Wow is she getting big

So if I were more on top of things, I'd include a picture here. The same day as our wedding anniversary, was also Gwen's 8 month "birthday". This week has been a lot of development for her. She has been saying "dada" and had said "baba" in the past, but I now have a name: "nana". Sometimes I feel like leaving the room for a few seconds just to hear her call for me. It is pretty cute. She is also trying to sign and understand it is how she can communicate. She is testing her "more" and her "all-done". She knows that when she is full from eating she needs to do one of the two, but sometimes she gets confused. But when she is doing something like playing with a toy and wants me to pick her up, "all-done" will work for that as well.

Something that I've learned from her is that she gets really uncomfortable by excited cheers. I had thought that being excited for her would encourage her, but ever since we started with cereal and she ate some of it, I would try to clap, get excited and praise her for doing a good job. That's when she would freak out and cry and try to get away from whatever was going on. But gentle praising works.

And last but not least, she is really coming along with trying to get around. She already pulls herself up to standing on her little tykes boat toy and tries to pull herself up on other toys that don't hold her weight, but can't get very far with things like the couch or other tables that are over her head. So sometimes she needs a little help with that. Crawling is also coming along as she is starting the army scootch. She can push herself up to her knees and rock but she doesn't get very far. So she stretches and tries to crawl on her stomach. And last...she is also working on sitting back up once she is on her stomach. She's pretty close on that too. She'd much rather play sitting up than on her back or stomach. Not many more weeks and I'm going to have to put the gates back up on the stairs.

ETA: I forgot about the "no" thing too. Every time she hears NO...even if it is "oh no" she shakes her head. She even gets the benefit of hearing me tell Trevor "no" and then shakes her head. Makes me laugh and become much less threatening to Trevor. I wonder if she'll be helping me discipline him in the months to come. And I'm sure Trevor will LOVE that.

FINALLY the weather might just be starting to warm up. I still have the down comforter on our bed. Maybe that will come off this week!