Eight Months Ago...

...we had just celebrated our first Christmas with Clara, we were only sleeping in two or three hour stretches around the clock, and our little one was content to sleep in our arms for as many as twenty hours a day.

Oh, how times have changed.

I know Oliver has some more Minneapolis posts to add, but I wanted to fill you all in on Clara's latest happenings. She was eight months old a week ago, and in true Clara form, she decided to celebrate by cutting her first two teeth. Now we have to be very wary about what she's about to bite when that open mouth looms near; she loves to bite toes and it's a tad uncomfortable now. She has also learned to pinch and likes to do so repeatedly to my arms while I'm feeding her.

She's still commando-crawling everywhere, even though she did figure out how to bring her knees up under her. But the use of her knees has brought about another major leap forward; she can now pull herself up to stand. It's still a little frightening for me, since she seems to believe that she can stand without holding on to anything for balance and support. Invariably she lets go, and invariably the end result is a bump and a wail. And boy can she wail.

She's also babbling and experimenting with sounds more and more; for a couple of days she just crawled around and growled, and right now her favorite noise makes her sound like a bird of prey. Sometimes she'll lay on the floor on her back playing with a mirror and having full conversations with the baby looking back at her...I really wonder what she's saying sometimes, especially when she breaks into gales of laughter.

Clara is proving to be a daddy's girl at the moment; it's very cute to see her crawl for the stairs when she hears Oliver arrive home from work, and if he stops to do anything (drop his bag, wash his hands, etc.) before he comes to pick her up, she starts crying and chases after him. Mom definitely becomes second-rate when Dad is around. Well, until it's time for bed...she would rather play with Dad and then cuddle down for a bottle with me. I do have to say I'm going to miss that when she no longer has a bottle; she's not a very cuddly baby any other time of the day. Too much to see, too much to do. She's a very, very, very busy baby - I don't think people completely believe us until they actually hold her and see for themselves just how non-stop she really is.

As tradition demands, I'll end with a few pictures, all depicting another newfound skill: climbing into and onto whatever she can. (She's trying to climb up onto the couch now as well, but hopefully that's still a couple of months off.)






And just a cute picture taken while we were in Minnesota: