I hope everyone had a fantastic and safe 4th of July weekend! This month has been her busiest yet, as far as development goes. We've been climbing the stairs, clapping when music comes on, (which turns from this mad attempt to put her hands together, to opening and closing them vigorously... It's seriously the cutest thing to watch those pudgy little fingers trying to create sound), talking jabbering, waving hi and bye to anyone that will look her way, crawling and pulling up!
We took some snapshots in front of the stables for Daddy's Father's Day present. Here are some of my favorites from that shoot.
We spent some time in Mississippi swinging on one of Gran's many porch swings.
Sun's out, bum's out
One of many naps taken in the car. I had to take this because she is such a blanket baby. She is either cuddling it, like in this picture, or chewing/sucking on it.
Let's just stop for a moment and discuss teething. Whew! I think there should be an awards ceremony for parents and babies after the teething months.
And it should be held on a Disney cruise ship.
She has taken a liking to baby dolls lately. Especially this one, (which was mine as a girl).
She pats it in the face to show how much she cares.
This is how I find her sleeping 98.9% of the time-
no cover and stretched out as far as humanly possible.
Bath-baby pictures are the best.
And chicken is her favorite. We decided early on that we would take the "child-led weaning" approach with her so that she could feed herself whenever she was ready. (Which is just a fancy way of saying, "we started offering her real food from an early age from the table".) She wasn't quite ready at 6 months... she would gag really easily on anything that had a thickness to the texture. But after month 7 she's been eating everything we eat and it's so easy! Her favorite foods right now are french toast, grilled cheeses, yogurt melts, chicken in any form or fashion, and this girl will eat blueberries faster than I can cut them in half for her.
Obviously.
Lastly, the Reggio teacher in me has to end this 8 month post talking about Juliet exploring light and shadow. There is something so magical about light. No matter the extent of your understanding of the science behind light, it always ignites curiosity and wonder within us. The real magic is watching my sweet girl making sense of the world around her; discovering shapes and lines, exploring the movement of light and how she relates to it. For 10 minutes I watched her lean towards her shadow trying to make contact as well as chase the shadows of her hands, up and down the light path in her room.
"Light is vital for life, has great metaphorical significance, and is a highly fascinating element which children encounter in their everyday experience, from a very early age. Children encounter light- a natural phenomena in general- with strategies which are at once relational-affective and rational-cognitive. The first triggering elements are wonder and curiosity, i.e. the activation of a questioning intelligence." -The Wonder of Learning, The Hundred Languages of Children.
