ELOISE

Eloise (aka Woo) is now 8 months old!  My how the time have flown since she's arrived.  Here she is month by month.

Just born!

One month old!

I didn't start taking her monthly pictures with her pink giraffe till she was 2 months old.

 Two months old!

 Three months old!

 Four months old!

 Five months old!

 Six months old!

 Seven months old!

 Eight months old!!

  

Her nickname Woo was not planned at all.  We planned on calling her Ellie but that never stuck - Woo did.  It all came out in the baby talk.  Eloise turned to Eloisiewoo and then just Woo. There's also Wezzy, Woobey Do, and Wisa (Grandma Wisa loves that!).

She is one amazing kid.  Our life together started out a little rough.  She would not sleep anywhere but in my arms.  The minute I would put her in her bassinet she would cry.  I'm not kidding the minute! So she was in bed with us a few months.  The couch just wasn't comfy enough.  But now she sleeps through the night in her own bed.  It was so hard for me to let her cry it out but I'm so glad I did.  I started out by letting her cry 10 minutes but it never lasted that long.  Now most nights she stops crying once I close the door.  This girl is a morning person.  She wakes up at about 5-6 am with the biggest smile on her face.  It's really cute and makes me smile even though I'm not as chipper in the morning.

Her favorite books are "The Going to Bed Book" and "Follow That Bee".  "Follow That Bee" is a book I found in Target's dollar bins.  I'd have to say it's her absolute fave.  She smiles every time I pull it out and she want to read it more than once.  I'm lucky to get through a whole book before she's moving on to bigger and better things.  We read "The Going to Bed Book" - you guessed it - before bed every night.  We snuggle in her lamb blanket as we read it.  

Woo is doing SO many things!!  She's been crawling for a couple months now.  I don't know how she learned so fast.  She hated tummy time so much I thought she'd never learn to crawl but she proved me wrong!  She is FAST too.  We have a little step going to the back part of our apartment which she can get up with no problem.  We're still working on the coming down part.

She pulls up on EVERYTHING.  She tried to pull up on a little boy at church Sunday.  The boy kinda freaked out and ran to his mom.  I think he thought she was trying to knock him over.  Pulling up leads to cruising!!  She cruises from the couch to the footrest, her dad's amp to the tv stand.  Pretty much anything she can reach to keep moving.  I love it when her dad is sitting on the floor playing his video games and she walks in circles around him.    

She has been standing on her own for a few seconds here and there.  Her little feet flexing to keep her balanced is so cute!  She could stand longer if she wanted to.  She realizes she's not holding onto anything and she slowly lowers herself to the floor.  It won't be long till she realizes she's able to do it!

 (On her way down)

She loves to walk and does any time she can.  She can't do it on her own yet but anything she can push and walk behind she does.  She loves it.  She laughs and has the biggest open mouthed smile on her face the whole time.  She makes me laugh!

Woo LOVES music.  The Beatles are her favorite at the moment.  "Martha My Dear" gets the biggest smile out of her.  When she's a bit cranky I can turn it on and she smiles and dances.  Love it - I love it!!

Eloise hates baby food.  The first time we gave her rice cereal she really liked it, not so much the next few times.  Even baby food in cans she gags on.  She would even gag on an empty baby spoon for a while!  She's so dramatic!  She loves our food.  This girl wants to eat anything and everything we eat and lets us know when we aren't feeding her fast enough.  It's really cute to see Glen and Woo share a popsicle.  He has no choice but to share.  When she sees he has one you can't get her away from him!

Is she teething or isn't she?  I really don't know for sure.  For the past couple weeks she's been resting her tongue on her gums. In just the past few days she's started rubbing her gums with her tongue (mainly on the right side). When I feel in her mouth I can't feel anything but smooth gums.  She's been getting cranky for no reason too.  We'll just have to wait and see!  It's kinda hard to imagine her with teeth.  

She thinks the word "No" is funny.  I try so very hard to keep a stern face when telling her certain things are off limits because all I get is a huge smile/laugh.  Like when she's...

pulling out all the DVDs

or getting on the printer

or pulling at the blinds.

It's a learning process for the both of us.

Out of all the toys Eloise has she seems to only want the remotes, phones, the computer, i Pad and clothes.  I cannot do laundry when she's awake anymore.  She destroys my piles no matter how hard I try to keep them from her.  She likes to play with clothes.  She talks the whole time she's pulling them, chewing on them and putting them over her head.  It's so funny to watch.  This is her playing with a pair of her pants.

These past 8 months have been AMAZING.  I love being a mom!  I knew I would.  It just took me FOREVER to get here but it was well worth the wait!!