Eight months old!

Molly turned 8 months old on Friday. Wow, she is growing up so fast! We are enjoying getting to know her growing personality and watching her learn and develop every day. Miss Molly sure has changed a lot in the past eight months! All that dark hair fell out, rubbed off, or lightened up so that it is now light brown, fuzzy, and just starting to grow a little longer! (Even her bald spot in the back is starting to fill in again now that she is sleeping on her tummy most of the time.) Her eyes are still dark gray or dark army green, depending on the day. It looks like they may stay a dark hazel permanently. She does take after Elijah quite a bit, both in looks and in the things she is doing at this age. They both loved to be swaddled and had to be weaned from it (rather sadly) when they got too big. Both have been pacifier babies and they both loved Cheerios from the very first try. Molly has been eating well, and (like Elijah did) likes pretty much anything you give her. She even loved the plain cereal from the very first day! I have been stripping her down to her diaper for most meals lately, though, because she just can't seem to keep her hands out of her mouth (and is therefore soon completely covered in drool and whatever she is eating). She must be ready for more finger foods!

The chubby cheeks and fuzzy hair in all their baby glory.

Molly is generally a very smiley baby who loves to laugh, and likes to be surprised. She is very ticklish! She especially likes to laugh along with Elijah (even if she has no idea why they're laughing), and she usually plays well by herself for a while. Her favorite games are peek-a-boo, tummy kisses, and horsey rides on my knee. Molly loves to cuddle, and even patiently enjoys clumsy love and kisses from big brother. Her favorite time of the day is her bath. She just laughs and is so excited that she kicks and flails around like crazy when I get her undressed at night - you really have to hang on to that little naked spaz-attack! It makes me laugh every time. Our little Missy is very impatient, though, and very vocal about it. In general, I think she's a much louder, more vocal baby than Elijah was - happy or sad. In the past couple of weeks she has stepped up from what I called "squawking" when she was bored or tired or wanted some attention, to a constant tattoo of screechy screaming when she doesn't get what she wants immediately. Lovely - I hope we outgrow that one soon! She isn't crawling yet, but she is trying to figure out how to get up onto all fours from her belly, and she has amazing balance when she is sitting up - she reaches and lunges all over the place, and even kicks her feet up without falling over.

Here's a little video of Molly playing with Daddy and making Elijah laugh.