8 Months Old Twirling her hair while she waits to grow

Slugger Real Age: 8 months Adj. Age: 5 months Weight: 15 lb. 0 oz. Milestones: -favorite thing to do while eating is to twirl her hair. If she can reach, she'll use both hands the whole time. -loves LOVES loves her exersaucer (that saucer went from TJ to Eden and now to Slugger) -great hand coordination as she reaches for and moves objects -loves to cuddle -either she's giving people kisses or exploring whether cheeks and jawlines produce milk -no stranger anxiety yet, she loves attention from anybody -sometimes starting to lean when she wants to go to somebody, and turning away when she doesn't Severe nausea made pregnancy last year pretty miserable but I really did love being pregnant. Strangers would treat you just a little bit more nicely, jump up to give you a chair or carry things for you. Open doors for you. Having a baby, and a cute baby at that, opens a totally different world. People smile at you as they pass you in the grocery aisle. You start up conversations with complete strangers in restaurants who also have their babies babbling away at the table. You exchange information like baby's ages and names. Babies just make people smile. I wish it was the way we all acted regardless of circumstance. After learning to roll, Slugger has kind of stalled in development this month. I'm hoping she's just gaining strength and gearing up to work on sitting and crawling. Fingers crossed. She's also in love with her exersaucer. I thought it might be too early but she can stay in that thing forever. We have to make it a point to take her out so she can get tummy time and work on her arm strength. She's a talker and loud. Sometimes, she seems to be just singing to herself. The most awesome thing that we love in this new stage is that she's starting to cuddle. She was never a baby that would fall asleep on you. She did it as a newborn but then dropped it like a bad habit. Even if she was sleeping, if you tried to hold her against your shoulder, her head would spring up and her eyes would be wide open trying to catch the action. Now, she will sometimes put her head on your shoulder and she talks to herself. I never want to get up off the couch when she's willing to snuggle. Sigh, happy heart.

She had her first trip into the ocean. My friend Kristina came with me and we drove forever to Ko Olina Lagoons. I thought that place is always sunny and hot and should be warm enough for Slugger. But that day had high wind advisory so it was kind of cold. Slugger and I lathered up with sunscreen. Slugger was sporting a rash guard from Uncle John and wearing a UV hat. She loved the water ,although the poor thing made sour faces when she got salt water in her mouth.

The scary part was when I was rinsing her off in the shower. She got so cold and I had the hardest time warming her up. Her entire feet and hands were so blue, all the way up to her ankles and wrists. I had to screw the fear of UV radiation and place her right in the sun as I toweled her off briskly. Thanks to Leena for giving me the tip to take jug of hot water with me to bathe her in and to keep her towel warm.

Slugger also went to her one of her besties, LP, 's first birthday party. Here is Slugger right outside the jumpie castle.

Here is Slugger when she realized that no one was going to take her in the jumpee castle.

We also spent some quality time with the family, especially the grandparents. We went out to dinner with Scott's family to try to celebrate Slugger's Grandpa Pat's birthday (we're going to have a second try at a real birthday dinner). Here's Slugger with Papa (Scott's grandpa).

Here's Slugger with Uncle Stanton and Ma (Scott's grandma).

For a week, Slugger went through a phase where she would suck her lips in and I called it her "grandma" face.

Thank goodness, that phase is over.

In just 16 days, Scott, Slugger, and I will be walking in the March Of Dimes walk in support of raising money to fund research into premature babies. I'll talk more about this in an upcoming post. I would really appreciate any contributions (great or small). It's our first time doing this walk of course and we're not sure what goals we have, but we certainly want to aim big.

Go to our March of Dimes page to donate.

Prayer Requests:

-Able to hit our goal for raising pledge money for the March of Dimes walk

-Slugger has her appt with the pediatric cardiologist next Friday. We'll be able to check on her heart defect. We're praying for the best news, that the hole has closed up and her heart murmur is gone.