Up, down and all around!



Love from daddy in the morning

For Emma's eighth month we decided to stay in one place (meaning Zurich, Emma on the other hand never stays in one place for very long!). It was tough but we didn't go on any overnight trips... I think the last time I could say that was her first month! Part of that decision was just the time of year and Steve's work schedule, but it was also an attempt to give this little girl at least a little bit of normalcy and schedule to her life.

I am happy to say that at least when it comes to her nighttime sleeping habits it has helped quite a bit to be at home. Just before she turned eight months old we started some sleep training with her in order to get over several issues - jet lag from our return from the states, sleeping back in her crib after being sick and too much traveling led to wanting to sleep only with mom & dad, and waking up fewer times throughout the night (or at least waking up and wanting mom or dad fewer times). It took one very tough week at the start of the month that involved me sleeping on the floor of her room, but it has evolved into fewer night wakings and rarely needing to be fed in the middle of the night. Now if I could only say the same for naps... but hey if that was the case then this parenthood thing would be way too easy.



As soon as she's awake she's standing in her crib...



...realizing that mom & dad aren't going to come rock her back to sleep she gives up and
slowly slides down the crib rails into the squatting duck sleeping position.

Even after a lack of sleeping at night she's ready to read the morning paper!
Notice she chose the Sports Business Journal, not the Journal of Accountancy...



Practicing her basketball skills despite having some tired eyes!

Aside from battling sleep issues the last month has been a whole lot of fun watching Emma learn how to not only stand up, but more importantly sit down without falling back down! Perhaps not the best timing with the sleep training as everytime Emma would wake up at night she would immediately want to stand up too and not be able to get back down initially, which resulted in many falls and bruises on her forehead. But nonetheless after many attempts and a few weeks time Emma can now sit back down quite gracefully as well. Her confidence is soaring as she learns all these new things she can do (and mom's heart stops many days as she watches her learn and test out these these new skills).


So proud of herself!

Showing off how well she can stand and sit back down! 

As if standing up and sitting down wasn't a good enough "trick" to master by the time she was eight months old one of her other favorite new "tricks" is clapping, and she loves to do it when she does something she's proud of or if someone else around her does something that delights her. Clapping is frequent when one of her favorite toys comes out, her favorite book is read, and especially when the cats come out to play and she can grab a tail to pull! It is especially cute to watch her clap for other children that she plays with in her music class or the new Mommy & Me Yoga class we started this month.

Loves to clap for her favorite things! 

 

You should see the other kid! Just kidding.. the first of what I'm sure will be many boo boos from playing with other kids. Yes those are teeth marks compliments of an affectionate little boy in yoga class. She quickly forgot about it and continued to play with him, next time maybe she'll even clap for him too!

While it has been an exhausting month helping Emma learn to stand, sit, sleep and chase after her everywhere in between (especially as she recently switched to regular crawling and not just army crawling), it only continues to become more fun to watch, learn, and play alongside her. And there's nothing better than getting a big hug or hearing her say "mama." Even if I'm not 100% sure she knows what it means I think she is getting a whole lot closer to understanding!

Of course no monthly update would be complete without plenty of fun photos and videos...

Just turned eight months old and switched to the big kids crawl.



What a sweet valentine!



Someone can be a goofy eater sometimes...





Emma and Faith playing in the morning

Too cute!

It's hard not to smile when you get to play with her everyday.

Starting to understand that dad leaves every morning to go somewhere but he comes back at night (right here he's just around the corner putting his coat on) but Emma was clearly thinking, "Where did dad go?"

"Mom, do you know where he went?"

"I found him!"

Eight month photo session, but Emma's ready to go to the grocery store instead with her rewards card!
What do you think? Should I send it to the grocery store to use for advertising?

Eight months old and she's too cool to sit next to monkey

She already took her headband off... why not take the whole romper off?

Sitting for a few seconds next to monkey since she is happy she has her hairbrush -
someone loves to have her hair (or maybe just her head) brushed!

Two hands are for amateurs!

Enjoying a beautiful February afternoon!