8 months of tess!

wow, can you believe it's been over 8 months since my sweet girl made her grand debut?? i can't! she turned 8 months on the 20th of this month, but i've picked up more work shifts and haven't had much time for blogging (or much picture taking! oh no!), or anything really - my house is a wreck, laundry undone, dishes in the sink, and sewing projects untouched since before halloween! eep! [above pic is tess at madeline's birthday party]
but baby girl continues to grow and change and develop! she's already crawling, pulling to standing, trying to balance while standing on her own, and walking across the room if you hold her hands. she's so advanced ;-)

[the progression of a stand]

she's now sleeping in her own crib in her own room upstairs (thank goodness for video monitors!). as of this week, she's going down to sleep on her own when we put her in there, and for the most part without many tears. she is able to soothe herself in the middle of the night, and most of the time, we're only having to go comfort her once during the night, and not even having to nurse then. the night before last, she went the WHOLE night, from 8:44 until about 5:15 without a peep! of course i woke up at 4:30 freaking out that she hadn't woken up yet, but i hear that's pretty normal. hehe. most nights, andrew goes to pat her back to sleep the one time she wakes up because when i go up there, she wants to nurse, so it's been working pretty well to have him go up, and then if she won't go back to sleep in a few mins, i'll feed her. however, at 8 months, she should be able to go all night without eating, so i haven't had to do middle of the night feedings for about a week. i'm so proud of tess the turtle!

naps are still a struggle, more so now that the crib is down so low. she hasn't yet figured out how to put herself asleep for a nap, so she usually nurses to sleep, and then trying to put her all the way down in the crib wakes her up. we're working on it, but it leads to many napless or short nap days.

[tess sitting with her new friend, vanessa]

she's also begun her separation anxiety phase, and gets upset when mom leaves and with change of routine, like when i work more than just mondays. now, i'm working mondays, all day saturday every week, and one more day (usually wed or thurs) every other week, so she has a rough time the weeks that i work 3 days, but my good friend elisa offered some helpful advice and empathy about difficult transitions, and i feel confident tess will do just fine. i'm very tentatively thinking of moving her to daycare once she's a year old, hopefully for a m/w/f sort of schedule. i think that would allow me to work 30 hours a week (and maybe back to every other sat? or just sat mornings? for 35 hours) and give her some good socialization with kids her age and other caretakers. we'll have to see how the money works out on that one, but i think it'd be a good compromise for everybody.

tess now eats 2-3 solid meals a day, but i think she still gets most of her nutrition from nursing and the occasional formula bottle (when mom's not around and neither is pumped breastmilk).

[i love big-girl food!]

we've tried the sippy cup for juice a few times with meals, but she doesn't really understand it and prefers to chew on the soft tip like a teething toy (spilling juice), but she DOES understand drinking from a glass, and tries to drink from EVERY glass mommy and daddy have, so she has had water that way before. not sure how this will translate over time, but i'm sure we'll find something that works, probably trying different cups, and once she's weaned i'm sure it won't be an issue. for food, i still make *some* but not much, and she eats a lot of fruits straight from the fruit itself, but we love ella's organic kitchen baby food because it's just the fruit (or veggie) pureed up with nothing added, not even water, and they taste GREAT! they make strange combos like broccoli, parsnip, pear, and prune (or something), which sound terrible, but taste yummy! so she's been exposed to lots of different foods and flavors. we've yet to start meat, but i have to research when/how "they" recommend that anyway. the american academy of pediatrics now recommends that mothers breastfeed until age 2, but we'll have to see about that.

tess also makes funny faces, sweet noises, and shrieks with joy - usually at inappropriate times. so we've decided taking her to a fancy french restaurant at this point is out, but she's so cute when she does it that i have a hard time not smiling and laughing... even last night when we were out at a restaurant - bad mommy!

and right now she's being so cute that i can't keep typing and must go hang out with her!

[at madeline's party, with mommy and my party hat!]

last minute stats:
weight - about 20 lbs, we think
height - per andrew's measuring tape, about 26.5 in

we have no idea how that measures up against the "percentiles" but i know she's just perfect!