8 Months

8 whole months since birth day. Julia's latest development is that she'll head into a room that nobody else is in to explore on her own. She used to follow me like a shadow, but now she's willing to head off on her own, for a little while. I don't actually know how long she would stay in another room alone, because I shadow her now. Our house is pretty safe, but it's near impossible to get all the cords stashed away out of sight, and she's getting more curious about drawers. She LOVES the bathroom drawers. It is mostly the shiny gold knobs on them that fascinate her, and she is learning to pull them open. She hasn't yet realized that she can pull everything in them out though. She has another knob that she loves. It is on the drawer of the little table that holds the tv. The knob is wood, and mouth level, so she stands there, bouncing with happiness, pausing every couple seconds to make sure she can still chew on the knob. When we have the tv on, she reaches up and smacks the screen, staring with wide eyed wonder at the images. She is getting pretty good at feeding herself small finger foods. Cheerios are no problem, and today I gave her chunks of sweet potato. She liked that a lot, but was pretty indifferent to the canned peach chunks. She drinks water regularly, so I have to remember to give it to her. If I forget for awhile, she gets pretty cranky. My solution is to put a sippy cup on the floor. She needs some help tipping it to the right angle if it isn't completely full but this way she finds the cup when she is thirsty. She's developing a bit of stranger fear now. She'll sit on someone's lap fine for a few minutes, then suddenly the lip quiver starts. Her sense of humor is developing too. The other day she blew a raspberry on my belly, and when I laughed, she laughed, causing me to laugh more, causing her to laugh more.

For thanksgiving, we joined our landlords Henry and Bambi, and our other neighbors Jane and Marion for a traditional thanksgiving feast. I loved the stuffing. Julia loved the sweet potatoes. Dave loved the green bean casserole. What's not to love about thanksgiving?

And in a fit of holiday madness, I stuck Julia in a christmas dress and took photos of her for our christmas letter. We even went outside for a couple. I don't know what got into me, but I did get some cute photos.