold cups and suck through straws, she loves to hold spoons and put them in her mouth, and has gotten really good at picking up little pieces of food with her fingers and feeding herself.

... growing a mohawk. Her hair IS growing, but only right down the top center of her head. It's coming in darker everyday, and still has a decent amount of red in it. But the mohawk kills me!

... so funny! She's started laughing all the time and will giggle at silly things. The other night at dinner, I got the hiccups, and she thought it was hilarious and laughed with every little squeak. Seriously - for like 10 minutes straight! She has started entertaining herself, too. This morning, she was in her crib and was giggling like crazy. I went in to see what she was doing, and she had figured out that she could pull the bumper pads up and down and play peek-a-boo with herself. It was adorable.

... making funny faces lately. She's developed this silly little scowl. She's started scowling at strangers -- that is, until the start complimenting her and telling her how cute she is, then she'll bust out a big ol' grin.

... getting more teeth! Her third tooth popped through this week - and teething this tooth wasn't nearly as bad as the first ones... I'm praying that's the case going forward.

... (knock on wood) sleeping so well at night. We've hit 9, 10, even 11 hour stretches at night. And it. is. amazing. She's still not very structured in her naps during the day, but I won't even begin to complain about that since we're all sleeping so well through the night. [Am I bragging? Maybe. But she's even woken up a few times at night and whimpered for a minute, but then puts herself right back to sleep. We're so. so. so. lucky.]

... talking and squealing and chattering and whispering and laughing all. the. time. They are the most delightful sounds my ears have ever heard. Her little voice is just darling, and I can't get enough.