Health: 18 pounds and getting the “wow, she’s pretty dense” comments whenever people hold her. :)

Clothes: Depends on the clothing item, but she’s pretty consistently in the 9-12 month size now.

Eating: Milk, a little oatmeal and more milk. We keep trying various table foods and she is not liking it. Being patient there. I gave her a little bit of banana one time and she threw up.

Sleeping: She’s sleeping anywhere from 10-13 hours at night and taking a pretty good 3 naps each day. This month we started doing the whole “eliminating the fourth nap, whenever you get up from the third one determines when you go to sleep” thing. Sometimes it’s 6:15, other times it’s 7:30, depends on the day. She’s consolidated a little bit in that it’s relatively consistently two 1.5 hour naps and a shortie in the afternoon.

Likes: When Anna jumps beside her as she plays in the bouncer, being tickled, teething toys, riding in the double stroller with Anna.

Dislikes: When Anna demands to hold her and she doesn’t want to sit still.

Places We’ve Visited: the mall with Mamie and cousin Logan and Aunt Sassy to shop for formal dresses; Athens to visit good friends; the park!

Memorable Moments/Quirks/Skills: She’s army crawling! It was a few days of wiggling around in circles until she got her upper body to do what she wanted. Now she easily gets across the room to a toy she wants. It’s cute. She also loves to be on her feet, “standing.”

She has to be holding the netting around the crib wall to fall asleep.

For about a week straight she would growl for minutes at a time all throughout the day. So funny. She’s more vocal these days and it’s cute.

The weather warmed up a bit and I strapped Jules to me and we went on our first adventure as a threesome around the property. Anna loved it and Jules didn’t hate it. Excited for Spring.

I looked over from drawing with Anna to see Jules had crawled to the entrance of Anna’s tunnel. Then she looked a little stunned and confused about what to do from there. It was cute.

We had a wedding to go to and both our parents were attending as well. Anna went to spend time with John’s brother and nephew and one of my best friends and her husband came to hang with Jules. A few hours on a Saturday night and they were happy and willing to hang with a baby. The best.

Parent Stories: Jules and I were home alone for a bit and after multiple instances of her playing for 30 seconds and then coming back to me to help her stand up (she’s loving that lately). I thought, maybe she’ll be our physically affectionate child.

Prayers: Emotional and mental capacity as we begin the long road of teaching and helping Anna to learn sharing; slowing down the moments and truly savoring them for the gifts they are; wisdom and intention to pursue each other in our marriage.

On this Valentine’s Day, happy 8 months to Jules.