Ceci On The Move!

After what felt like months of inconsistent often poor night sleep and constant attempts at proper crawling, Ceci woke up on Christmas Eve morning after a great night's sleep and could crawl.  Just like that.  And she never looked back - she occasionally army crawled for a couple days and then it was gone, only big girl crawling from now on.  Just a few weeks later and she is a crawling master - she's so fast!  And SO excited about being on the move!!

We now have to keep the door to the hallway downstairs closed lest she try to climb the stairs and we have a baby gate on the utility room to keep her away from the food shelves, laundry piles and washer, dryer and dish washer.  If either of those is open, even if for only a few seconds, her baby radar pings and she's there in a flash.  Our saving grace is that she is so not stealth - whenever she sees something she wants and isn't supposed to have she starts this delirious giggling noise.  Whenever we hear it we know she's headed somewhere she's not supposed to be.  It's adorable, and a total life saver.  Earlier this week I was washing the dishes and heard that laugh, along with the crinkling of plastic.  I turned around to find the hall door open and Ceci just inside it, sitting happily next to her diaper bag, shaking a pack of rice cakes with one hand, holding a rice cake in the other and chomping on a piece in her mouth.  With each shake bits of rice cake were flying everywhere and she was delighted.  And SO proud of herself.

As soon as she had crawling down she started wanting to stand.  At first it was just pulling up using our hands and a little help but it quickly developed to the point where we didn't need to help her, just be a support for her.  Then she started pulling herself up to a knee stand to get to things on top of the coffee table (baby proofing never stops does it?) and on the couch.  And tonight she confidently pulled up to standing on the end table all by herself (she did it once before a few days ago but barely stayed standing for more than a second or two - this time she was trying to get to something at the back of the table for a couple minutes!).

A new favorite toy!

The crib has now been lowered down!

8 months has been such a fun age and such an adventure.  It seems like every day Ceci is learning something new.  Ceci is now waving hi and bye, mimicking the sounds we make (including laughing and coughing - hysterical), and giving hugs and 'kisses' (mostly just trying to bite our mouths or chins haha).  She's also starting to pick up a little sign language - she does the sign for "all done" though she uses it for when her food is almost gone and she wants more, so it's a bit of a work in progress. And she's getting very close to clapping as well.

The more Cecilia's personality shines through, the more we love her.  She's such a smart, happy, funny, silly, wonderful little girl!