Gillian Grace is 8 months old

Growing like a weed with a blossoming personality to boot, it seems only appropriate that Gillian Grace turn 8 months old today, the first day of Spring.

At 8 months old, Gillian Grace never ceases to amaze us. Surpassing milestones faster than we can keep track, every day is a new adventure. Now that she is crawling, GG is on the move non-stop. There's certainly no holding her back nowadays. She makes so many tracks here, there, and everywhere, it's a wonder that she hasn't worn our family room rug to mere threads. Her adventurous spirit and fearlessness keeps me on my toes. Despite having become quite the accomplished sitter, she much prefers to stand. She loves pulling up on the ottoman and standing until her tiny legs can take no more. She even showboats a bit, walking circles around the ottoman while holding on with only one hand. Between pulling up and crawling, our house has become Gillian's own personal playground. Along with all this new mobility comes the increased risk of falls, bumps, and bruises. This week GG got her first major ouchie when she bumped her head against her crib while climbing up to greet us one morning. Even with a nice goose-egg on her forehead, I'm pretty sure she got over it long before I did. We've baby-proofed the house, as it seems nothing is safe from her tiny hands. And as much as I may wish otherwise, it appears that walking is in our near future.

Adventurous with a dash of fearlessness best describes her personality at this point. She has a stubborn streak, which I can only assume she inherited from me. She has heard the word "no" on more than one occasion and isn't sure that she likes it. Although we're fairly certain that she doesn't know what it means, she will pause when she hears the word "no", only to return to what she was doing minutes later. It takes several "nos" before she will completely abandon what she was doing and move on.

Still the ever content and happy baby she's always been, Gillian Grace now likes to ham it up for an audience. Whether it's family, friends, or complete strangers, GG loves to have all eyes on her. Give her your attention and she'll give you a show!

GG is fascinated by people, especially men, children, and babies. She will turn on a dime when she sees a baby and just stare!

She's a talker, babbling incoherently much of the time. Occasionally, "dada" can be heard quite clearly. That's right, like most babies, Gillian Grace's first word was "dada". When she crawled into the kitchen, put her hands on the refrigerator, and said "da" we quickly figured that she wasn't able to actually associate her new word with her Daddy. While at first she was calling any and everything "dada", that has lessened and she now uses the word appropriately 80% of the time. It's been in the last two days that GG has begun to say "mama". Granted most of the time it's completely by chance, but I'll take what I can get.

Still not a big fan of veggies, GG's love for fruit has remained consistent. We've yet to discover a fruit that she didn't enjoy. We've even tried a little more variety lately and introduced her to a few exotic fruits. She can't get enough of Gerber's Hawaiian delight and mango puree. Yum! We've scaled back on the amount of formula she has in a given day, although lately her appetite has seemed insatiable. Instead of half a bottle for snack, she's been inhaling a full 8 oz bringing her total daily bottle consumption to around 24 oz. It won't be long before we'll be adding stage 3 foods to her diet and at 9 months, our doctors has given us the okay to begin introducing table food.

GG continues to be very tactile and her motor skills improve each day. Gillian Grace has mastered picking up Gerber's puffs and yogurt melts. She gets so excited when I bring out the container of puffs and shake it around. Always grabbing a handful instead of just one, we continually have to caution her to slow down. She even surprised us with her dexterity when she reached her hand down inside the puffs container and pulled out one puff to eat. What can I say, nothing---not a container and certainly not your hand or finger---gets in the way of my lil' one and her food!

While still a fan of Mickey Mouse, she has a new love---Disney's Imagination Movers. If you've never heard of them, stay tuned, I'll be doing a post about this wonderful group in the near future. GG loves music! Whether in a commercial or on a show like the Movers, she will stop what she is doing when she first hears the beat. She even bobs up and down a bit, slapping her hand on her knee. Don't know if this is intentional, but it's cute nevertheless. During the day and at night she enjoys it when we sing. There's just something about a melody that soothes her.

After reading about the heartache and losses of others this week, we continue to thank God each and everyday for blessing us with such a beautiful and healthy baby. I'm not sure what we ever did to deserve something so wonderful, but we are forever grateful.