What I want to know is how am I going to have an 8 month old in two weeks? How?! I was just pregnant like an hour ago. And I just gave birth like ten minutes ago. And Tenley was 6 months like twelve seconds ago. I dunno, I just don't get it. She is growing up so fast already! Am I seriously going to have a one-year old in four and a half months?!?!?! Unreal.
Anyway, Tenley is still the easiest baby ever (counting my many blessings) so far.
Her most commonly used nicknames are: Ten-Ten, Little Ten, Baby girl, Princess (haha, which I swore I would never use but surprise, surprise...), Baby Princess, and Littles. I can't help it, she just is my princess. Plus having a daughter is the best thing ever.
She goes to bed easy (most of the time...if her routine is majorly disrupted, I can't make any guarantees).
Her favorite things to eat include basically anything off my plate. I give her pieces of bread, veggies, chicken, potatoes, fruit, etc. I don't blend them, I just give her a piece the size of like my pinky nail (which is really small) and she loves it. She really likes grapes, but I mean, she likes everything I give her. Even broccoli and stuff that I do not like plain. She's enthusiastic about solids, but she is totally still a momma's girl with nursing. It's her comforting cuddly time with mommy and she settles right into me and is as content as can be.
She also likes baby food but eats much more of it when it is mixed with another flavor (sweet carrots, apples, and blueberries for example, or pears, peas, and broccoli--yum, I know). She also does not seem to like cold baby food that much. She makes a face when it's cold. It's cute, but not cute when she doesn't want to eat. She has been eating half a jar of mixed baby food a day. I've not been that good about giving her rice cereal anymore, mostly because I personally think the Gerber version does not taste as good as the NatureMade or whatever it was we used to get. I try all her foods first haha. Mostly because I'm curious.
She lovesss those baby food pouches with the spout for sucking because she can hold them and suck on them herself. If she likes a flavor, she powers through that thing. We don't buy many of them because they're kind of expensive, but they are a lifesaver when we are on vacation or long trips. I love them. I wish I could give her all her food that way (they are WAY less messy, too).
Tenley seems pretty close to crawling. But then again, who knows. I'm simultaneously excited and anxious for it. She always wiggles/shimmies across the whole bed, but she doesn't move much on our rough carpet. I think it is rough on her skin...it's rough on mine, so yeah. She likes standing more than trying to crawl. I love walking her around her room or over to daddy. I also love when she stands between my legs using me or the couch for support. She looks so tiny next to our monstrous red couch!
She says, "Da-da" a lot. More than anything else. She is saying "Mama" more and more lately, and she definitely says it mostly when she's getting upset with me. Kind of like "Mama, why are you leaving me here all alone!?" She also says "Papa," "Goy-goy," and "Hi Dad" which is my favorite thing. She signs "I love you" still imperfectly, but it's clear what she means. She gets excited when I sign "more" for food, but does not react much to "milk," "please," "thank you"...that kind of thing. I love her little babble. She is quite the chatterbox.
She is more needy lately...more needy for me specifically. She still goes out with dad and Grandpa and everyone just fine, but as soon as she sees or hears me, it's like, BAM. I need mom. It's cute but I've been pushing for her independence lately so it makes it a little hard on me.
I love when I am nursing her and have the computer on my lap and she suddenly stops eating, rolls over and taps the keyboard like she's typing with her little fingers. She will stop eating multiple times to type for a few seconds then go back to eating. It's pretty funny.
She loves reading. It's sweet because pulling a few books out will calm her down and she seems to be listening quite well.
She still thinks I'm hilarious. Yesss. Especially my growling, my tickling, and my silly faces. Her laugh is either a loud giggle or a series of grunts. They're great.
I see a lot of red in her hair, especially in the sunlight. I'd be so happy if she got some of our family's Irish/Scottish red hair!
The first thing everyone notices is her big, bright, beautiful blue eyes. Besides those, everyone who spends a lot of time around us notices how "well-behaved" she is (not that babies are bad behaved anyway). She is just so calm and rarely cries around other people and it seems to surprise everyone. She cries around me though, don't worry ;)
Her (fairly) new bedtime is 9:30pm to 7am. At that point, I nurse her then she sleep a few more hours with me (she's so nice to let me sleep in ;). Her bedtime used to be at 7:30pm but then we discovered she gets up way too early, so it's better to keep her up later even if sometimes it's a struggle to entertain her the last couple hours.
She has her two bottom central incisors (middle teeth) and her two upper lateral incisors (aka her vampire teeth). Her top front incisors are right there but not quite poked through. Tooth 1 was a breeze, but she had a hard time with teeth 2, 3, and 4 coming in so I'm a little scared for the others.
Her favorite toy is probably...I don't know actually. She sucks on anything I give her, but she currently is not gravitating toward a particular toy. She used to love her crinkly chicken toy but it collects so much fuzz that I rarely give it to her because it looks kind of dirty.
She weighed a little over 14 lbs. at her last appointment, which is low for her age range but everyone (including me...and our doctor) says she's perfectly proportioned. Plus people comment on her sweet cheeks and squishy thighs so it's not like she's thin. Just the other day at IKEA a lady asked me, "Is she breastfed?" I was like, "Yeah." She said, "I can tell." Hmm. Good, I guess!
There are like a billion other things I could say about sweet Tenley, but I guess I will just add that she is super chill and that she loves watching other kids. She was so excited when I babysat a little toddler girl and thought everything she did was so interesting and hilarious. It made me happy. Usually Tenley ends up being the one poked and prodded around other kids but she just takes it and chatters and laughs at them.
Anyway, that's it for now, but isn't she just a love? We think so ;)
P.S. One more random fact about Tenley: The Frozen song "Frozen Heart" will stop her crying right in its tracks. She loves that song so much! I'll post a video on Facebook soon;)
