Harper Grace: 8 Months

Harper is 8 months old today.  She has been up to a lot this past month...

• She had her hips re-checked.  She continues to be very flexible, but just fine.
• She had another check-up with Dr. Fred.  She is 26 1/4 inches and 15 lbs even.  She only gained 4 ounces in 6 weeks!  She dropped to the 5% in weight, which is not what we want to see.  So, we have introduced her to some high calorie formula and cut back her solid foods.
• We are weening her from breast milk.  I think I will officially be done pumping this weekend.  Now that it's almost over, I'm kind of sad.  I spent that past two weeks so excited to be done, and now I'm questioning my decision to stop.  But, more freedom and no more pump breaks at work!
• She is still a picky eater.  We try to get her to eat 5 ounces about every 4 hours, but she's hit or miss. Most days she will only eat around 7-8 ounces when at day care and probably a total of 24 ounces on a good day.  She gets really distracted when eating and wants down to get in the action.
• She is army crawling everywhere.  She will also get up on her hands and knees and rock, but hasn't quite figured out how to crawl with her tummy off the ground.
• She is now pulling herself up on things and standing for a bit.  She is still very wobbly, but she can do it.
• She is so busy!!  She is hardly ever sitting still, which I believe is contributing to her weight staying low.  Even when she eats she wants to see what's going on, pull her hair, or kick her legs.
• Her hair is starting to grow back in and looks to be light brown.
• She can push herself forward and backward in her walker.  She usually only spends time in her walker when we are cooking dinner.
• She is a mommy's girl.  Big. Time.  She will stop everything and crawl over to me when she sees me.  Last night when I came home from work she was sitting on the floor with Daddy.  I said hi to everyone and went into the kitchen to set some things down.  She immediately started crying.  I went and picked her up and she quit crying and smiled.  It's kind of funny how that works.  Riley has always been a Daddy's girl.
• We introduced some Gerber baby food turkey and chicken meals to increase her calorie intake. She thinks they're ok, but not great.  She prefers fruit over veggies.  She doesn't care much for orange veggies, unless it's squash. We are still making all of her fruits and veggies baby food.
• I tried giving her a little piece of a puff.  She didn't care for it.
• She has zero teeth.
• She had her first choking experience.  Before our trip to Chicago Brett went to put her in her walker to keep a better eye on her while he packed some things up. When he picked her up she was starting to turn blue.  He did the baby Heimlich and then did a finger sweep.  Thankfully the finger sweep worked and he was able to get a piece of cardboard out of her throat.  I was upstairs through the whole thing and had no clue what was going on.  So scary, though!
• Favorite toys: Her little phone that rings, her giraffe, her rings. Anything she can chew on.
• She can get her paci in her mouth on her own now.  We just hand it to her and she figures out how to put it in.
• She is wearing size 3 diapers and wearing size 9 month clothes.
• She loves her big sister.  She will smile at her even if Riley is telling her "no, sister!  That's not yours."