The baby goes mobile...

Guest post by Mommy:

My squishible, edible, delicious and adorable Iva Matilda is now eight months old.

And she is currently tearing apart the one living plant I have in the house...it has really felt the wrath of her mobility for over a month now. Sorry Grandma Sharon! I'm pretty sure you are watching from heaven laughing. Pretty sure. Please don't be scowling.

I don't think a day goes by in this house where we are not exclaiming our love for Iva or squeezing her or kissing her to the point she is annoyed. She's a very happy, cute baby. I'm probably biased, but still. I love cuddling with her. Although I will say, this month brought about the use of her name in a scolding tone. I have found that I kind of get stern when she won't hold still for a diaper change or when she is being particularly naughty during a nursing session.

She is completely mobile now. Right at the end of June she fully figured out how to crawl. She had been getting everywhere anyway, but the pieces all came together. Her downward dog poses have become less frequent and she's getting faster. Plus she is starting to figure out how to pull up on everything. I went back and read about my other girls because I was pretty sure she was my earliest crawler and it turns out she was right on track! Plus I didn't remember Cara or Siena getting into nearly as many naughty things or putting everything on the floor in their mouth. Once again, I was wrong. Apparently Cara's description at eight months included the phrase "if there is anything dangerous, gross or scary I seek after these things" or something like that.

Iva puts anything in her mouth. She loves to fist food in. I think she would still nurse for every meal AND get solids too. I'm trying to slowly wean her and nurse less and less, but somedays I'm just too lazy to feed her any other way! Iva is fairly adventurous in the food department. She doesn't love pureed vegetables, but come on...I don't even  like normal veggies! She will eat baby food, she will eat people food, and is currently learning how to suck out of a straw. She takes water from a sippy cup but mostly dribbles it out.

She LOVES to play with our printer that is on the floor under our computer. She keeps trying to fax things...good thing it isn't hooked up to a phone line!

Iva is still fairly easy going. We lost all but one binki on the fourth of July trip and it seemed like we might be able to get rid of them, but then we needed to drive the four hours home. She has a binki in her mouth right now.

She growls to communicate. Or at least more often than she babbles. She just loves to go guttural. It's hilarious and scary all at the same time. Her big sisters are the funniest people she comes in contact with. I'm able to take her to the gym daycare with no issues. She goes right to all the lovely ladies there.

Anytime I have her at the pool it seems like she loves the water and would choose to stay in there all day. Unless you put me on a tube in shallow water with her on my lap while we try and get over the waves created by the wave pool, then we flip over and I beat up my shoulder and she wants a break OUT of the water. I'm sure somebody saw it that wasn't my hubby (who was terrified and grabbed Iva so I didn't take her all the way under the water) and they were laughing, HARD.

It has been such a joy to be her mom. I can't wait to see what each day brings. Now excuse me, I once again need to go rescue my plant.