8.5 month photo shoot

I took Bethany to get some pictures done again. We are never right at the 3, 6, 9 month mark so this is at 8.5 months! She has such a fun personality and I posted a few of my favorites. I see her in each and every one of these expressions.

On Sunday we were helping friends of ours move and their little boy was pushing a cart around and walking. Since Bethany loves to hold our hands and walk, I put her hands on the cart and gave her a push on the back. She surprised me by walking several steps holding on! She made it across the room and was very proud of herself. It will be awhile before she is sturdy enough to go farther distances or let go and walk on her own, but it seems like she is closer to walking than crawling.. silly girl :)

The pickle post

My mom and I took Bethany to the park in Wayzata a few weeks ago and Bethany enjoyed experiencing her first pickle taste :)

8 months old

Bethany is a very active little girl! We get comments a lot about how "busy" she is, and "wow, look how energetic she is!" It's true, she is squirmy, wiggly, loud and needless to say, not shy at all. I'm not sure when this stranger anxiety will happen, but Bethany loves to go to anyone who will play with her. We are struggling with this a bit at daycare because Bethany would prefer to have someone walk her around from toy to toy and have a dedicated play person all day. There are other kids, so it would be great if Bethany would be better at self-directed play or perhaps crawl to the toys on her own. She is getting much better at tummy time, but instead of crawling she decides to turn herself to the nearest stable object and pull herself up to standing. Bethany also loves to make funny noises. One sounds like a coughing noise and it is made when she is very excited to see someone or something new, and her mouth and eyes are WIDE open. She is such a funny girl! I also taught her how to make noise with her lips pressed together and blowing so that is also a constant noise. She is getting so good and picking up tiny things and has fed herself Cheerios and pieces of a banana. The lake is a big bathtub for her and she has fun splashing and trying to lean out of our arms to drink it (not allowed). We play "humpty-dumpty" sitting on the dock and now she leans forward to tip off into our arms when we say "fall!" We will see if she starts to get the hang of crawling soon but we are still enjoying the freedom of having her stay in one place :)

We'll have another weigh-in at the end of July with her 9 month appointment, but we went in today to make sure her cough was just a virus (which it is) and they weighed her in fully clothed at 17 lbs! We've just started her in size 3 diapers, although size 2 fits fine too. She still just has the 2 bottom teeth that arrived at 6 months, but her hair is finally growing back in and its blonde. Very fine, but relatively thick hair so it all stands up :)

8 month picture with her monkey

Lots of lake pictures!

cousins

loving the lake!