The Schoenbauer Family: 8 months old

What does our little 8 month old do all day? She usually starts each day by greeting me (or Daddy if he's lucky) with a big smile, standing up in her crib. When she knows she's going to be picked up, she starts to bounce. After getting a change, she starts to get wiggly in anticpation of going to see Jacob. She absolutely adores her big brother.

Other things she does: crawls like a speed demon, pulls up on anything she can reach (furniture, toys that can fall on top of her, walls, people), takes some cruising steps when she's feeling especially brave, cackles with delight if you work to make her laugh, gets into all of Jacob's toys (much to his disapproval), and soaks up everything around her. If she's in a new place or a "stranger" is holding her, she will stare intently until she's satisfied that she has seen it all. She's become quite the mommy's girl, but she still loves her daddy. She will only let him hold her facing out, though. Without fail, every time he picks her up, she squirms to be turned out within 3 seconds.

She has also made great strides in her feeding. She's eating a few tablespoons of food at a time, and can feed herself small bits of table food. So far, she has tried pancake and crackers. She will spit out puffs and cheerios, though.

She loves her teddy bears. She's pretty easy to get to sleep (as long as Mommy is around). She's not sleeping all night yet, but is showing progress. She likes music and staring at the leaves as they fall to the ground. We love everything about her.