The Ross': Eight Months!

This little beauty has reached 8 months. She’s a busy little bee. She has perfected her crawl and can now cover a room or the house in no time. She loves chasing after her brother and does a pretty good job keeping up with him. When opening a door to go outside she appears so quickly. Just like a cat, our Shelby Kat is quick to bolt out the door. Its amazing how fast she can make it to the door and be on her way.

Levi and Shelby are becoming best buds. They both enjoy each other so much. She looks up to him and wants to be where he is, playing with what he is playing with….which leads to many teachable moments. Levi has been so good at sharing his toys. I love the little moments when I see Levi finding her a toy or sharing one he is playing with so they can play together. They make each other laugh. I love this bond that is forming and pray that it goes deep!

Shelby is now pulling herself up. The first time I found her standing was in her crib. I caught the last few seconds of her pulling up. She just looked at me and grinned! The next time she pulled up was at the coffee table, which both Ryan and I were able to watch. Ta-Da! Big girl!

A few days after mastering standing up her in crib, we lowered her crib. She wasn’t too happy about this. Shelby learned how to turn on her mobile, stand up and play with her mirror. Once the bed was lowered she couldn’t reach everything as easily. For the first day, every time I placed her in her bed to nap she would just cry—her made cried at that. Poor thing. But I’m happy to report that 2 days later, she was back to her old tricks and happy as a lark!

Shelby still loves her sleep. She takes an hour nap in the morning and then a two hour nap around 1pm. Bedtime is around 6:45/7:00 and we don’t hear from her until 7 or 7:30. Not a peep! What a blessings! Sometimes she does wake up around 4:30 or 5. She’ll play for about 30 minutes to an hour then go back to sleep. Never fusses, just kicks, sings, talks and back to sleep.

Shelby loves all her veggies and fruit, with the exception of green beans. Does not like green beans! We started her on Gerber Puffs, which she loves! She gets so excited when she hears them rattle in the can or sees me opening them up. It took about a week for her to figure out how to pick them up and chew them…which was so cute! Now, she’s a pro and grabs them by the handful if I’m not watching. Shelby’s very passionate about her mesh feeder! She loves eating fresh fruit all on her own. You can see the excitement for yourself if you watch the video from the last post. She usually gets upsets when the fruit runs out or I take away the feeder (because its empty!).

Shelby is passionate about her blanket, balls, escaping to the outside, her mesh feeder, her bottle, puffs, Levi and her Daddy! Oh does she love her Daddy!!

At this stage, Shelby’s favorite toys are her piano, balls and rattles. Just this week, she has really taken to her baby doll. So sweet. She pulls her up in her lap, holds her and then sucks on head or chews on her arm…such love! She also enjoying all things music and will even dance (while sitting).

Shelby’s little personality is blooming. She is independent, but still loves to be held. When she’s focused or determined, she doesn’t want to be stopped or redirected. She’s more cautious when it comes to people than Levi. He just smiled at everyone, still does. Shelby takes a moment to check you out and then she’ll crack a smile. She is a happy baby. She’s laid back for the most part and adjust well when we’re off schedule. She is a go getter. She’s quick to go check something out, to explore, touch and even taste. I love her passion. Those things that excite her, really do move her. For example, she will drop everything and run towards her blanket if she sees it. Then she just dives in it. When she sees Levi (after they’ve been apart) she kicks (if your holding her) or turbo crawls towards him and at times rams him. Then they roll and laugh. Love it.