My little baby is 8 months old...sniffle.

So sad. My "baby" will soon be a "toddler". And it happened faster than I could have possibly imagined. I feel like she suddenly grew up, all in about 3 weeks time. She can now stand by herself when she is holding onto something, and on two separate occasions I have walked in the room to find her standing up holding onto something, obviously with no help from anyone. What happened? I am beginning to wonder if she's going to start walking before she can crawl. Charles was walking at 7 months, which I think is just absurd and he was obviously just trying to show off to impress all of the little girl babies around. Pshh. Tegan has also begun to show that she has a very generous side... she picks up everything and hands it to Charles or me. Including taking her paci out of her mouth then handing it to me. This goes on for hours on end. Fun, really. But mostly, she's becoming very independent. She plays in the living room by herself for a while (I'm watching her of course!) then all of sudden I see her little peanut head pop up, something like this:
This usually means she's ready for me to play with her. She also likes to climb through the openings below the coffee table. Or try to yank the blinds down. Or eat the lotion bottles. Or pull the safety covers off the outlets and eat those. (Who invented those stupid things anyways?!) Or chew on the stairs. Or the rug, whichever is closer. Or the couch cushions for that matter. Everything that can come within 1 foot of her mouth is fair game.

I have tried to start her on Gerber 3rd foods, the chunkier foods which are supposed to teach her how to chew. This is in fact NOT happening. Anything with chunks is immediately expelled from her mouth. I haven't lost hope yet though. I think she'll come around...

Tegan and I went to the park the other day, since the weather was absolutely wonderful!! We sat on the park swing and watched the boats go by on the river. She loved it! And we got some cute pictures in the process.

Cheeky little grin...Watch out Michael Jordan, you may have some competition soon...

And my big girl standing up in her crib.