Estelle's 8 months old!

Stellie's 8 months old today.  I like her so much!  Those thighs, her sparkly eyes, her slightly flat head (that ones not a complete love but ya can't win them all...also that ones kinda my fault). 

I love her silly quirks! She likes to shake her head 'no' when she knows she's being silly or when we play with her. She is always rolling around the floor, army crawling while squealing and chewing on all the things. She's a really relaxed, happy baby. 

Estelle sleeps like a dream these days. She naps like a queen, goes down so quickly and only wakes up once a night to eat at 5am. Now that I've said this in writing I'm sure she'll shake it up.  Historically these babies change as soon as I think I have them figured out. I pray she doesn't switch it up on me, you can too! 

We've taken Stella off her reflex meds and she's done fine, finally! 

Stella's cut her first tooth (bottom right) and is working on a second (bottom left).  She's just recently started getting on hands and knees and rocking back and forth. She will crawl a bit on her knees but hasn't figured out the hand movements. So, she's still stuck in army crawl mode, but not for too much longer.

Estelle loves food. She begs and whines whenever someone has some sort of edible thing when she does not. A tragedy if she ever knew one. I think Stella spends most of her waking time scrounging up small crumbs on the floor to sample. You'd think we'd never feed her, contrary to what her copious amounts of rolls may lead you to believe. 

Stinky can be playing happily on the floor by herself (something she does very well and often) but the second you sit down with a game or some sort of something to work on, Estelle takes off like a torpedo. Instantly she's obsessed with whatever you have.  She'll get this twinkle in her eye, as she 'worms it' like a cheetah across the floor.

(This picture screams 'paint me like your french women!')

Teeny one tolerates diaper changes better theses days. I put a diaper on her head, like a hat, and yell 'diaper head!' It's silly but it distracts her for enough seconds to make some sort of progress on changing her bum. Some diaper changes take 3 diapers: one for her head, one to hold, and one for her tushie. Indie often wants to join in on the diaper head fun. We all wear diapers on our heads more often that I had ever envisioned when I imagined my motherhood. 

Estelle was often upset when she'd be taken off boob and laid in her crib to sleep. She would start scream crying and flip to her tummy in a second, smothering her face in the mattress as she angry crawled, fast like a demon. She's actually stopped doing this mini freak out this past week. But historically you would have had to chase her down and get a bink in her mouth to calm the madness. 

Stella loves to dance to songs, she flips her hands, throws them over her head, hits the air to the beat and shakes her head.  

 

Estelle won't let me use my phone when she's nursing.  She will slowly crawl her little fingers to my hand and start smacking the screen or trying to pull it out of my hands until I put it away.  She loves to hold my finger while nursing as well.  She will often grab my finger and then move my hand to her foot over and over again until I hold her foot at a certain angle.  If that 'foot hold' isn't going down then Estelle will just constantly kick the rocking chair. She's a very active, squirmy nurser.  

This baby ADORES Damon. I remember saying that same thing with Indie as a baby. Indie would smile when Damon got home and they'd play. I had no idea what a true Daddy's baby looked like, until Stella.  Estelle goes to Damon over me.  She can be happily playing on the floor, but the second Damon gets home from work she will melt down and whine at him. She will crawl halfheartedly after him, protesting his absence until he picks her up.  I think the only reason she is 'halfheartedly' crawling after him is so that her protests can have all the attention and energy. For energy it doth have!

I left Estelle for a whole day with Damon while I took a quick day trip to Utah by myself. I was so nervous about how they'd all fair without me. It went really well though. Which is good and bad. Obviously, you want everyone to be happy, but also I was kind of hoping I'd return to Damon and have him be in a state of 'How do you do this everyday!?'  There was so such statement. Boo. 

Estelle will calm for Damon quicker than she will with me. Unless I pull out the big guns (boobs.)  He found a favorite song she likes to be sung when mildly upset. 'Twinkle Twinkle Little Star.'  Its like magic when he sings it for her, but for me there is only like a 50 percent chance it will calm her. She just loves her Dad. She also seems to prefer Papa Joe over everyone else.  They have a sweet little bond. She's a boy baby. 

Estelle loves it when I put her binks in my mouth and pretend to take it from her. She also thinks its enthralling to try and feed me her food or her toys. (She loves to finger food feed herself.) 

Stellie is still a snug bug. She loves to comfort nurse after she wakes up from her naps. I've never actually let her go as long as she'd like, because I'm pretty sure we'd just sit there all day until Damon got home and then she'd ditch me. 

Estelle gets silly when she's tired. It's so precious. She is also tolerating her car seat a lot better lately, unless she's tired. 

We sure love our little Stinky!  She's growing up quickly and is a joy for all of us to be around. She tolerates Indie's excessive love really well.