summer recap.

I am so sad that summer will end soon, I love this season. I even like the heat- maybe not the humidity. I am still sad to see it go & I look forward to enjoying next summer even more because this one was a little too crazy..We moved a couple months ago and it turned our lives upside down. It was so hard with a baby waking up 3 times a night at that point, not having a day off to organize anything and pumping and stressing over breast milk. I reached a point of exhaustion that I have truly never known. It was a little terrible and I am lucky I only broke down a few times.

BUT we have also had lots of fun times like: visits with my sisters, ice cream, dinner out as a family, fresh summer meals made at home, way too many Taco Luchador trips (no, not too many. The right amount), walks, running, a bonfire with hot dogs and smores, pool time at my grandma's, drives in this beautiful Kentucky summer, Shakespeare/ Louisville Ballet in Central Park, exploring our new neighborhood, getting our home together and settled (& new furniture!), playing with our little baby, loving and celebrating her everyday, hanging out on the porch swing, family dance parties, Borns concert with friends, a company picnic with Jonas at Jacobson Park in Lexington, visits with friends and family, a new mini van from my dad!!!, a visit from my nephew for a few days & a few birthday celebrations in there too.

It can be tough & it can be so wonderful.

Now we are looking forward to celebrating our anniversary, taking a brief trip to Arizona, finally cleaning up our last pile of moving mess, holidays with Z & her first birthday!

Z at the zoo.

We had a great day at the zoo !

Zara was mildly interested in the animals,

but she did love watching the seals swim.

The best part was hanging out with my little family.

& maybe the meerkats lounging in a pile.

We let Zara choose between two things at the gift shop by letting her crawl to the one she wanted, haha. She went for the stuffed seal:::

dear weekend, please come back!

Here are the highlights from our weekend that went by way too fast...

We ordered a new couch. I have wanted a new one for years. It doesn't even feel real.
Z & me walked to the farmer's market for some fresh food and wild flowers.
A run in the pouring rain that was very refreshing.
Cooking Croque Madame & piperade.
Listening to Jonas' talk at church.
Cuddles. Pumping. Bottles.
Playing on the floor. Baby laughs. Books.
Progress on home organization.
A visit to see Papa at work.
Running through the forest & playing in the park on a cool sunday.

...I look forward to the next one.

just a few snaps from a weekend away.

I packed up my favorite Trader Joe's snacks and took a road trip with my girl. We were near Vanceburg, KY for the Hamilton Family Reunion...my sister's in- law family...they adopted us :) It has been a gorgeous Kentucky summer and the drive there and back took my breath away. We were away from the phones. We watched movies with the projector in the back yard. Zara got a heart painted on her face at a little carnival. There was a talent show that made me so happy and a testimony meeting. Zara had lots of other kiddos to play with and I got to spend time with some of my people. I love going to the Hamilton cabin and can't wait for the next time!

Z's Eighth month!

Eight months!

My amazing girl is eight months old!

Zara's personality has really started to shine through this month. She is such a serious, sweet & silly girl. She cracks us up. People stop me all the time to tell me how cute she is (all babies are cute, so I am not that surprised) but I still love when she talks to strangers and smiles at them. I have seen people with the most serious of faces light up when they see her. She makes the world better. We love her so much.

Her tired face:::

Eating:::

Zara loves all the food!  Yogurt, smashed bananas, avocado/ guacamole, hummus, any fruit version of Ella's Kitchen stuff or other organic fruit baby food, baby oatmeal and cereal, fresh pineapple, smoothies, tomatoes, roasted potatoes, cheese crackers, anything I am eating- even meatballs, applesauce, tortellini... I could go on. Girl loves to eat! She also still has plenty of breastmilk (between 20-25 oz./ day now). Usually she has milk in the middle of the night (3am to be exact), yogurt or cereal for breakfast, more milk, lunch of fruit baby food, maybe a snack, milk and then a little banana or strawberry cereal before bed. Still working on our house and getting to the point where I make more of her food...ugh..maybe someday soon.
Great news though- only 4 more months until I have been breast feeding for a year and then we are going to try and cut down. I do not want to wish this time away, it is just so stressful to find time to pump at work and to worry about pumping enough for the next day (an issue that has continued since we were in Germany).

Sleep:::

Sleep as been improving. A few weeks ago, she was waking up several times a night. Now we are down to one (MOST of the time) and it is always 3am. Usually she will go right back to sleep after she eats. She is happy most of the time when she wakes up. We have had a few cranky mornings too.

Z only takes long naps on occasion now. Most of them are short and the times vary, but somewhere mid- morning, late afternoon and/ or early evening. & she sleeps about 7 hours/night.

I should note that I am obsessed with her bald head. I am excited for her hair to grow out, but this is hilarious and cute:::

New stuff/ Loves/ Doesn't like:::

Z started crawling last month and now she is super fast. It cracks us up sometimes when we set her down and she takes off!  She can also stand while holding onto a chair or the couch and she is starting to move around and pull herself up. Some assisted steps with us. She is ready to walk! No matter what, she is always moving now..and moving fast!

 

Sometimes she does this downward facing dog move. #futureyogi

She follows us everywhere. It is simply wonderful to have a little baby follow you or come to you when you get home. I love it.

She LOVES dogs and cats. They make her incredibly happy and she gets so excited that she moves her arms and legs all around. She loves to hold onto their fur and put her face in it if she can, which only works with a couple sweet dogs we know. With our cat, she tries to follow her all around the house but Katze is way too fast for her. I allow supervised visits though.

When we have records on/ make up silly songs/ sing hymns at church, she tries to sing along. It is a glorious and hilarious thing she does.

She loves when we play records and dance with her. I live for her deep belly laugh. *her dance move is the best- rocking back and forth.

She is in 3-6 and mostly 6-12 month clothes & size 4 diapers. I think she was about 17 pounds when I took her in for her sick visit.

Baby girl likes to smack now. She can hit kinda hard. haha. She is also really into grabbing our faces.

When she gets excited, she kicks her legs and kind of bounces. We love to see her happy :)

One of my favorite things is when she pulls in her bottom lip when she is thinking or smiling. I want to keep that forever.

She is really into exploring everything and loves to crawl around the house getting into things and talking her baby talk. She mostly wanders around saying 'dadadada....' but we are working on 'mama'. I still love the classic, high pitched 'ahhhhhhhh'.

She loves loves loves to chew on shoes. It is her thing and it is my thing to constantly stop her.

Sometimes I brush the side of her face as she falls asleep. Smile every time. So sweet.

She loves drinking water from a cup.

She can suck on those pouches of food now too..we just don't let her often because she can also squeeze the contents out.

She finally loves laying on soft things and stuffed animals.

She is great at self play and will play and explore for long periods of time (as long as she can still see us) but she still wants to hang out with older kids. Older kids really love her too and come up to her and give her attention for a moment before they go back to playing. I know Z wishes they would stick around.

Her favorite games involve one of us holding her while the other plays peek- a- boo, one of us holding her while she tries to 'get' the other one, she loves to be held while the other person is kicked by her or she grabs them. Basically, hold her and run around and act silly.

Zara dances now too! Well, her version which is moving back and forth.

Does not like her car seat now. Poor thing tries to pull herself out when we place her in it.

She also doesn't like sitting still for diaper changes and clothing changes.

Teething has been rough for her this month. Now she has two on the bottom and one that just came through on the top. It has made her cranky and sad. She has needed extra cuddles from us lately. We even took her to the doctor when she was inconsolable at daycare. It was just teething :(

Poor thing, hopefully it gets better.

Z has mild separation anxiety. She cries on occasion and only briefly when I leave her on her daycare days. The thing she really doesn't like is when we are home and I move to another room, even if she can still see me. Sometimes at home she won't even let me put her down so I hold her a lot or she sits in the Bumbo while I cook.It makes it hard to get things done, but I love to hold her and be around her :) She loves being held too. No matter what is going on with her, she will calm down when we hold her or put her on our shoulders.

 

Thank you for being our daughter, Z! You have no idea how happy you make us.

 Happy Happy 8 months!!!