8 Months

Crystal has been crawling for 1 1/2 months now and she now pulls herself to standing very easily. Before, she would pull herself up and get stuck, but now she can also easily lower herself! She can take a couple of steps while holding but prefers to get down and crawl in order to get somewhere. I keep trying to find a baby that has been crawling as early as she (at 6-7 months), but I haven't found one yet. Out of curiosity, have you found any babies like this? Tell me more about them! When do they start walking?

Crystal has two bottom teeth now and will get the top two teeth soon. She only nurses to sleep now and won't suck on her pacifier anymore and will only play with it, so she has officially graduated from the pacifier. I was afraid of having to force the pacifier away when she would turn one but now I don't have to worry about it. Now I am wondering about how she will relax herself in the future when there isn't nursing: whether it'll be difficult or whether it will come naturally.

She's getting better at picking up little things, like cherios, with her fingers but still needs more practice. She has just started practicing some more consonant sounds like "dadada" and she acts so silly when she does, smiling and with her tongue flapping.

I got tired of Crystal's diaper rashes about a month ago, so Crystal has been naked for most of the time that she's at home now. I've been sitting Crystal on the potty when she seems like she's about to pee. Though, since it requires me to watch her constantly, she often ends up going on the floor. Since it's more obvious when she needs to poop, we always make it to the potty for that. It's easy also because she poops at the same time every day: after she wakes up in the morning. Hopefully, now she'll transition easily to going to the potty on her own in a few months.

I had been continuing to let her go in her diaper while we sleep at night and taking off the over-full diaper in the morning until last night when I tried sitting her on the potty (that I kept next to the bed) throughout the night. Each time we awoke, she wouldn't nurse until after she went pee anyways. It surprisingly went smoother than making her go in her diaper, since she peed more quickly when I sat her on the potty than when she was laying on her back in a diaper. We woke up a 5 am this morning and I actually felt rested! The potty had so much urine in it--I can't believe that the diaper had been holding so much before.

Other news: Steve has been sanding the floors in the house for these past few days. He may have to take another day or two off of work to finish the project. We're moving on the 27th.

About photo: Crystal was a dinosaur for Halloween and we took her trick-or-treating!