Aven: 7-8 Months

Aven is 8 months old today! She continues to grow and develop fast and furiously, always keeping us on our toes!! She celebrated her first Halloween this past month, although she slept through trick or treating, she did manage one photo op in her costume. We purchased it 2 weeks before Halloween and in that short time she already grew enough that we couldn’t put the hood on her anymore, her torso was too long!

Measurements: She is now 18 lbs (8.2 kilos) and 27 inches (70 cm)

Mobility
Aven has been cruising along this month – litteraly! She will takes steps while holding into furniture or her shopping cart. She regularly let’s go and navigates with one hand and twice has let go completely and stood independently for a few minutes before siting down. She is much more careful in her movements, she can crouch, sits on her knees or bum with out falling over most of the time. I’m quite sure that next months report will include walking!!

Eating
Aven is not eating a whole lot these days – I think she’s having a lot of trouble teething as she’s pretty fussy most days and only eats a few bits of things before crying 🙁 Nevertheless, new foods she loves to eat are hard boiled eggs, shepherds pie (especially the ground beef), plain Greek yogurt, brown rice, butternut squash soup – just about anything we throw at her, she’ll eat! She is over her milk strike for the most part, she still doesn’t want to be bothered to sit still and nurse or drink a bottle, but nap and bedtimes she’ll guzzle one back easily. I think this next month I’ll experiment sigh giving her breastmilk in a cup during mealtime and see if she likes that and we can get away from eating before sleeping.

She has a tooth! Her bottom right (when I’m facing her) tooth broke through 2 weeks ago and just today her second bottom tooth has stated to peek through.

Sleeping
This past week we had our first assessment with a sleep consultant – Jennifer from SleepDreams. Aven continues to have sleep problems. On a good night we will get 3 hour stretches out of her, but they are few and far between. More common is 90 minutes to 2 hours. ALL. NIGHT. LONG. I’m a whacked out emotional zombie at this point so something needs to change. I will be writing a separate post about that so stay tuned! Naps are still hit and miss but on a better trend then before. We rarely have to do car naps anymore, she generally has one short nap of about 30-45 minutes and one longer nap of 1-2.5 hours. It’s not perfect and she often fights me at least once, but it’s better then before so I have some hope!

Personality
Big sister Adri continues to be Avens favorite person. She lights up when she comes in the room, actively searches her out and they have the cutest giggle fests together. It is the joy of my life to see them interact. I love it! Daddy gets big smiles too, and Aven loves crawling across the bed when it’s time to wake him up. Big grins and big open mouth “kisses” – what more could a daddy ask for? She seems to be selectively upset with strangers. We are in the beginning phases of sorting out childcare for my return to work so I’m hoping it will be a relatively smooth transition for everyone involved with no trauma for any party. Fingers crossed!

Likes
Soother
Cruising
Chewing electrical cords!
Her sister
Bouncing
Walking with her Fisher Price shopping cart
Pattycake
Mirrors
Playing in the piano
“Strumming” daddy’s guitar
Walking in the carrier
Swinging and sliding in the park
Watching birds, dogs, squirrels, cats, raccoons – whatever animals we encounter
Gymboree
Bath
Swimming
Dancing
Peekaboo!
Tickles under the armpit and on belly
Being outside
Drumming
Shrieking at the top of her lungs, whether happy or sad

Dislikes
Stroller
Car seat (sometimes)
Hats
Bumbo/high chair
Being held in horizontal position
Her crib
Being held facing in
Being in arms when tired
Her sister trying to pick up/carry her

Language
I had my special moment last month when Aven said mama as her first word – wahoo!! Scott is the proud papa now that she has added dada to her repertoire. Just in the last week she has specifically used them back to back to distinguish between us. Proud moment!! She continues to vocalize an incredible variety of sounds (and pitches – ouch) on a pretty much constant basis. She also laughs without direct stimulation. So cute! I haven’t been as diligent with my signs sadly. She still responds to all done, and I do milk and eat and toilet on a fairly regular basis but that’s about it. Gotta get back on track!

It’s interesting to read through my milestone post from last month and see all the changes that happen in just 4 short weeks! What has your little one been doing this month?