Tales from Our Fairytale: Little Miss Determined in Month 8

To my little engine that could,

I knew that I would love seeing your personality start to come out and that I would be so proud to watch as you begin to accomplish different things, but I don't think I knew I would love it as much as I do or be as proud of you as I am!

You are the toughest, strongest, most determined little thing I have ever seen, and that has only shown more and more over the past month. After starting to crawl last month, you are on the go ALL. THE. TIME. these days, but you've also added some new tricks to your repertoire...you are officially pulling up! I looked over one day and, being the determined little toot that you are, you had raised to your knees and were holding on to the couch. And just like that, you were pulling up...on everything! Your favorite is the window sill, and my least favorite is your crib (even after lowering the mattress, I'm still terrified you're going to fall out!). Although it started with you getting on to your knees, you were getting on your feet within about one day, and you haven't slowed down since. And one of my favorite things that goes along with that is your grunting! You grunt the whole time you are trying to accomplish something...crawling, pulling up, playing with toys, etc.

I love to watch your determination. When you see something you want, you go after it, and you don't stop until you have it! When you fall down, you get back up and try again and again. (And you are as tough as anything I've ever seen!) It is such a joy to watch how strong and brave you are. I can't wait to see those traits continue to grow in you, and I can only imagine where they will take you in life!! This momma loves a good fairytale, and you will always know you are a princess, but I will be sure that you know being strong and brave is good, too!

And can we talk about the fact that you say "Mama"...every day!? It absolutely melts my heart, and gives me visions of the future and not being able to say "No" to you. (Don't worry, I'll learn before you even know you have the power to use it.)

Eight Month Stats

Wearing: Miss Bryleigh can still fit into some of her 3 month onsies and dresses, but I finally decided to take most of them out of the closet to make room for the 9 month clothes. With the cool weekend we've just had, we needed those long sleeves from the 9 month outfits!!

Eating: Eating is SO fun these days!! We've dropped down to 4 bottles on most days, but Bryleigh is eating like a champ. She has oatmeal cereal and fruit at breakfast, and then a fruit and a vegetable for lunch and dinner. So far, she hasn't disliked anything I've given her...although, somethings her tummy has disliked! She's had Squash, Sweet Potato, Green Bean, Carrot, and Sweet Pea, as well as Avocado, Banana, Pear, Apple, and Peaches.

Sleeping: Phew. Sleeping is TOUGH these days! Bryleigh is still a GREAT sleeper, but I'm not cut out for early mornings, and Bryleigh has been waking up between 6 and 7:00 lately, ready to play! I usually bring her back to our bed for a bit, where she climbs all over me as if I'm a jungle gym. Most days she takes a morning nap around 10:00 and an afternoon nap. Bed time is usually around 8:00, but it all depends on how little Miss is feeling! Sometimes she has no desire to be put in that bed by herself...that bed which we DID have to lower this month because she decided she was able to STAND UP!?!

Teeth: 4!! And you better believe we are proud of those two new ones. They were tough stuff for a while. There was fever and tantrums and vomit and even some lost sleep...for momma and baby, as well as some extra sleep. Bryleigh now has 4 bottom beautiful pearly whites.

Unofficial Measurements: Sweet thing's head is still coming in at 47 cm, and she currently weighs 21 pounds and is 26 inches long.

Eight Month Highlights

We started off the month with a trip to Killeen for our sweet friends 1st Birthday party! We love the Lally/Bright families and were so excited to share such a special day with them!! (Brad and Brittain were best friends growing up, and now they have two sweet babies to carry on the tradition!)

Let's face it. It was time for the mullet/rat tail to GO! So we strapped Bryleigh in to the bumbo seat, plopped it up on the kitchen island, and gave her a nice little trim! It's crazy how one "little" change made such a difference, but I thought she looked just a little more grown up afterwards.

One of Bryleigh's FAVORITE things in the whole house isn't even a baby toy or anything that we got for her...it's our black fuzzy blankets we keep in the living room. They always calm her down when she is upset or make her smile and laugh when she's in a good mood. She loves to cuddle up with them, snuggling her face in it.

One of our favorite things from this month is all the noises Bryleigh is making with her mouth. She'll pop her lips, blow little bubbles, pop her tongue...and she LOVES to talk!

We've learned that when Bryleigh is having one of her famous meltdowns, she can be soothed with YouTube music videos. She will sit and watch them so intently...it always dries the tears right up!

In our house, there are two seasons - Baseball and Football - and we all know how well one of those is going (although, we are excited to watch the Nationals in the Post Season!!), so we have been PUMPED to be enjoying football season. We usually watch it ALL. WEEKEND. LONG!!! (And we are ALL okay with that!!)

Bryleigh and I had a very special day and started a new tradition this year. As I was seeing all of the mommies post pictures of their precious littles' first days of school, I couldn't help but know that Bryleigh and I only have a few "First Days" before it's her turn, so each year on the first day of school, we're going to have a "NOT First Day" celebration. I'm sure they'll be a little more involved in the future considering it was spur of the moment and there isn't much Bryleigh can do yet, but we had a fun day!! It included pajamas until noon, lunch in the living room, lots of playtime and books, and we finished up with a little swim.

This month was special because two of our favorite people had birthdays - DeDe and cousin Tate! We enjoyed an overnight trip to Conroe to celebrate Tate's 3rd birthday with a Pizza Party and kicking off the Baylor Bear's football season, and the following weekend we had lunch and a relaxing afternoon of watching football with lots family to celebrate our DeDe.

We got to check another "First" off Bryleigh's list with her first pep rally!! Growing up, mommy went to LOTS of pep rallies, but I don't think I went to one quite as young as Bryleigh. We cheered on our cousins Abby (Freshman) and Emily (Senior) at their first pep rally of the season for the Mansfield Tigers. Bryleigh LOVED everything at the pep rally (although she was a little bit tired as you can tell in the pictures), not one single thing scared her!!