Abby is 8 Months Old!

And she is happy about it!!

Life is good. She likes finger food (does a great pincer grasp on her puffs now) and still adores her bottles, which she sometimes holds herself (but has trouble getting it high enough unless she's reclining).

She likes playing on the floor and will do so for hours, reaching and rolling and then sitting up in new places to check out the scenery. She goes up on all fours and rocks but has not crawled yet.

She babbles much of the day, mostly "da da" and "puh, puh" sounds. I have heard her say something that sounded just like "Hi Jake" to Jake and "Hi Teddy" to a teddy bear. She makes the sign for milk while drinking her bottle and has started to seem to be asking for milk with it at times!

She loves company and crowds. She and I have several face touching games and she'll try them with strange children with no hesitation. (At playgroup today 2 year old Rudy was mighty offended by her trying to grasp his nose!)

She loves her aquarium crib toy and will put herself to sleep while watching her "fishies" several times a day. She is generally a very good sleeper, though some days she just refuses to nap and stays up nearly all day!

She is becoming more aware, and thus more skittish, of new people and when tired or scared, she will reach her whole body out to grab onto me. She loves Jake and Daddy and me and will beam at any of us at a moment's notice. She loves her babysitter too and reaches for her when she sees her.

She is still a very big girl, and wears a dizzying multitude of sizes - yesterday her pants were 9 months and her top was 18 months. Many of her 12 month clothes are too small.

For a full belly laugh, all you have to do is blow kisses into her belly or play peekaboo with a stuffed animal. It gets her every time.

In short, she is a very happy 8 month old!