8 Months

It occurred to me the other day that I had not posted anything for Piper's 8 month "birthday". I guess I got thrown off because I watch for the 30th of each month, and February didn't have one. It really doesn't take much. Anyway, what you came here for:

Piper has been able to sit up with some assistance for the past couple of months, but this past month she perfected it and we feel comfortable letting go. She will still topple over if she tries to look up or get something that is too far in front of her, but I let her sit like this on the floor for a good 15 minutes and she never fell over.

Well, she never fell over until this happened. With every month that passes, Caleb and Piper are able to interact and play more and more. Caleb is really very good at being gentle with her and loves to play with her.

Many people tell us that Piper is a good baby and really we are blessed in this aspect. Piper rarely cries and if she does we know it's one of three things. As long as we feed her, change her or get her to sleep, she doesn't fuss over anything. She is super observant and loves to watch and explore things around her, so taking her places is really a pleasure. We love to go to the park and even though she can't do much, most often you will catch her giggling at her brother's antics or just quietly sitting in my lap enjoying the sunshine. We couldn't have asked for a better second child.

I think I mentioned before that I was falling down on the job in that I had introduced and had Caleb completely on a sippy cup between the ages of 5 to 6 months. I just didn't see any reason to get in such a hurry to do that this time but have been giving to her every once in awhile. This month, she seems to have realized that there is something yummy in it (water) and that she can get it out on her own. She still does more chewing on the cup than anything, but I do catch her sucking on it on occasion, so she's getting the message.

I don't believe that I have mentioned here our vacation plans. We are all hopping in the car mid-July and driving to California for a family reunion, and then driving on up to southern Oregon to spend a little time with my in-laws. While in California, we will be taking the kids to Disneyland and Caleb, at least, is super excited. While we were buying the invitations for Caleb's birthday party, I spied these Mickey and Minnie ears and HAD to have them. Piper looks less than excited here, but she was quite tired and ended up loving them. I had to have a picture!

The weather around here has been SO schizophrenic. The upside to that has been some beautiful 80 degree days. We have tried to take advantage of those days as much as we can and go up the street to a fairly airplane themed new park called Aviator Park. The reason we get in the car and go there, instead of walking up the block, is that park has swings, something that I've not seen at other parks in our area. Both the kids love the swings, especially Piper. She gets quite the kick out of swinging and feeling the wind in her hair.

Around the time that Piper turned 7 months old, she learned how to click her tongue. This video shows her doing it a couple of times at the beginning. For the longest time she seemed to think that my name was a click of her tongue. More recently though, she has learned a few words. She said her first word, Da-Da, on the day she turned 7 months. The day after she said, "Ma Ma" and now she also says, "Ba Ba" for her brother. I was trying to get her to demonstrate her speaking abilities in this video, but it obviously didn't work. At least you all get to see our sweet Piper in action.