Ivy at 8 months (plus a new video)

My baby girl is already 8 months old. She has grown up so much in the past couple months (especially in the past couple weeks!) and just keeps changing so fast. I love how her little big personality is starting to show more and more. It's been a while since my last post about her so just wanted to record some updates..

We got her ears pierced back in December after we got home from mine and Ivy's trip to Houston! Sam and I decided to just stop talking about doing it and just go do it. She was funny. It took a while to mark the dot's in the right places bc she is such a wiggler.. but once those were done, it was pretty easy. They did one ear, Ivy became immobile from silent crying (the kind where they are so shocked and exhale for a while until they finally inhale and scream hahaa), then they hurried and did the second one, lol.. She didn't scream though. She was a little shocked and cried for a few minutes but after that, she was completely fine and never knew what hit her! I'm so glad we did it this way. Now she will never remember it hurting and she just looks so darn cute with her studs. :)

Ivy finally started sitting up on her own over Christmas break. It's taken her a little while to get it down because she is such a mover.. We had been practicing and trying to get her to do it for a while but I guess she just had to decide to do it on her own. One day while we were in Durango, she just started rolling from her army crawl into sitting position and eventually got the hang of it and found her balance. It's soo nice that she can finally sit and play with her toys instead of always rolling to her tummy or back.

First tooth! A bottom one came in December 31st, 2011. I remember the day because it was New Year's Eve and Sam felt something sharp poking through her gums! We had just driven back from Durango the day before and it was a miserable drive because Ivy cried pretty much the entire way. Poor girl was teething! Good thing there was an explanation or else I don't think I'd ever want to take a road trip with that girl again! haha! (This past weekend to california was a much better driving experience)

I wouldn't say Ivy is strictly a "daddy's girl." I'm pretty sure she has quite a preference for her mama but boy does she just love him to pieces! Her face lights up when she sees him and her eyebrows perk up and she starts looking around for him whenever she hears his voice. He's just so darn fun! And Sam is certainly smitten by her, that's for sure. I love the relationship they have together. It cracks me up...

Ivy has been army crawling for a long time, ever since around Thanksgiving, I would say.. but just in the past week or 2 has she finally figured out how to crawl for real. It still looks a little funny because she sometimes goes back and forth between real crawling and army but she's using her knees a lot more these days. Always been a real mover though,  no matter the method. ;)

So I guess with the sitting up comes standing because ever since she has figured out the sitting up bit, she has started to pull up on things! I'm not ready for a walker yet! Oh and this also includes learning to stand up in her crib as well. The first couple days she learned this, naptime was nearly impossible. She was so fascinated and proud of her new trick that each nap took around an hour for her to finally give in and go to sleep lol.. and she hasn't quite figured out how to sit back down from standing so this just presents the problem of her yelling out for me to come help her each time, lol.. Hopefully she will learn soon..

Ivy just looves her jumper these days! Jump, jump, jump! It's hilarious to watch. before she would just kinda rock in it or sort of move but since she has figured out how to jump, she just goes on and on. It's a always nice change from playing on the floor. :)

Baby girl is finally starting to babble a lot more. She's been a pretty quiet baby thus far so it's  funny when she get's going.. And she had her first word a little over a week ago! She was in her jumper and was sort of whining to get out and we were both sitting there and heard her say "mamaa!" (yeah!!) We both looked at each other like "whaat?" so I turned to her and said "Ivy, say mama! mama! If you say mama, I'll get you out.." I guess she understood because after a little whining, she said mamaama again. haha.. that whole night we were trying to get her to say it and she kept saying bababa, mamaam, and other variations haha.. but I'm pretty sure she knows what mama means because she says it when she wants me. usually happens more when she's whining about something but I'll take what I can get, lol..

A couple cute things she has started to do are give kisses and nod her head. The nodding her head is still pretty rare but if you catch her doing it, it's so funny to watch her because she is just starting to figure it out.. And her kisses are so sweet. When we went to Houston was when she was doing it the most.. She must really love her aunt's because she gave each one a big slobbery kiss goodbye on their cheek. It was so sweet. I just love those baby slobber kisses! When we were in California this past weekend, Lillian would lean over and try to give Ivy baby kisses on her head (bc Ivy is quite a bit shorter than her, lol) They were so cute!!

And finally, another fun little video I put together. I made it pretty quick so I'm sorry if some of the music or audio is a little too loud or what not: