Isla's First Christmas:

We loved celebrating Christmas with our girl. She happily opened presents with the sole intention of eating the wrapping paper but it was so fun to see her opening gifts. I didn't expect her to even attempt to open the presents and yet she surprised me with her very focused interest. I didn't wrap many gifts for her since I knew the whole thing would go over her head but boy did our families bless her with some awesome gifts. She loves her new toys - lots of exciting things for her to learn from as she approaches the first birthday mark, learning new things every day.

New Years:

Isla's first New Years Eve was spent here at Emberly House for a big celebration including a live band! It was the best party ever and we all had so much fun enjoying the great music and great company. Isla of course didn't make it to midnight but she did enjoy getting to spend a little time with her friend Adelaide before bed time. Adelaide and Isla had the same due date but were born 5 days apart so it's really cute to see them together. NYE was so magical and in total with the babies there were 20 people sleeping in our home that night. It always warms me to the core to feel my home is being well used and well loved. 

New Skills and Actions:

This past month it's been a lot of newness with Isla as she is becoming so much more active, alert, and aware of her surroundings. She is still not crawling forward but recently started sliding backwards across the floor really fast, laughing proudly at her new skill. She stood without assistance by holding on to her walker right after Christmas but I haven't spent anymore time trying to build on that because I feel she should probably work on the crawling skill first. She is so eagar to learn and loves mimicking me. She said her own name which I believe was likely accidental but it came out pretty clear. She has said mama, dada, I think her own variation of Meadow, and loves to say "baba or ba" which I have no idea what she is trying to communicate with that. She started clapping along with everyone at Christmas but hasn't done it since - I guess it was just a Christmas miracle...lol. She started to realize that I have hands just like her and that maybe what I do with my hands, she can do with hers. She loves it when I put my hands in front of her and she can clap mine together for me. She loves shaking her head "no" in turn with me and just stared raising her arms up to be picked up. The big milestone this past month was on December 27, her first tooth peeked through her gums and a couple days later, number two did as well. They are still no where near all the way up and are taking their sweet time...but we definitely have her bottom two teeth. They are about 1/4 of the way up right now. She starts "singing" along with me now if I sing to her which is cute. The other day she got all googly eyed and leaned in for a kiss and then finished with a big smile. Made my day....maybe my life. Lol! I will always remember that moment. Another little milestone is she is starting to notice tiny details and tries to figure out what they are. If there is a small stain on the couch, she tries to pick at it, or the grain in our floors she is constantly inspecting. This means she is also able to find crumbs she has dropped and pick them up - so she is becoming a lot more nimble with dexterity to pick up tiny things with her fingers. She definitely seems to lean towards using her right hand as her main hand, and uses her left for backup.

Eating:

This past month started with solids as still a real struggle and moved to it being so easy and relaxed. She will eat anything we give her now and has done really well learning the concept of chewing what needs to be chewed and just swallowing purees. She likes to hold her spoon to her mouth herself and she likes to try to drink from my glasses of water, instinctively holding the glass with both hands. For this reason I decided to buy her a handleless sippy cup even though that's a little advanced for her, but I figured why bother getting her use to handles if she can get use to no handles and just learn to use a cup? We bought her the 360 cup and she is still figuring it out but definitely got some water the other day out of it so that's progress. She still breastfeeds as often as before, and we add food into the day moreso for fun and learning than for hunger satisfaction. Yesterday her and I shared a banana, taking turns biting off a bit and chewing and swallowing it. She watched my mouth so intently to make sure she was doing what I was doing, even down to closing her mouth to chew...lol! She is so entertaining honestly. I wasn't sure if it would be stressful or if it would come naturally to teach her literally everything her young mind needs to learn, but it's so natural and so fun. She is eager to learn and loves trying new things. I am sure all babies are like that, but her concentration really is quite adorable to watch. Scott always comments on the funny faces I make when concentrating on something (and when I think no one is watching) and to his enjoyment, Isla definitely got that serious art of concentration from her mama.

The Rest:

Isla has come down with her first serious cold and it's been a doozy.  Since taking her to the doctor didn't really make sense when she didn't have a fever or any serious concerns aside from bad coughing, I have tried to just let time, rest, oils in the diffuser, and lots of nursing be her main sources for getting better. We had some really rough nights over the last weekend. One of the nights she woke coughing and crying every 30-60 minutes for the entire night. We just had to soothe her and take shifts through the night with an inconsolable baby - hoping she would eventually rest. It breaks your heart to see your baby sick and struggling and not able to communicate what's wrong. It's funny how a restless night like that had me praying for even one full hour of sleep in a row, and back when she was sleeping 2-3 hours at a time as a newborn, it seemed like the absolute worst sleep ever. It really is all about perspective. Since she mainly sleeps the night with just small stirrings for her soother or quick "shh's" and head rubs, we have had quite the awakening this past week surviving on very interrupted sleep. We have always been grateful that Isla sleeps well, and knew we were definitely lucky, but after what we went through this week we have a fresh perspective on just how luxurious a good night's sleep is! And through it all, the good days and the bad, we just keep going and  I continually remind myself to never wish the days away because they sure fly by. I do, however, wish these pesky colds away. Okay, and these crazy frigid winter temperatures...lol. Our next big goal for our family is a vacation!!

Well that's all the updates for now! Still can't believe we have hit the 8 month mark already. I try to write it all down because it flies by so fast. This blog is mainly my own source of documenting all the milestones as they come :) Thanks for following along on our journey with our sweet girl. I have a few more mindful posts in the works, where I share my personal thoughts on life and motherhood...hopefully I'll get those written by Spring lol. Happy New Year everyone!

We are very excited for 2018 and what this next year holds!