Claire at 8 months

Claire is now eight months old! I think for Kate, I only did big updates at 3, 6, 9, 12, 18 months, and so forth, so maybe this monthly milestones posting for Claire makes up for whatever other "second child" shortchanging she gets.

She's a cute little stinker, learning and growing more and more. She didn't really have any new motor skills milestones this month, just kept getting faster and faster with her creeping, still mainly using her left arm and right leg to propel herself. We finally remembered to take a video of it the other day...


She still doesn't get herself into a sitting position by herself, but easily takes off creeping from a sitting position. She likes locking her legs in a standing position when we hold her up, but she seems still a ways off from pulling up and cruising, it seems. Kate was pulling up and cruising all around the coffee table by 8 months, and walked at 9 months, which is interesting to note but nothing against Claire, of course. They'll do everything at their own pace!

With her increased mobility, Claire can exercise her social desires a little more, creeping toward whoever or whatever she wants, including big sister's toys and Charlotte, whom Claire seems to like a lot more than Kate ever did. Kate loves "Twaire" so much and is so sweet with her, but also a bit of a brute, too. We deal with a lot of hitting and squeezing, strangling and laying on top of Claire, and even Kate's attempts to pick her up by her arms or the back of her sleeper!

Claire continues to love any food we offer her. In addition to baby food (and tons of nursing, of course), she still loves bread products of all sorts, and has also tried "big people" peas, tomatoes, avocado, sweet potato, and egg casserole. She wasn't crazy about watermelon, but I think it's just because it was so cold. She loves Baby MumMums (a rice rusk biscuit thing, seen in the pic below) and is developing the dexterity to pick up Cheerios and puffs too.

And speaking of eating, her first tooth broke through yesterday! You can feel it more than you can see it, but I'd been noticing two lighter spots on her front lower gums lately, and she's had a little more inconsolable crying (inconsolable until we remember to get out the teething tablets, that is), and finally one poked through a teeny bit. Bye bye "gummy bear."

I love her smiling, I love her crying. I love her nursing, I love her munching solids. I love her on a train and on a plane, on a boat and with a goat . . .