8 months

She is 8 months old now and making it harder and harder to get a picture with her monthly sign. She'd much rather just eat it.

We've got big news in Bella's world, her first tooth came through last night. She was a little fussy the last couple of days so yesterday morning the idea came to me that maybe she was getting some teeth, so I pried open her mouth and there was nothing. I checked again later in the afternoon and her gums looked like they were a little puffy, but I still thought to myself, "it'll probably be a few more weeks before any come in." Then when I was feeding her supper, she opened her mouth for a bite and I thought her gums looked really swollen. So I stuck my finger in to feel for anything, and sure enough, the tooth was through. I was so surprised. I had just checked a few hours before and there was nothing at all, and then all the sudden it had popped through. But it has obviously been bothering her. She woke up at midnight last night, so I fed her and tried to put her back in bed and she screamed. I rocked her back to sleep and tried to lay her down again and she screamed again. So we ended up sleeping on the couch together all night (which makes for a sore mommy in the morning).

As far as sleep goes, she's usually an amazing sleeper. She is on the same sleep schedule as Connor. They both go to bed at 9 and wake up at 7. Bella takes an hour nap while Connor is at school and then they both take an afternoon nap from 2-4. I can't believe I've been blessed with 2 awesome sleepers!

Bella is getting a little closer to crawling. She will now get up on her knees from her tummy, but it only lasts for a few seconds. She still pushes herself backwards and scoots a little bit on her butt. She would just much rather sit up.

As for Connor, he's been loving the warmer weather we've had. He spends all afternoon outside gathering corn from the fields to "plant", trying to climb the trees, and riding his bike. The other day I sent him and his friend outside to collect the garbage that had blown away this winter and was collected in the "tall grass." They each took a plastic bag out to collect the garbage. When they came back in they showed me what they found, and I was completly amazed with what they had done. They came in with all the garbage in one bag and all the plastic recyclables in the other. I couldn't believe they had taken it upon themselves to recycle the things they found. I was so impressed that they got more excited and went out and spent the next few hours looking for garbage and recyclables, while singing their own made up songs "I'm the garbage man" and "I'm the recycling man." It was just too cute. They ended up finding 6 gallon milk cartons and other plastics, a bag of garbage, and a rug that I was looking for. It's kinda sad that we let that much garbage fly around.

Anyway, I hope you all have a great weekend!