8 months!

Our little Brynlee turned 8 months old on the 4th of July!

Standing up while holding onto chair

Love this outfit!

Brynlee crawls/scoots backwards under furniture and gets stuck

One of her swimsuits. She was happy to swim I promise.

First picture of her sitting up by herself

Eating a dried mango on our roadtrip

Love this picture! It's from our roadtrip in May, but I can't remember what state it is

Playing on the floor in her cute diaper (with Dad and Pugs)

Here is what she is up to now-

-Has so much energy and almost never stops moving. Her eating habits are getting even worse because she won't sit in the high chair, on my lap, or on the floor for more than 2 minutes at a time. She often needs a toy in each hand and even wants to drink sitting straight up while playing with a toy.

-Brynlee is pretty much a nightmare when it comes to sitting still and being quiet (such as in church). It is a sweaty workout trying to keep up with her and I know it's only going to get worse. But I'm hoping this means she will be a very active (but not hyperactive) child. I honestly worry about my kids being obese just because it's such a big problem in this country.

-We are still having a really hard time finding foods she will eat and enjoy. She will eat 5 bites of most things, but even small jars of baby food will go bad before she will finish it which wastes a lot of food. I haven't wanted to waste that much, so I gave up feeding her anything but the bottle for a while. I decided we just need to do better about trying every meal so that she gets in the habit of it. I'm afraid she will develop a food aversion if we wait too long. I started to worry that she maybe had some type of esophageal obstruction because she chokes and gags on a lot of foods. Sometimes she throws up too. I think now it's just because she's not used to anything besides liquid in her mouth so she doesn't know how to handle them. Hopefully we will overcome these issues soon.

-Can hold her own bottle, but only if she has to. She would much rather us do it and sometimes pretends she can't so I will feel bad for her and hold it.

-Loves to grab hair and pull. Still laughs when we tell her no. My hair has to be in a ponytail at all times if I want to keep it attached to my head. When we go swimming she loves to pull John's chest hair.

-Likes to play in water in the bathtub or swimming pool. We have a pool at our clubhouse and memberships to the rec. center, so we probably go swimming once a week. She loves to watch other people and kids and is usually pretty entertained by that. She splashes like a maniac in the bathtub. About the only time she holds still is in the hot tub. She loves to just lay in my lap and watch the bubbles. She gets soo relaxed in the hot tub.

-Has become more cuddly lately. Since she is always on the move she rarely just sits in my lap to cuddle. Recently she started to lay her head on our shoulders quite often. But it's like she has a timer in her head because it's only about 5 seconds each time. But with a baby as active as she is, we will take what we can get.

-Still loves her Baby Einstein movies. They are worth every penny because that is our only time to not have to sit and constantly entertain her. She probably watches more than she should, but sane parents are important to have so oh well.

-Can clap her hands together. It is one of my favorite things to watch.

-Brynlee can crawl backwards but hasn't quite figured out forward crawling. She is so close that it should be any day. She crawls backwards under the couch, bed, dressers, etc. and gets her legs stuck. She can stand up when holding on to something and can also walk with someone holding her arms. She tries so hard to pull herself up onto the couch or any other piece of furniture or people. I just love watching her face and her grunting noises when she is working so hard. We had to lower her crib mattress after she pulled the monitor off the shelf onto her head.

-Sticks her tongue out to one side. It's hilarious to watch.

-Has no sleeping schedule anymore. It's almost like she has insomnia or something. Sometimes it takes 2 hours to get her to sleep. But just because she had less sleep the night before does not mean she will sleep in later or that she will nap more either. There have been days where she only takes 1 nap or more recently will only sleep for 30 minutes at a time instead of her usual 1.5 hours.

She also sometimes pretends she is asleep as we rock her at night. Her eyes are closed and she's not moving, but the second we put her in the crib her eyes are open. She usually gives us a huge smile and either turns over and goes to sleep or cries and wants to get out of the crib. Last night she did that and I picked her up when she started getting upset and she laughed and kissed me. I can't help but laugh at that too. She knows how to get her way.

-Got her first bottom tooth at 7 1/2 months. The second bottom tooth is coming through also.

-Says Da-Da all day long.

Cute videos of her "walking" and clapping