Hazel at 8 (and a half) Months

Bittersweet. The last month and a half has brought about many changes for our baby girl. Pleasant as ever, despite sprouting her first two teeth down bottom. She has started interacting so much more with her sisters and now can be just as mouthy as the other two. She talks, sings, growls like a monster, and practices octaves. She is no longer stationary; rolling, twisting and pushing herself around to wherever she wants to be. She looks like she may take off crawling any minute and has also started pulling up on things. She is obsessed with food despite my efforts to prolong solids and has tried a handful of new fruits and vegetables. I guess I should take her cues and really start letting her feed herself. She is giving kisses and saying "Mama," getting into things, and perfecting the fake cough and laugh. She is a ham. Nursing has become more like wrestling as she tries to fill her belly while also grabbing her toes, pushing off my chest and watching her sisters.

Any sort of parenting advice I researched with both Lucy and Vada has gone out the window. With Lucy it was "introducing food" charts, keeping track of milestones and working to get her to sleep through the night. It was swim classes and perfectly matched outfits from hat down to shoes. Hazel is typically in an oversized, tie-dye t-shirt being laid down in her crib wide awake to take a three hour nap or sleep through the night. I haven't cracked a "what to expect" book since I was pregnant with Vada and have no recollection whether peas or green beans should be introduced first. She is my carefree, take it as it comes, along for the ride angel baby.

Again, as always with me, it's the small things that choke me up. Putting her in a bath seat for the first time meant not knowing it was the last time she was in the baby tub. Packing away yet another tote of clothes she has outgrown and seeing the physical evidence of her growing up. Lucy pointed out that soon she will need a toothbrush too and helps me remember to now pack a sippy cup for Hazel in the diaper bag. She is generally out of the moby or sling and sitting in the cart with her sisters. She's turning towards a dinner plate and away from my chest. She is doing exactly what she should be, according to her.