Look ma, no hands

Tegan continues to turn her nose up at crawling, but loves to stand and walk.  Lately she's been practicing standing on her own.  Here she was up about a minute, but usually it's more like 10-20 seconds before she falls.

8 months

Likes:

Standing and walking

Pulling herself up

Smiling

Sitting on dad's shoulders

Mom

Peek-a-boo (she's starting to bring the blanket over her head and pull it down herself to play)

Stacking cups

Flapping her arms when she gets excited

Leaving the bedroom with dad first thing in the morning

Her family (though meeting all of them all in a few days was a tad overwhelming!) 

Eye contact

Water with a sippy cup

Plums

Pointing with her index finger

Waving

Sitting in the grocery cart

Being spun around

Puffs - finger foods

Bath

Dislikes:

Changing clothes

Sleep

People leaving the room

Grass

Having her stacking cups stacked or inside each other

Chicken (and will in fact throw it up, even when it's hidden in other foods)

Loud sudden noises

Tegan has been just the happiest, smiliest baby this last week.  Her big smiles with those two little teeth popping out are just so adorable!

7 months

Likes:

Eating!  Especially sweet potatoes and bananas and feeding herself rice puffs

Talking - mama, dada, nana, and lots of squeals

Seeing sign language for "up", "milk" and "eat"

Standing

Walking while holding onto your hands, though she can inch herself while holding onto her crib rails

Moving - she never sits still and only stops moving the second before she falls asleep

Pointing and using her index finger for as many things as possible.  Picking up small items?  No problem.

Flapping her arms

Sitting and bouncing

Peeking around the corner to see people

Peek-a-boo

Dislikes:

Getting teeth - it hurts!  We are, however, excited that a tooth finally made an appearance for her 7 month birthday.  The bottom left has cut through and we can see the right one will follow shortly.

Pushing up

Tegan is working more and more towards becoming mobile.  When sitting she reaches for toys until she falls over and then will roll to get what she was going for.  She looks for things to grab and pull herself with.  On Tuesday night I went in to check on Tegan who was supposed to be falling asleep.  Instead I was greeted with her pushing herself up to see over her crib bumpers with a big smile on her face.  She's been using her legs a lot since she was born, but that was the first time she'd pushed herself up.  Since then she's been working on crawling, but does more of an inch worm move as she can't figure out how to get up on her legs and arms at the same time.  

Solid foods

Just a few days shy of 6 months and Tegan finally got her first taste of real food.  She's been eyeing our meals for awhile now and grabbing at food that came within her reach.  She had avocados for her first meal.  Her reaction?

The excitement is building

Maybe a little unsure now that the moment is finally here

Is it too late to change my mind?

What do I do now that it's in my mouth?!

From there she ran the gamut of expressions (similar to our passport photo-shoot):

Finished it all off with a happy squeal

I think more ended up on the bib than did in her stomach, but all-in-all I'd call it a success.   We're excited to give it another go tomorrow morning!

Mr. Sandman

Sleep: Tegan doesn't dig it.  She'd much rather stay awake and play.  However, this picture was taken this morning, day 2 of only waking up once per night.  Huge improvement from the 3 times we had going into this month.  She's been going to bed anywhere between 6-8, lately it's been more consistently around 6.  After pjs (it's much too warm in Taiwan for the pjs she's wearing above, but the mosquitoes have been getting her so we make sure she's covered and turn on the air con in her room) Jeremiah reads her a few stories, I feed her and then it's lights out.  She wakes me up in the middle of the night with her babbling and after eating goes right back to sleep.  Then around 5:30-6am she starts talking again to let us know she's ready for us to come get her.  We hang out in bed, play, chat and slowly get ready for the day.  She unwillingly takes a few naps during the day, sleeping much longer for the nanny then she does for us.  When she wakes up she'll play in the crib for awhile now rather than crying right away to be picked up - love that!  She always, no matter what time it is, wakes up with a smile.

Mamamamama

Notice the "mamama" in the video in the last post?  She's been perfecting it this week while occasionally throwing in a few other consonant sounds in there - d's, b's and p's.  It's pretty much the cutest thing I've ever heard, and paired with her gummy smile and excited flailing arms Jeremiah and I can barely contain ourselves.  We love this little girl to pieces and watching her figure out the world is so amazing.

5 months

Likes:

Sitting on her own

Standing (with help)

Sitting on dad's shoulders (with lots of support)

Touching cold things

Singing and music (still Elmo, but we're branching out from just the Elmo Song)

Us being home for Spring Break

Lights on the elevator buttons

Sitting up in stroller (which requires some adjusting since our stoller doesn't sit straight up)

Watching us eat

Putting everything in her mouth (including a new one today - her toes!)

When dad kisses her neck

Mom's voice

Staring at dad

Dislikes:

Reclining in the stroller

Taking naps

When we try to help her crawl

Not a fan of other people holding her now

Sittin' Pretty

Look who's figuring out how to sit on her own! Today she sat and played for a few minutes before falling backwards.

Upright Rainbow Bright

Tegan has been able to bear her weight for awhile now, but lately she has been wanting to stand more and more.  She's still pretty wobbly, and her knees give out on her sometimes, but she's getting stronger and stronger by the day.

Feet!!

Tegan grabbed her feet for the first time yesterday, and got them again today.  Wonder how long until they make it into her mouth, as does anything in her path these days.

And just for the heck of it, here are mom and dad too:

Sleepy girl

Star Wars ABCs

Rollin x's 2

The day after Tegan figured out rolling from her stomach to her back she decided to try from her back to her stomach.  Jeremiah went in to check on her in her crib and found her on the stomach trying to army crawl.  We thought she was using the sides of the crib to push off of, so we laid her on the bed and sure enough she flipped right over like a pro and hasn't stopped since.  Every time we lay her down for bed or a nap she immediately rolls; she's had to learn how to sleep in this different position so nights have been a little rougher than they had been, but she's getting better.

Picture Me Rollin'

This picture isn't anything to write home about, except that it was taken today just moments before she rolled over for the first time!  She did it again later but I failed to get a picture or video of it either time.

She's also very close to getting from her back to her front when she is falling asleep - she arches her back so much it gets her onto her side, and only getting over her arm is holding her back.

Development

 When Tegan was little she slept in this rocker

A few weeks ago she was mastering batting at a toy that hung down off it

 Last week she mastered kicking them with her feet.  This is also the time we started buckling her in because she can push herself off with her feet now.

She's been trying this week to get the owl to her mouth and yesterday succeeded!