Emilia's Eight Month Photos!

Little Emilia Caroline turned eight months old earlier this month! Life has been super hectic, but we are so glad this baby girl is a part of it. It's hard to believe there's only one more photoshoot left in this house before we move. I'm bummer the last 3 photos of the series will look different!

Emilia Caroline - 8 Months

Emilia Caroline - growing so fast!

This was a fun (and loud!) photoshoot. After it was over Joe was wondering how I got any good photos as it just sounded like Emmy was screaming the entire time. She apparently yells whether she's happy or sad! She's got some pipes on her!

Mischievous 

SO aware! She follows everything that's going on in the room, and is so quick to grab!

Mid Yell!

Smiles!

Checking out her bear friend

And with the flip of a switch, she's over it!

I love this month's comparison with Nolan since they are in almost exactly the same pose! I didn't even plan that, and only realized when I was digging up Nolan's 8 month picture. I guess it's the month of sitting up tall and being proud of it!

My cute kids: Nolan (L) and Emilia (R) at 8 months.

Emmy was having fun during the floor session. Unlike Nolan who flipped over on his stomach constantly, she was more amused at what Mommy was doing and being very playful.

Big smiles!

8 months of Emmy

I like having these photos against the white background because you can really see her hair and how it's changed through the months. It's really coming in now and looks to be a dark blonde/light brown close to my hair color. She definitely looks a lot more like me than Nolan does!

Squishy face kicks

Stinker!

Little girl <3

Siblings: Mini Joe and Mini Kate?

Emmy was pretty much over the shoot by the time we got to the quilt.

Yep. This is the best we got.

So many expressions!

No more smiles shall be given.

Seriously mom?!

Notes for this age:

• Yep, still not napping! Most days we get a report from daycare that she's slept 2-3x for 30ish minutes. I think she's a nosy kid that doesn't want to miss anything! She CAN sleep longer at home if she's in the swing and there's no one in the room with her, or if she's in the car on longer trips.
• Yep, still not sleeping at night! This month was REALLY challenging and came close to breaking me. We have so much on our plate with selling/moving/commuting/new job and when I'm going on next to no sleep every night you really reach a breaking point. Luckily I was able to work from home to get a break from commuting 1-2x a week, and Emmy seemed to sneak in a "better" night (ie only 1-2 wake-ups) when I really needed them. Typically she goes to bed around 7pm, wakes around 10-11pm (typically the second i fall asleep), then 1-2am, 4-5am, and I'm up for the day by 6am. Yeah... no bueno. 
• Spoiler alert, but we recently found out she has a double ear infection, which I brought her in for a sick visit just to check after I saw her grab her ears, but I wonder how long she's had that and how much of that affected her bad sleep. I guess we'll see once these antibiotics kick in. I hope she's not headed down the same ear infection road her brother did!
• Her first "rabbit teeth" are fully in - the bottom two mentioned last month. Again, maybe another culprit for the bad sleeping. Let's hope it's one of these things and things improve soon!
• Lots more babbling, and now imitation. She follows my cues for "dada", "baba", etc
• Her screeching has started to subside (a little bit). Now that she has more sounds to practice, she works on making those too. The screeching is more reserved for when she wants attention - NOW!
• She sits and reaches/grabs for everything like a champ. No real interest in crawling, and still hates tummy time.
• She loves any/all food she has tried. She inhales all puffs on her high chair. I think she's ready for more finger foods even though she doesn't quite have a pincher grasp yet.
• She is starting to exhibit some "separation anxiety"/preference for mommy. Only I can calm her down when she's upset at night, and she reaches for me/gives me huge smiles when I walk in the room. Although the wake-ups are sometimes a burden, I do love the tighter bond we've developed.
• Still nothing makes her laugh more than her big brother. Especially when he's being silly/crazy and jumping/running/throwing - I have a feeling she can't wait to join in on the fun!

It was a tough, exhausting month! But our finish line is in sight, and my long drive every day gives me lots of time to reflect on how lucky we are to have these two beautiful kids in our lives - sleepless nights or no!