--lots of accomplishments by sierra this month, and lots of cute phrases from aidan.--sierra is all over the place these days…whether it be in her walker or on the floor. she steers her walker, navigating all over the kitchen, going forward, backward, turning, and even running. her favorite thing to play with while i’m cooking is the garbage can…can’t get enough of it, it seems. and it always seems to occur when i have my hands full, of course. one day she grabbed a box of cereal off the table and dumped it onto her tray. she made a big mess, but she had a great time eating it up, and depositting it all over the room.
--she has dropped the sniper-creep and progressed to crawling. she’s a bit more efficient that way, and gets around really well. she also cruises around the room, walking holding onto furniture. she’s been pulling up for a while now, and at first just got stuck in that position. she’d have to lean over on her toy to hold on and play…and she’d have to be let down when she was done or tired of standing. now, however, she carefully leans over until she’s back in her crawling position. she’ll also let go, hover a second, and then plop down to her butt, roll over and off she goes. she can even hold onto whatever with one hand and play or wave with the other. i foresee walking pretty soon.
--she turned 8months old last week. (next doctor appointment isn’t until 9months.) she’s eating really really well these days. however, she has decided she’d prefer to not have babyfood anymore. she used to devour it, and one day she just stopped. she wants to eat whatever i have on my plate. so she’s moved on to table food, granted, it’s cut into tiny pieces for her to gum to bits, but she’s doing it. she eats cheerios, yogurt, cottage cheese, crackers, bread, and fruit during the day…and eats whatever we eat for dinner for her dinner; meat veggies, potatoes, rice. she does like the babyfood fruit though, she still eats that. she has gotten much much better with her finger dexterity too…she can pick up single pieces of food and (most of the time) get it in her mouth straight away. she’s now down to nursing four times a day, and i plan to drop one feeding a month until her birthday.
--she turned 8months old last week. (next doctor appointment isn’t until 9months.) she’s eating really really well these days. however, she has decided she’d prefer to not have babyfood anymore. she used to devour it, and one day she just stopped. she wants to eat whatever i have on my plate. so she’s moved on to table food, granted, it’s cut into tiny pieces for her to gum to bits, but she’s doing it. she eats cheerios, yogurt, cottage cheese, crackers, bread, and fruit during the day…and eats whatever we eat for dinner for her dinner; meat veggies, potatoes, rice. she does like the babyfood fruit though, she still eats that. she has gotten much much better with her finger dexterity too…she can pick up single pieces of food and (most of the time) get it in her mouth straight away. she’s now down to nursing four times a day, and i plan to drop one feeding a month until her birthday.
--her top two teeth are getting close. maybe next month? she started clapping on her 8month birthday. she does it vertically though, instead of horizontally. and she’ll tilt her head to the side and smile. it’s just too cute. she also waves sometimes. most of the time though, she just looks at you like your insane to ask her to do it. 
--we went to the aquarium with jarah and isaac and had a great time. we saw lots of fishies and sharks, and got to touch the rays and even an alligator. when we came home and aidan described his day to daddy, he said he spent the day with “fishes, rays, sharks, alligators, and popcorn!” we saw a 3D imax movie on sea monsters (prehistoric sea creatures) and had popcorn. aidan loved it! then we went to lunch at chick-fil-a and played on the playground with our friends.--aidan is making headway with the manners. when he bumps into me, he says, “sorry mama. he already said “please” and “thank you,” but now he’s added “excuse me.”
--he has started memorizing books. when we read some of his favorites, he tells me what’s going to happen before i read it. he can also look at a picture of three elephants (or whatever) and tell me that there are three of them, without touching and actually counting them. he knows his way around town too some now. when we go by the gym, he tells me, “that’s the shimm, mama. the green slide and aidan’s friends.” he knows where my friend michele works, and gets sad and pouts when we don’t stop to pick her up for lunch that day. and one time when we were leaving walmart, he told me “there’s the depot, mama.” i didn’t know what he was talking about, and he was pointing to home depot and said, “it’s daddy’s favorite.” when we get to our neighborhood, he tells me “almost home!”--potty training has been (mostly) successful. he will go when i tell him, and also when he needs to go. sometimes i have to interrupt the potty dance and make him go if he’s distracted or wanting to finish something first. we still have accidents occasionally, and going number two on the potty isn’t always in his agenda for the day, but for the most part, we’re in the clear!
--some mornings aidan will “work out wiff mama” in the garage. he’s also started seeing some commercials interrupt his shows. we usually only watch pbs, but now that he’s gotten a diego ball pit from my aunt, and a dvd from grammy about diego, “go, diego, go!” is his favorite show. i record it for him, and he has to wait through commercials at the beginning. he’s not one to ask for every toy he sees on tv, instead he tells me, “i don’t like commercials.”
--also, we’ve been doing a lot of house projects lately. billy ripped up the carpet in our sunken living room to tile it, aidan said that the “house is too broken. get a new one!” how funny is that?!?! and my all time favorite saying of the month comes when he doesn’t get is way…”don’t make aidan sad,” pout pout pout. :)
