week 35

PJ turned 8 months this week. I cannot even believe it sometimes, this child was just a tiny baby 35 weeks ago. I peruse the earliest photos and remember the jumbled emotions I felt at the time. Newborn is really so so different than baby. I suspect toddler will be quite different than baby too. I didn't appreciate newborn as much which I think is inevitable with a first born. Everything about being a parent was unknown and scary for me at least that mostly I was just learning how to cope. I suspect some people with more baby experience wouldn't be as nervous as I was, but even so it's everyone's first time doing this for themselves.

She continues to be on the precipice of crawling. She has mastered going from laying down to sitting up all by herself. I found her sitting up in bed fussing one day this week. She is also pulling herself up whenever she can, on your leg, on the crib side, by grabbing handfuls of dog hair. She's lifting up her arms almost in a pick me up kind of way. Either that or a cheer for me kind of way like when she sits up for herself and then raises up her arms. Plus, she's begun taking immense pleasure in banging items together. She smiles and even chuckles when they make a loud, crashing noise that causes her to flinch.

I can't remember much from last weekend, but this weekend was quite memorable. There were two days of diarrhea that will be hard to forget. We were going through two or three outfits each day. I had washed one of the car seat covers only to have it pooped on the next day. We aren't sure if she's got an actual virus or if it was due to the next tooth coming in (her third on the bottom, none on the top so far).

The other thing she started doing is really snuggling in and leaning on us when she wants to be close. She's been nose diving my chest when she wants to nurse, but this week, she will lay her head on either of our shoulders when she's tired. She will reach for us a bit. Shannon thinks she's trying to kiss us back too. Watching our communication with PJ become all of us communicating with each other is awesome.

PJ is also playing with toys and objects so much, she's beginning to be frustrated when she can't do exactly what she wants right away. Or she'll get pissed that she can't play with cords or can't pull an old bouncy chair on top of her head. She's got a whole new set of sounds and cries. I don't know if this sound is due to her lingering cold, but she'll sort of growl and/or grunt when she's working at something or starting to get riled up.