8 months old

Today our sweet girl is 8 months old! She's come so far in so many area's... just when I thought the smile and then the laugh could melt my heart like nothing else she does, then came along "the reach" and none of those have anything on that, when she extends those sweet little arms up in our direction, ah there is nothing like it! While she make advances in many areas, her sleep has regressed to newborn phase over this month, things have been better the last few nights with only a 2-3 wakings but after the holidays we will be implementing some of the sleep lady techniques (I'm reading her book that a friend loaned me, she seems to be in the middle area, not for straight crying it out but also steps it up from responding to every waking with rocking and holding, all about knowing your baby and her cues to help you make an appropriate plan for improved sleeping.) to help all of us get back on a better sleep schedule as at this point, I've ruled any medical issues, including teeth, think its more related to the separation anxiety that comes along with this developmental phase that maybe carrying over into night. Well thats my latest theory anyways. She says "ma ma ma" alot and "Da Da Da" while its not purposeful yet, I love hear her try to talk to us. I've started modeling some baby sign language for her so that we will have some of the basics down when she's ready to communicate that way. Can't believe this time last year she was in my tummy and I tried to imagine what the next Christmas would be like with an 8 month old. Its of course better than anything I pictured.