8 Months!

And... she's 8 months old! Boy time is flying! It's sooo strange to think that Mekonen was this exact age when we brought him home from Ethiopia. I was thinking about this today and it saddened my heart in a way that is almost impossible to put into words. I cannot believe all the things I have missed in Mekonen's first 8 months. It's a road I can't go down too deeply, or it becomes extremely difficult to get back out of. Someone once said to me that I'm lucky I missed out on those earlier months because I didn't have to deal with night feedings and not sleeping through the night. I had to restrain myself from being unbelievably rude in oh so many ways. I would trade all the sleep filled nights in the world to have been with my son from his very first breath.

So here we are... Evangeline Rae is 8 months old and growing, growing, growing! 

At 8 Months Old 

• You are pulling up to stand on everything you can reach! Couches, chairs, stairs, toy baskets, and anything bigger than you! You are so fast when you do it and you never really went through a stage where you "fell" out of control in order to get back down. You pretty much just plopped onto your bottom from the start.
  Nov. 3rd- pulled to stand on the hamper and toy basket
  Nov. 4th- pulled to stand on couch
  
  
  This picture with your little knee up just kills me!
  
• You got your first two bottom teeth! The first one (her bottom right) popped through on Nov. 4th and the second one came about a week later! They are so adorable! These are the best pictures I have of them right now, although they are difficult to see!

• You are making distinct Mamama and Dadada noises, but not in reference to us (although I like to think so). hehe.
• You are mimicking clicking noises with your tongue and you get the biggest kick out of it. 
• You are starting to show signs of stranger anxiety. You also like to be wherever I am. If you can't see me in the room, you start crawling around to find me. It's too cute. 
• You are just over 17 lbs and over the last few months (like the last 2 1/2 to 3 months) you have decided you don't like to sleep through the night anymore. This has become a bit stressful on your parents. The doctor said to have Daddy go in to you when you cry instead of me. So he checks on you every time you cry, but we let you cry yourself back to sleep and you still are not figuring it out!  We used to be hitting 2-4 times a night of you waking up and now it's usually 2, several 1's, and recently we got two nights in the past two weeks with zero waking! You have been sleeping through the night for a long time now, so I don't know what is up! At first I chalked it up to teeth, but then they popped in. Then I thought hunger. But that didn't seem to be it. So who knows!! I wish you could tell us!
• You are just like your Mama in that you are the lightest sleeper in the world! The slightest, I mean slightest noise wakes you up! We actually have an industrial sized fan in your bedroom and it still doesn't take care of all the noises that wake you up! 
• You are a feisty little one sometimes. You definitely let us know when you are not happy about something and have mastered the art of "throwing yourself backwards." 
• You hate, dislike, and want nothing to do with baby food! You are starting to do better with it the past week or so, but overall, you just don't like it. If it's the least bit "grainy" that also bothers you, and you gag like crazy on anything remotely chunky or thick. 
• You are getting into everything! You love to "destroy" things, and take things out of baskets, piles, etc. (And you find the greatest joy in this). haha.

•  You had your first trip to the emergency room at the children's hospital and luckily we left with just a swollen black eye. Poor baby girl. We were at small group Bible study and you were upstairs with the babysitter. Next thing I know, I look up, and am watching you tumble down a half a flight of stairs and land on the middle landing. My heart stopped. It happened so fast, but felt like I was watching you fall forever. I bolted off my seat towards you but of course felt helpless that I couldn't catch you. It was quite scary. But you were fine! It took about two weeks for your eye to completely heal. 

• You met your newest cousin, baby Joy Geisler, over Thanksgiving break in Pennsylvania. You and Joy are just 2 months apart!

• And of course, I must note, that I can finally clip little tiny snap clips into your hair. *love*