Anxious that Alethea get over her aversion to snow, Peter offered her a ball of freshly fallen goodness the other day.  Of course the first thing that Alethea did was try to eat it:

Does she look less fearful?  Hmmmmm…

Yesterday was Alethea’s eight-month birthday.  Happy Birthday, Baby!

This month Alethea had a lot of firsts, most notably, her first Christmas.  She had fun (I think) and has quite a few new clothes, toys and books to show for it, although if you asked her (and if she could talk) she would probably tell you her favorite part was the wrapping paper and ribbons although it was frustrating when Mommy and Daddy kept taking them away.  That was about what we expected, which is why Mommy and Daddy only gave her one present under the tree.  It was a Leap Frog Learn and Groove Musical Table and Alethea is a big fan of it already.

Gross motor skill firsts for Alethea this month included first time crawling on hands and knees, first time sitting up from laying down and first time pulling herself to a standing position.  While she did accomplish all of these this month, she is not yet skilled at any of them and is still not getting around the house extremely quickly, which is just fine with me.

As far as eating goes, Alethea now consumes three solid food meals every day and most of the time she seems to enjoy them.  She continues to eat a variety of pureed foods, including turkey (yum!).  In addition to expanding her puree repertoire, she is now also feeding herself some finger foods.  Being the independently minded eight-month-old that she is, self-feeding seems to be her preferred method of eating and I’m convinced that she would try just about anything we put on her tray, as long as she got to be the one to put it in her mouth.

Sleeping, oh sleeping.  This month Alethea had a good two week stretch were she was sleeping for a total of 12-14 hours per night with one 6-8 hour stretch in the middle.  It was unbelievably amazing!  However, the past week or so she is back to waking up every 3-4 hours and I’m not sure why.  So frustrating!  I have been eating more dairy lately because I’m not strong enough to make it through the Christmas season without it, and I am wondering if that is what is bothering her, so as of yesterday, I am back to a dairy free diet.

As far as everything else goes, most days Alethea continues to be her happy independent self (yesterday hopefully being the exception and not the beginning of a new phase).  She likes playing with her toys, but she loves playing with Peter’s laptop cord, the vertical blinds in the living room, Christmas tree ornaments (she got over her fear of being poked), hot air vents in the floor, and any kitchen utensils we give her.  Most of all, she enjoys getting into the cable box, dvd player and surround sound system.  (Peter and I are contemplating how we can have doors added to the living room built-ins.)

Over all, I’d say we had a good month and I am hoping that going dairy free again will bring about the return of long nights of sleep, so I’d say the forecast for 2010 is looking bright.

Most days I feel like Alethea is growing up too fast, but yesterday I really felt like my little baby girl is no longer a little baby girl.  Instead of taking her milestones one at a time so that I have time to adjust, she decided to just take them all at once.  Yesterday she was crawling on her hands and knees for the first time.  She also brought herself to a sitting position from laying down.  AND she pulling herself up to a standing position all by herself.  Sigh…

It is so fun to see her discovering new skills, but at the same time, I do feel a little like maybe it she should slow down for a while.  I guess maybe I just will have to get used to that feeling, huh?

Happy Birthday Aunt Leah!  Can’t wait to see you on Saturday!  Love, Alethea

I think Alethea is afraid of snow.  My born and bred in Minnesota baby was sitting in her exersaucer watching me through the window while I shoveled the front porch.  A few seconds into it, she started crying and shaking and doing her afraid sounds (the same ones she uses for the vacuum and other loud noises).  I came inside and tried to reassure her.  She stopped crying, but still didn’t look happy, so I went outside and got a handful of snow to show her.  She absolutely refused to touch it or even acknowledge that it was in my hand.  Even when I brought it up close to her she would turn the other way.

I guess I should think it’s sweet that she’s so worried about me being outside with the big bad piles of snow, but I do hope that snow won’t be a permanent fear in her life.  If it is, she’s in for a long childhood.

I put in my nuk all by myself!