10 months

She WALKS!! At 9 months and 1 week she took her first step while standing on her own. Since then she has progressed and 3 days before she turned 10 months she took 8 steps to her daddy. I love watching her face before she takes a step. I can tell she is trying to decide if she wants to let go of whatever furniture she's holding onto and take the step. She only lets go about half the time. (video below of the first day that she took multiple steps).

She is an awesome waver. She waves at everything all the time. I think her dad loves that she waves to him when he leaves in the morning for work.

She is still a people person and loves other babies. She has started giving hugs (putting her head on their chest) to other babies. Pretty much the cutest thing ever.

She is loving music more and more everyday. I love having dance parties with her. She bops her head, waves her arms, kicks her legs and bounces up and down. We are in primary and she will even dance during singing time. It's so funny

She has become a daddy's girl. She prefers him to me whenever he is around. It's pretty adorable. He loves it too......except for when he walks in the door from working all day and she immediately goes to him and won't leave his side. I think he would like to change first but she won't have it.

She is babbling a ton. I think she is beginning to try to imitate sounds she is hearing. I'm not sure if she knows mama and dada yet. She says them all the time, but I'm not sure she is saying them to us. So, she's not really talking yet.

I do think she understands a few words though. She knows: milk, food, bye, hi, goodnight, nap, wave. She might know: book, story, kiss.

She is getting better at napping everyday! Which is heavenly!!!!! I live for her long naps now - I feel like I can do so much.

She got her first doll for Valentine's day and loves it. That baby gets all sorts of hugs and it has a binkie that is magnetic to it's mouth and Isla loves to try to give the baby it's binkie. She also tries to suck on it too :)

She just seems older this month. I think she looks older too. I love that she is getting older and older. It just means that we get to do more fun things every day!

9 months

Isla's stats:

Her new skill is giving high 5's. If you hold your hand up in front of her and say high 5, she'll slap it. I kinda love it. It's the first thing that we've actually taught her. She kinda loves doing it too.

She is really trying to wave. But doesn't quite have it down yet. She can wave with her hand down by her tummy....or she can put her hand up by her head and kinda move it. but she hasn't combined the bringing her hand up to her head and waving. It's been difficult to teach her to wave because whenever i start to show her she thinks i'm going to ask for a high 5 :)

She has thrown a ball a few times. Mostly she is just throwing it into the ground. But a few times she was trying to throw it to me because we were playing catch.

She is starting to get a little temper (not my favorite newest development). Literally the day she turned 9 months she started throwing little temper tantrums. They only last a minute - but I don't love them. They usually occur when I need to change her diaper or get her dressed. I'm really excited for them to get more intense in a few months (not!).

The sleep training we have been doing for 3 months has finally started to kick in a bit. She now usually only cries for less than 5 minutes before naps and bedtime. We were used to an hour of crying before!

She's down to two naps a day. She gets pretty tired in the evening but can't fall asleep for the third nap.

She loves her daddy. Her favorite time of the day is when dad comes home from work. It works out perfectly because it's right when she is starting to get a little crabby because she didn't take a third nap. So seeing her daddy calms and rejuvenates her.

My favorite time of the day is from about 6:30 to 7:30 pm. We do a bath and then we get in pj's and play for a little bit and then we read stories and I feed her and put her to bed. I love reading stories with her. And she loves them too. She loves mirror books and lift the flap books and short stories. She has loved lift the flap books since about 6 months and started lifting the flaps on her own right away and turning the pages. It's been more recent that she's liked story books too. We definitely try to liven them up with animal noises and really any noises we can. Her favorite story books are Are You My Mother and Goodnight Moon.

She loves music and likes to dance. She bops her head to the music and bounces up and down. I love it so much.

She is getting so great at standing on her own. I think she could do it forever....but she doesn't because I don't think she thinks she's capable. So after a minute she grabs onto me or onto something else.

She's the best. I love her little smooshy face.

8 months (2 weeks ago)

Isla's stats:

She is now a crawler! She started crawling at 7 months 1 week and 1 day. She loves her new found freedom....and I do too. I love when I leave her in the family room with toys and go to my bedroom to change and I hear her little swoosh as she's coming down the hallway and I peek my head out and say "you found me" and she cracks up.

She is still pulling up on everything and trying to walk along them. She is getting better and better at standing on her own for a few seconds. And she still loves to walk while holding onto our fingers.

She is a serious babbler. Her babble of choice is mamama and I LOVE it! It makes me think she's thinking of me :) She says dada a lot too (but not as much as mama)!

She is still a friendly little thing and loves other kids. But is becoming a little more cautious with adults. If an adult comes up to her to say hi she buries her head into my or bryan's chest and gives a shy smile. It's the cutest thing. Usually she will go to the adult though after a few minutes of investigation.

She has no fear of other kids and babies though. She loves making friends and trying to keep up with other babies. Church is pretty funny when we are near other babies. She just tries to play with them the whole time.

Isla is becoming more fun every day. Her little personality is coming out and she is a blast.

7 months

7 months

We had to try to take her 7 month pictures two days in a row because she rarely sits still anymore!

At 7 months Isla is becoming a real mover. She isn't quite crawling yet but is army crawling and maneuvering her way to whatever she wants to get to. She is getting really quite stable while standing. She pulls herself up to standing on just about everything. She really only needs one hand on something or someone while standing and she can play with the other hand.

We've been sleep training her for a month and a half. We've seen some improvement (especially at night) but we still have a lot of work to do.

She adores food. I love when it's time to feed her rice cereal or vegetables because she loves them. Well she tolerates rice cereal and loves vegetables. At 8 months i'm going to start mixing in fruit with the rice cereal instead of milk - I think she'll like it better that way.

She has her two bottom teeth already. She really loves biting with those things! She is constantly grabbing for mine or Bryan's finger to gnaw on.

She is becoming a little more shy. She'll still go to anyone (if she is well rested and fed) but it takes her a minute to warm up first.

She is a talker (well babbler)! She hasn't said mama or dada (bryan's hoping for papa instead of dada) yet but is talking all the time.

She is really starting to like music. If she hears a song she like, she will start kicking her feet or bouncing up and down and smiling and laughing. She does the same thing when she's excited about anything. Like when her dad comes home from work or when she sees food. It's the best.

Isla is just the sweetest and most fun little thing. I am loving this stage of her life. It is so fun to see her excited to explore the world around her!