Hattie is 8 Months!

Our sweet little Hattie Jeanne turned 8 months old on September 30th. Wow this has gone by fast!

• Hattie now eats 3 meals a day of baby food. She isn't on to finger food yet. We have tried a few things and she mostly just messes with them in her hands.. squishing bananas, squeezing mandarin oranges, squashing steamed broccoli etc. She will get onto it sometime soon I am sure.
• She can now drink from her sippy cup on her own. We started giving her water in her avent sippy cup (Emmett's old cup and yes it has held up very well being hand washed only). She grabs a handle and gets it in her mouth, tips it back and drinks water. She really likes her water which is surprising because Emmett was completely weirded out by the idea of drinking anything other than breastmilk.
• She nurses 5 times a day - morning, 3 bottles in the day and night time. I can really tell that the weaning process has begun. It makes me a little sad and also a little glad that it will free up some time both at work and at home when I am done nursing but I will miss the snuggles with my little girl. What can I say, she is growing up! :)
• Hattie is getting very close to crawling. She does a bit of an army crawl.. moves in circles, pushes herself backwards and gets up on her knees. Just recently she has begun to pull herself forward a little bit with one knee under her and then she drops back down. It won't be long!
• Her favorite thing is probably her brother right now. And he likes her too! Today they ran up and down the hallway "chasing" each other (Mommy helped Hattie a little) and were having so much fun screaming and giggling. Sometimes Emmett will say - I want Hattie! or I want to hold Hattie etc. She is about 2/3rds his size though so holding or carrying her is pretty much out of the question.
• Hattie loves to stand. If someone will let her stand up next to something (we have to be there spotting her at this point) she will stand unassisted for quite a while.. She also loves walking holding onto our hands. You can tell she feels like the big girl while doing this!
• She would still rather chew on books than listen to us read them to her.. which has been a challenge! Today I read books to her and Emmett together and she kept grabbing it. Finally Emmett told her "No Hattie". Ha. Her hands were getting in the way of him looking at the book!
• Hattie took her first airplane ride on August 29th. We visited her Aunt, Uncle and cousins in DC. She did well but unfortunately had a fever after the ride there. My guess is that she picked it up on the plane. Poor girl didn't feel well and gave it to her Daddy too! We had a great time there and were able to go to the zoo and some interesting parks.
• She is an easy going girl. Mostly happy on the floor playing. She enjoys her jumperoo for a change of scenary but it isn't her favorite.
• Hattie is also a big of a Mommy's girl. If Mommy comes in the room she gets very excited but if she doesn't get picked up she can become a little fussy at times. Usually she is happy playing though unless getting hungry or tired.
• She still takes two naps and goes down super easy now. She almost always sleeps on her tummy and will rub her face into the mattress. She always sleeps through the night from about 7pm to 6am. She is a good girl!

We love our Hattie Jeanne and can hardly imagine what our family was like without her in it. Can't wait to see her get mobile so we can watch the two of them interact and play together more.